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It is fair to say that in life it is wise to set goals as markers to reach and in this respect the Christian life should be a life of setting goals. The Apostle Paul forgot the things of the past in order to reach for the things before him, pressing toward the prize [Phil 3:14]. Failure to set goals can cause our Christian lives to become stagnant and aimless, through a lack of desire for improvement or advancement.
Today Missiology in general puts a strong emphasis on what can be done to achieve success, mainly through planning strategy with mechanical precision, making sure there is an adequate budget in place to carry out that strategy, and setting a time frame which, if achieved, will determine the success of the effort. All this may be accompanied by a sincere desire to see the Gospel presented effectively and souls coming to the Lord. However, there is a danger that numbers become the important factor in determining whether or not we have reached our goal, while the Trinity becomes a mere bystander.
Having said this, we cannot deny that Missiology in the New Testament had clear goals, which is evident in the words of the Lord Jesus in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19,20, “Go and make disciples …”. Paul had a clear goal to take the Gospel where no one else had laboured, so as not to build upon another man’s foundation. We certainly should not be complacent and sit back in passive mood. We need to accept our responsibility to make the Gospel known throughout the world and act accordingly.
In our Christian lives we are exhorted to ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’ and we will be satisfied. When we cultivate that hunger in our hearts we find that the more we hunger the more we are satisfied. Spurgeon once said, ‘Christ doth satisfy; yet it is such a satisfaction that the appetite is not satisfied but whetted.’ So it is in the realm of missionary endeavour. We must never be content with ground gained for the Kingdom of God, but must ever be looking to further horizons to see new areas claimed for the Lord. In doing so strategy becomes the scaffolding but the structure is built through the work of the Holy Spirit, by the Word, as sinners are brought to salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember attending a seminar where many pastors and Christian workers had come together to hear, among other things, about a very significant move of the Spirit related by one whom God had used in the situation, a situation that was familiar to me and to some others who were in attendance. The speaker warned us that if we had come to hear about a particular methodology that had been used to achieve what had been experienced, hoping that we could imitate it, he said no strategy could have prepared them for what happened. All he could say was “God has done this”. As he continued to speak we saw that the ways in which God had worked could not have been anticipated and no planning could have prepared for it. God had indeed done it.
Vision and planning are necessary in order to gain new ground for the Lord, but with all our efforts and strategizing we need to remember that lasting fruit will only be borne through that intercessory prayer that calls upon God to come amongst His people in revival power, and through us to the needy world. This issue of Breakthrough focuses on goals that are being reached through the Lord manifesting His power; but goals set and reached do not mark the end of the road … they are merely stepping stones leading us to reach toward greater things for His glory.
