My 9 Word Strategic Plan

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I believe that the most important thing a leader provides is clarity; if the vision is clear, it almost doesn’t matter what the vision is (as long as it’s not wicked). So, I’ve often joked that if the vision is

  • “We’re gonna be the cheeseburger church—everyone who comes on Sundays will be served a cheeseburger;”

  • And if that vision is clear,

  • Then the church will grow.

Clarity is actually really difficult to achieve, but once the vision is clear, everyone wins.

(I was joking about the “cheeseburger church” thing, but I think I could actually get behind that idea. Who’s with me? Maybe it just means I’m hungry.)

 
 

Keystone Habits

I’m a big believer in what Charles Duhigg calls “keystone habits.”

A keystone habit is a behavior that, though it might seem small, will have a cascading effect into other areas of a person’s life. So, for example, take exercise:

“When people start habitually exercising, even as infrequently as once a week, they start changing other, unrelated patterns in their lives, often unknowingly. Typically people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. It’s not completely clear why.…‘Exercise spills over,’ said James Prochaska, a University of Rhode Island researcher. ‘There’s something about it that makes other good habits easier.’”
— "The Power of Habit," by Charles Duhigg

Committing to the right keystone habits is HUGE, since those repeated behaviors will drive everything else.

 
 

I’m much more interested personally and professionally on focusing on inputs than I am on outcomes.

What are the inputs that will set me up for success?

What are the habits that will prepare Asbury for what’s next?

 
 

My 9 Word Strategic Plan

So, here’s my 9 word strategic plan for Asbury:

One psalm a day, every day, for 150 days.

It’s not exciting. It’s not glamorous. It’s not impressive.

But if Asburians develop the habit of beginning their days in silence and in scripture, if we commit to daily consistency and not worry overmuch about intensity, if we learn the practice of praying through our emotions to the Lord, in 150 days we’ll be in fighting shape.

 
“One psalm a day, every day, for 150 days.”
— What I'll say if you ask me what my vision for Asbury is.
 
 

My Daughter and Me at Dawn

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Every weekday morning I or a member of our Munger staff leads online community prayer. I enjoy leading it from White Rock Lake whenever possible, and recently my little daughter has started to accompany me.

Yesterday morning was a lovely morning at the lake. We arrived just as the dawn was breaking and enjoyed leading everyone through our brief morning liturgy and taking prayer requests. At the end of morning prayer, we always close by reciting The Lord’s Prayer. My daughter has been working on it with me, and this is how we ended our time together yesterday.

What I like about the video above is how we are looking at each other as we’re reciting it. I’m focused on her, and she’s focused on me.

It struck me later that this is what being a father is all about. Lord knows I fail at this most of the time, but I want to be this kind of father, patiently pouring into his children what he knows about the world so that they can grow up to become big and strong and wise.

Fathers, God has already given us all that our children need from us. More than anything, they need our quiet attention and to benefit from whatever little we possess that’s good, true, and wise. If we give them that—no matter how inadequate or insignificant—we’ll be giving them all that we can.

And that will be enough.