Goals

Proverbs 29: 18,  Deuteronomy 4: 29-31

James 1: 22-25

Mark 1:  29-39

Goals

Every moment of life is granted us for one purpose: becoming more and more like Christ as we make disciples for him. That ultimate, all-embracing end is reached through a multitude of nearer and intermediate ones-- goals.

The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of an incident that may have seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound influence on the rest of his life. The winter he was 9, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no- nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him. He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow's flight, and then young Frank's tracks meandering all over the field. "Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle said. "And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that."

Years later the world-famous architect, who achieved many of his goals in life, liked to tell how that experience in the snow had contributed to his philosophy in life. "I determined right then," he'd say with a twinkle in his eye, "while I focused on the goal I had, I would not miss the things in life that my uncle had missed."

Jesus had God-given goals for his ministry, and in this passage we read he was working long and hard to fulfill his goal to heal, but healing was not his only goal. In fact, it was only a step toward his ultimate goal, which was to reveal God’s full love to us through seeking our forgiveness as he died on the cross, and giving us hope through the resurrection. Along the way, his path would not be a straight line. His life took many turns and led him many, many places. His disciples must have wondered about his wanderings as they seemed random. But he did have a goal: Jerusalem, to take his message to the heart of the Hebrew people/

We all recognize that any goal in life worth achieving demands a great deal of our energy. If you are a doctor you must spend vast hours alone and in residency studying the human body. The lives of your patients demand it. If you are a teacher you must devote hours to lesson plans, enrichment ideas, and then grading papers. The minds of your students demand it. If you are a carpenter you must patiently measure before you cut and drive the first nail. The integrity of the structure depends on it. If you are a mother you must sacrifice for another. Your children require it. We could not live adequately if we did not set goals and work to fulfill them. No intelligent person would argue otherwise.

All across the nation, United Methodist churches have been charged with setting goals. We have been charged as a church to set goals each year, while looking forward three years. We have been charged to set objectives for each of the five fruitful practices that were addressed last year in the video sermon series before Charge Conference.  And each church is expected to review with others in our Compass Group, and with District Superintendent Court periodically, how each church is doing in meeting its objectives.

Conference and the District will not set the objectives for the churches. The churches are to do that for themselves. The purpose for charging each church to set its own goals is to help us to focus on what Christ directed us to do, to go make disciples and teach them, so that our community may be transformed. It has been found that churches, regardless of size, that set realistic goals and then work to fulfill them grow more vital, and those that use the five practices as guides to their goal setting are much more likely to thrive than those who do not.

Setting realistic goals or objectives for 6 months or a year at a time and working to achieve them takes a lot of commitment and can be hard work. It requires learning the needs of the community, and selecting which needs the church can best serve given the assets each church has. It means not focusing on what the congregation members alone enjoy and want to do, but on taking time to learn as much as possible about what the non-church people in the community are interested in, and what the congregation can do to meet the needs of community. It is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort. It means taking risks, accepting the possibility of failure but then trying again to find a way to meet those needs. It takes prayer.

But in the process of setting our short term objectives we must not lose sight of why we do it and that is to make and mature disciples for Christ for the transformation of our community and the world. There are many ways to do that, and some might work well today, but not work so well next year. Some might not work at all. We have to learn that what is most important is the journey, what we learn from it, how many we bring along with us, the new relationships we make, and the joy that comes from knowing that despite the zigzag path our efforts may take, we are doing God’s work and he is with us, guiding us, and will give us the resources we need.

Our goals must be specific and measurable. We will never reach a vague goal. The more general a goal, the less power it has. But the more specific it is, the more power it has. However, while we may set numbers to measure our objectives, we should not make the numbers the sole measure of success. If we do God’s work, he will take care of the numbers. We are here to enjoy the journey as we do the work.

Just as vital churches set and work toward goals, vital Christians do as well.

Many people live with wishes, goals, or visions. Children often have an idea of what they want to be when they grow up. That may change many times before they are fully adult, but it is natural for every human to seek a purpose for his or her life. And, every person’s life has a center. Every person’s dreams, passions, and goals revolve around one bigger passion, whether they realize it consciously or not. Everybody wants to be successful, at least at something. Dr. Ari Kiev of Cornell University observed that from the moment people decided to concentrate their energies on a specific objective, they began to surmount the most difficult odds. He concluded, "The establishment of a goal is the key to successful living." There's nothing wrong with the desire to succeed at one's job, as a parent, as an artist, etc. However, when personal success becomes the sole end and purpose of your life, then it has, in effect, become the center, the god in your life.

What is your center and what does your days and life revolve around?  Christians are to live with a calling. A calling is deeper than all of those personal things we may tend to center our lives upon because it is rooted in God's purpose for our lives. We are called to serve God by serving others throughout our lives. A dynamic Christian is grateful, prayerful, loving, evangelistic, and serving.  A dynamic church is full of grateful, prayerful, loving, evangelistic, serving Christians.

As either a church or as an individual, the size of our God determines the size of our goal. Setting goals with and for God always starts with a promise of God that if we do his will we will not fail. Don’t look at the limitations; look at the promises of God. With God, all things are possible. But it has to be WITH God, and for him, for his kingdom and glory, not for our own gratification.

Finally,  we must not forget that while we set and strive toward the goals God wants for us, we should enjoy the journey because when we journey with God wherever he leads, life is full of joy. Remember, every moment of life is granted us for one purpose: becoming more and more like Christ as we make disciples for him. If we live our life with that goal, God promises that our cup will run over.