The Spiritual Connection with Setting Goals

I know that we’ve all been there. The unmet goal. You tried, but you didn’t make it. These can be moments of painful deflation and reflection. I know cause I’ve been there. And often when we don’t reach a goal, we are tempted to just banish this whole concept of goal-setting and call it a day.

But I’d like to share a theological reason for setting goals.

I believe that a goal is a statement of faith. Jesus said, “according to your faith, let it be done unto you” (Matthew 9:29). Because of that, I believe that our goals are an expression of the kind of faith we have towards God. They’re an expression of how powerful you believe God to be.

Here’s an example.

At Carrollwood Church last year we baptized 19 people. We’re a pretty small church (about 85 average attending), so I was thrilled to see this many make a decision to be baptized. As the leaders of our church got together towards the end of the year, we began discussing setting a baptismal goal for 2009. Guess what number we came up with? 40. Yup.

I don’t think that church has ever had 40 baptisms in one year in its 25 year history. So is this a somewhat scary number? Yes. Am I able to make this happen? Nope. Can God make it happen? Absolutely! And that’s my point. Sometimes we set small goals that we can manage. Then when we reach our goals it’s pretty simple for us to say, “I, or if you’re feeling generous, we did it!” It’s easy to take the credit. But when you pull out a God-sized number, and you actually make it, you know that only God can take the credit for it.

• Could David have defeated Goliath if God hadn’t guided the stones?
• Could trumpets and screaming have brought down the walls of Jericho if God hadn’t been in it?
• Could Moses have parted the red sea with just a simple staff?

The answer to all these is no.

So where are we at Carrollwood Church with our goal of 40 baptisms for the year? So far in the year we’ve baptized 7 people. Do we have a long while to go? Absolutely. But do I believe God can still bless us with the 40? Completely. And because we’ve set that goal, we’re spiritually focused towards doing the necessary to prepare for God’s blessing: we’re making the appeals, we’re making sure systems are in place, we’re inviting people to attend. In essence we’re just doing what God has asked us to do anyways, but since we have a numeric goal in mind, we’re doing it with more excitement.

[image by joleenieweenie]

*by the way. The image are not my personal goals in case you couldn’t tell.