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.
 
 

One Psalm a Day--Join Me!

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For the last 3 years, I’ve read one psalm a day, every day. There are 150 psalms, so when I finish Psalm 150, I start again the next day with Psalm 1.

I’ll be starting again with Psalm 1 on Easter Monday, April 10.

NOTE: I’ve not posted here on the general section of my blog since Thanksgiving—forgive the lack of content. I actually post almost every day on the Bible section of this site, but though this post is about the Bible, I’m posting it here because I wanted to draw my general readers’ attention to it. If you’re new here, know that I have 2 newsletters to which folks can subscribe: the general Andrew Forrest newsletter, which gets sent out infrequently—whenever I post something here—and my Daily Bible newsletter, which is sent out at 4:00 AM Central and offers brief commentary on that day’s scripture reading portion in whatever plan I’m currently following.

 
 

Asbury is a Bible-Reading Church

There is a simplicity to reading one psalm every day—even if you have an early-morning flight, e.g., you can still read your psalm on your phone on the way to the airport.

I like to say that “Asbury is a Bible-reading church,” and I’ve spent my first 8 months here preaching and teaching through Genesis and Revelation, respectively. We’ll continue reading through whole books this fall, when we work through the Gospel of Matthew.

But in addition to other reading plans, I’d like the practice of reading one psalm a day, every day to become part of the Asbury culture. No matter where you are or what’s going on, you can turn to that day’s psalm—there is a simplicity and security in that. It’s also almost always a really quick read, which helps folks who feel as if they are too busy to read the Bible regularly.

 
 

Psalms Scripture journals

We’ve ordered 10,000 of these beautiful ESV Psalms Scripture Journals from Crossway, and will be handing them out on Easter Sunday, April 9.

 
 

For Psalms, My Commentary Will Be Online Only

I like to preach and teach through entire books of the Bible—otherwise, it’s easy to just fall into topical, self-help preaching. There is nothing wrong with topical, self-help preaching, unless that’s all you do, in which case I think it’s too limiting.

But with the Psalms, I will NOT be preaching through the entire book, psalm by psalm. Instead, for the next several months we’ll be changing things up and I’ll be preaching shorter, topical series, as well as having some of our associate pastors preach series of their own when I’m gone in the summer.

And because we wanted to hand out the ESV Scripture Journals (which came straight from the publisher), we are not printing any of my daily commentary to hand out—rather, my daily commentary through Psalms will be online on the Bible section of my blog—each day’s post will go live at 3:30 AM central, and for folks subscribed to my Bible newsletter, emailed out at 4:00 AM central.

So, again, if you want to receive my daily commentary through the Psalms, be sure to either check out my blog each day, or sign up and receive each post over email.

(Also, so I can get ready for the Gospel of Matthew, as well as make some progress on a few other projects, I will NOT be teaching any churchwide Bible studies on Psalms this spring. I wish I could, but I just can’t do everything! Stay tuned for Matthew this fall.)

 
 

The Plan Going forward

After we get to the end of Psalms, we’ll start over again. And again. And again. New members at Asbury will get a Psalms Journal and be encouraged to jump in on whatever that day’s psalm is.

After this initial reading, however, we’ll focus on other reading plans and commentary—specifically the Gospel of Matthew for this fall, and then other books after that.

 
 

Emotions Series Starts April 16!

As I mentioned above, I’m NOT going to be preaching through the Psalms this spring psalm-by-psalm; rather I’m going to be using the Psalms a jumping-off point to launch some different, topical series.

Our first series after Easter will be called Emotions. Here’s a trailer:

 
 

From our Easter bulletin:

Emotions are good things.  Like fire, in their proper place, they make our lives better.  Watch out, however: if you allow yourself to be controlled by your emotions, they will burn your life to the ground!

What’s sad is that many people in our world today never really grow up—they may look like adults, but they live like little children, constantly being controlled by their emotions.

It’s time for us to grow up, and our new series Emotions will give us practical and simple strategies to learn how to use our emotions the way God designed them to be used. New series starts after Easter!

Going to be a lot of fun.