Most people have goals. Most churches have goals. The goals may not have been articulated but they are there nonetheless. What are your goals? Are they worthy goals? Prayerfully, as a believer in Jesus Christ, your goals grow out of your relationship with God and are accomplished in accordance with godly ways and means. As a Church, your goals should reflect His purposes and be accomplished in accordance with God’s wisdom and power.
Tips for Establishing Worthy Goals
We can learn much about what constitutes a worthy goal for Christians by looking at the Apostle Paul’s example in Philippians 3:10-14. Of course, this specific goal can and should be one of our own. But, what we want to do here is to extrapolate from this passage principles we can apply to any goals we might set as an individual believer or as a Church.
1) Develop meaningful, eternal-oriented goals.
Consider the Apostle Paul’s goal:
I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil. 3:10-11)
2) Be committed to fulfilling your goals.
The Apostle Paul obviously committed himself to his goal.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Phil. 3:12)
3) Put your confidence in God.
The Apostle Paul counted his personal accomplishments as rubbish.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. (Phil. 3:7) . . . not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. (Phil. 3:9)
4) Don’t wallow in past mistakes or accomplishments.
The Apostle Paul understood his own humanity. His past failing as a persecutor of the Church and present accomplishments as a church leader didn’t define him but rather God’s grace (1 Cor. 15:10) and power at work in and through Him (1 Cor. 2:4-5; 2 Cor. 4:7).
I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal . . . (Phil. 3:13-14)
For Church Leaders to Read: Goal-Setting & Vision Casting
For Bible Teachers: Teaching Goals – Lesson Aims Resources