Serving Bread

Setting goals is an important function of leadership in any arena. Most successful companies set various goals for the month, quarter or year as a way to motivate employees and execute the vision of the organization. I have found that Christians in various ministries tend to question whether goal-setting should be an important element of the ministry. It’s true that too much of a focus on goals and goal-setting can dangerously distract a leadership team from being faithful to God and the ministry. But goals are an important part of developing a posture of stretching ourselves to have more faith, and they can help guide and evaluation on whether we are on the right track of executing our vision.

In my experience, young student leaders will think it suffice to say “Let’s make reaching more people” our goal, but such a vague goal does not allow us to evaluate when we have achieved it nor does it give us a helpful framework on developing a plan that would help us grow toward that goal.

Three years ago, my staff partner and I decided to believe God for the 100. We wanted to meet 100 students by the first week of school. So we developed our outreach and planned our time in such a way that would help us reach 100 students. We were encouraged and humbled when God gave us the opportunity to meet the 100th student minutes shy before the deadline. That experience only enabled us to believe God for more things for our ministry.

The following year, the student leaders decided that they wanted to believe God for double that amount. Honestly, I was skeptical, but they wanted to believe God for 200 students. After a week of ministry, we had reached nearly 300 students. Again, I was both encouraged and humbled with the ways that God met our prayers.

This year, the student leaders who ran our new student outreach decided that they would believe God for 500 students. I scoffed when I heard of their goal. I know how students are and to reach 500 of them was unrealistic. After a week of ministry, we had over 700 students who had filled out cards of interest.

The culture of goal setting in our community has produced excitement, enthusiasm and faith to believe that God would respond to our prayers and appeals. Of course, it’s not alone to just set goals, but we must also evaluate whether those goals are not met. It is right and fair to ask why those goals were not met (Were we unrealistic in our goal-setting? Did we not execute our plan well? Were there unforeseen circumstances that thwarted our vision?). Met goals will encourage us and teach us what we are doing well. Unmet goals will give us perspective on how things are going.

There are a two ways to develop goal setting:

1. The Big Hairy Audacious Goals: Developed by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, a BHAG is a form of a vision statement “…an audacious 10-to-30-year goal to progress towards an envisioned future.” A BHAG is meant to be attainable, but it won’t be within a short period of time. An example of a BHAG is Amazon’s “Every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds.” A BHAG provides helpful and inspiring conversations among leaders to imagine what kind of organization and ministry they hope to see.
2. The Small Step Goal: Dan and Chip Heath write of this in their latest Column in “Fast Company.” They write,
   

   we’re all used to hearing about stretch goals, and when you feel empowered, stretch goals are useful ambition teasers. But when you feel overwhelmed, stretch goals are a recipe for paralysis. (What we need is) a whisker goal, a target that was a hairsbreadth away from the status quo… We need these more modest steps because they help us get past the ‘startup costs’–the apprehension and fear–that deter us from doing the tasks we hate.

   Whisker goals can help motivate and kick start a process that could lead to more ambitious goals. I have discovered that in our context, it would have been difficult to call students to develop a Bible Study in every one of the fifteen dorms on campus. Such a stretch goal inspires me, but for most students who are too afraid to lead a Bible Study, the idea of reaching an entire student housing complex does not motivate nor does it even make sense.

   We’ve discovered that we can give students small goals along the way as a way to encourage their leadership and inspire them to want more (rather than make them regret their involvement with our community). Asking students to call five people to invite to a conference, or visit three new students is much more achievable than reaching an entire dorm complex.

Goal setting has become an important tool in my ministry. Just last week, I challenged two young leaders to set a goal of how many students they hope to bring with them to a conference. They believed and began to pray to God for ten students. Imagine their excitement when they led  a group of exactly ten students at the conference.