Great Northern Gig?

Hi gang!

I was thinking about what I have been taught about planning for ministry, and I think there might be a few steps that we would be wise not to forget to do before we get to far into the planning for the meeting at the Great Northern. We need to remember that all we are doing needs to be done by the will of God and not by what we think might be the way to do it. We have in the past of Jacob's Well tried things without a lot of strong foundational planning behind them (and without group prayer for the events) and only had marginal results. I really would like our next event to be more fruitful and for us to be doing what He intends Jacob's Well to be doing.

1) We should first of all be praying for God (as a group) to see if this is what He wants us to be doing... yes Mike has felt led to this, so we need to take that seriously but I know if we don't go into it with His blessing it will be pointless to spend time and energy on it (How have the rest of you felt about this... are you excited, indifferent or somewhere in-between?)

2) When I took the 'Strategic and Tactical Planning for Ministry' class, I was taught that we often present a solution before we fully understand the problem that we are trying to solve.

In the class he used this example: The problem is that there are too many kids getting into trouble after school so we need to put in more basket ball hoops at the school to occupy their time. This sounds like a logical solution, but the root cause of this problem was lack of parenting skills and overworked parents because they needed to work two jobs to make ends meet. So, putting in hoops was not getting to the main problem. Providing low or no cost parenting resources for the parents would better get at the real problem.

Bringing a band into the Great Northern might be the way that God wants us go, but I, myself, have not determined what the root problem is here in Montrose so I can't say for certain this is what we need to be doing.

Here is what I would suggest... Next Sunday is our business meeting in which we should determine the direction that Jacob's Well should be going. Let's take a week for all of us to be praying for God's direction and guidance for 1) the Great Northern 2) Walking at the Elementary School 3) Anywhere God wants to lead us 4) What problem does God want us to be addressing in Montrose and 5) How should we go about doing it

Keep on Praying!
Blessings In Christ,
Lisa