Presbytery of Northeastern New Jersey Updates

The Presbytery of Northeast New Jersey

On my way to the Jersey Shore for a little summer vacation, I stopped at the Bon Jovi rest stop for lunch. Once inside, I passed a giant video wall and the following message popped up. "It's good to make plans, just do it in pencil." 

With the program year behind us and another  just ahead of us, summer is a time for both rest and planning.

In my experience, church leaders love to plan. We have strategic plans, ministry plans, stewardship plans, discipleship plans, worship plans, contingency plans, and, for the truly ambitious, plans for all the planning meetings.

Planning matters. In fact, planning can be seen as an act of stewardship. Even Jesus tells us to count the cost before building a tower. That's why faithful leaders don't simply drift along, they intentionally set aside time to discern, prepare, and organize.

But faithful planning is different from believing our plans are permanent. Perhaps you know what it's like to schedule a church picnic only to discover it's the hottest day of the year or spend months preparing for Palm Sunday only to realize no one ordered the palms. We've all experienced those times when even the best laid plans utterly fell apart.

But that's nothing new. The Spirit always has a way of interrupting our carefully arranged itineraries. We see this again and again in the scriptures as doors close, new opportunities open, and the gospel continues to spread because God's people were willing to set their plans aside and follow.

Of course, that's often harder than it sounds. A lot of churches inherited plans that were written decades ago in permanent marker and we assume that because something worked once, it should always work. In the end, we can end up defending our church's calendars more fiercely than a congregation's calling. That's when we become curators of yesterday's successes instead of participants in today's mission.

The irony is that the God we worship never changes, yet God is constantly leading us into new places. That's why the most spiritual thing in your church office isn't the Presbyterian planning calendar...it's the eraser. Erasers remind us that changing course isn't failure and revising a budget isn't defeat. Likewise, adjusting the worship time, rethinking programs, or ending a beloved ministry isn't evidence that we are not being faithful. Sometimes it's evidence that we're actually paying attention.

So as you begin to make plans for the fall don't forget to keep an eraser near by. After all, some of God's best work happens while we're busy making plans.

Steve Huston

Organizing Co-Leader/ Resource Presbyter

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