April 29, 2025

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Tag: planning

Having an Exit Plan from the Start
Church Planting

Having an Exit Plan from the Start

This entry is part 6 of 15 in the series "Church planting". When we started our last church plant, we began with a planning retreat for everyone who wanted to be a part of starting a new church. During that retreat we talked about a lot of things. We discussed the biblical definition of a church. We described our target area and target people and their religious beliefs. Furthermore, we evaluated our team members’ gifts and passions and did team-building activities. We formulated our vision and mission statements and our core values. Then toward the end of our retreat I said, we need to clarify our “Exit Plan”. They all looked at me strangely and said, “Exit plan? We haven’t even started yet. Why are you talking about an exit plan? What do you mean by an exit plan?” What is an exit plan? An exit plan provides clear markers that describe the… Read the whole post
David North6 mins read
Behavioral Preferences About Time and Planning
Cultural learning, Assessment Tools

Behavioral Preferences About Time and Planning

In this third blog post about the ten value orientations of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), I want to look at behavioral preferences related to time and planning. Time is like a river Time is like a river we all travel. How we view time and how we plan its use can be compared to canoeing a river. For instance, our uncertainty-avoidance orientation may affect whether we portage around rapids or enjoy the thrill of running them. Whether we are short-term or long-term oriented will determine whether we do day trips or week-long trips. Our monochronic or polychronic orientation will show itself in whether we focus on reaching the destination. Or is swimming, fishing, or photography along the way just as important? When I was in high school and college, I led canoe trips for a camp in Maine. On these trips, I observed conflicts from variations in these orientations in the… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley2 mins read
Plans that seem like nothing
Church Planting, Leadership, Evangelism

Plans that seem like nothing

It is that time of year again, when we are asked to develop annual ministry plans for the coming year. We dream about what we would like to see happen in 2017 – and then we face the reality of our limited financial and people resources.  We do not want to discount what God can do, and so we seek to set goals that call for faith and utter dependence upon God. But we are also told to make sure that our annual goals are SMART: S – Strategic (How clearly does it propel our vision forward?) M – Measurable (How will we know when we have completed the goal?) A – Ambitious (a faith-stretch) (Does it require us to depend on God?) R – Realistic (Do we have at least a rough idea for how we could work towards accomplishing it?) T – Time-bound (Have we determined a deadline… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
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