Wishes and Destinations
As always, thank you so much for your time. Last time I spoke about the concept of Cacao Plans within “CHOCOLATE EVANGELISM, Outreach in your Comfort Zone”.
There is a significant difference between Wishes and Destinations. These two things are very different indeed. Wishes are something we would love to see happen, but have NO control over. Destinations are things we DO HAVE control over and are usually thought of in terms of being specific, time limited, measurable and achievable.
One Wish might be to “Bring golfers in my local Golf Club to the Lord”. This is a great Wish, but it still is a Wish (not a Destination) because you don’t have control of the outcome. It is God who brings people into His Kingdom, not us (thank God!). We also have no control over other’s responses to what the Holy Spirit prompts us to say and do. A Destination might be “I (or our group) will attend six open golf days at our local club over the next twelve months”. Specific? Yep, a defined activity. Time limited? Yep, twelve months. Measurable? Yep, did we actually go! Achievable? Yep, we didn’t overburden ourselves with something we couldn’t do. See the difference?
From our Wishes come our Destinations. I find it so amazing that time after time, when I implement evangelism Wishes (things I HAVE control over) so many of my Destinations (things I have NO control over) come about. As God call us to do things we can do (mostly through His strength!), He does things only He can do. What an awesome God we have!
What we need to know before we start formulating a plan is what we actually want to do. In other words, what are our ‘Wishes’? These must come about through prayer and the particular burdens God is placing on our hearts. Now we can start brainstorming all our Wishes for the particular situation concerned. I find a very helpful way is for the team (or handpicked representatives) to put forward ideas while one person writes everything said on a whiteboard. From this we can establish our initial evangelism Destinations. Remember the previous example? The desire was “Bring golfers in my local Golf Club to the Lord”. Maybe during the brainstorming somebody mentioned the open golf days. From this Wish and brainstorm came the evangelism Destination of “attending six open golf days at our local club over the next twelve months”.
Once Destinations are identified, ‘Backward Step’ them. Always start at the FINISH. Write what you want to achieve, and then write the step just before it. Keep repeating this until the first step is arrived.
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Next week I’ll be talking about Buttery Vehicles and connection ‘Shopfronts’ and how these are the outworking of our Plans.
May God bless you in all your endeavours for Him
Captain Andrew CARTER