One of the central themes at Church Without Limits is the ‘Target 2010′ faith goals that we have set for November 2010 – our 10th Anniversary. We are believing for 1000 people, 100 connexions (small groups), 750 + commitments to Jesus and facilities.
We have had these faith goals in front of us for some time now and it has been an amazing learning process for us (Like I emphasized on Sunday – reaching the goals is important but what we learn in the process of working towards reaching them is just as important). This past Sunday at CWL I began to share about a corporate strategy we are going to employ to give our all to reach these goals in the next 9 months. It is based around 3 basic concepts:
- Fasting
- Prayer
- Reaching Out
I’m going to write about this strategy throughout this week (and maybe into next) but today I wanted to take a few moments to address the whole concept/theology of having faith goals in the first place. I can imagine that there are concerns that could include:
- This sounds like all you care about is numbers!
- Isn’t this putting a lot of pressure on people?
- What if you don’t reach the goals and people become disappointed and never want to believe for things again?
- Why don’t we just focus on loving God and loving people?
Now, first – the reason I know that there are these concerns (and many others) is because I have had to personally work through a lot of them myself but I’ve come through all of that with a rock solid belief that every church needs to have faith goals that they need God to accomplish.
Here are a few of the reasons I have come to this conclusion:
- When you have a faith goal you are asking God for something – Jesus taught us “ask and you will receive” (Matthew 7:8), the scriptures also teach us “you have not because you ask not” (James 4:2). When we have faith goals it puts us in a position where we are asking. If we have no goals we are not asking for anything.
- When you have a faith goal you are believing for something – how often did we hear Jesus say “it will be done according to your faith” (Matthew 9:29)? When you have a faith goal you are believing for something, when you don’t you are not.
- When you have a corporate faith goal you are teaching people how to have personal faith goals – when you catch the heart of the Scriptures you realize that God has called his people to do huge, impossible things through his power. We don’t do this naturally though, it is something that we learn and grow in. How? By first doing it together. As we learn to do it together then we will begin to understand how to do it in our personal lives.
- When you have a faith goal you are facing (and defeating) the fear of failure – many of us struggle with a massive fear of failure. When we set a goal the first thing that comes into our mind is ‘what if I don’t make it’. This fear of failure holds us back from the things that God has called us to. When a church learns to believe together then people learn how to face a fear of failure, how to respond when things are not going well, and how to respond when there is success and victory. They can then apply this in their personal lives/callings.
- Faith Goals help us to focus – when we have clear faith goals it helps us to stay focused on where we are going and how we are getting there. A road trip is far more profitable if you know where you are going and you keep ‘focused’ in that direction. When there are no faith goals there is no focus.
In our Servant-Leadership meeting on Sunday my Dad made a really good point in all this – Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for”. Hope is your earnest expectation of what is coming, or in other words your goal/picture of what is to come. Faith gives substance to that. If you have no goal then what is your faith giving substance to?
CWL Family – I want to encourage you as we push forward for the next nine months: let’s stay focused on these faith goals together but let’s also allow the LORD to teach us how to believe for our personal faith goals. The journey is just as important as the destination on this one.
