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MINISTRY//316NOW's BHAG

MINISTRY//316NOW's BHAG

Blog, Ministry

I was part of a 316NOW BHAG discussion a week ago. It happened in an Education Division Committee meeting.

BHAG

A BHAG discussion?

BHAG stands for a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. It’s a clear and compelling goal that is impossible to attain -- unless God blesses it. It's a goal that, if achieved, will decisively propel a ministry toward its reason for existing.

Our Education Division, along with our other divisions, is developing its annual ministry plan. But before our divisions plan for 2021-22, they set a plan for fiscal year 2031-32. Yes, planning for ten years from now. Plans for a decade down the road will be fuzzy. However, if we don’t have a long term goal in mind, our annual goals will lack direction.

A possible BHAG

What did the Education Division envision its ministry might look like ten years from now?

It envisions

  • our ministry led predominantly by Confessional Lutherans who are Chinese.

  • 316NOW's online Bible institute staffed with a faculty of mostly Chinese instructors.

  • Chinese Confessional Lutherans leaders mentoring churches in China.

  • Chinese Confessional Lutherans leaders conducting in-person ministry workshops across China.

Please understand, this was only a discussion by one 316NOW division about a possible vision for the future of 316NOW’s grace across China ministry. When the Administrative Team and the board of directors talks about this proposal, we may decide such an audacious goal needs more than a decade to develop.

The bottom line

Here's the point: 316NOW is working toward a time when what we do for Chinese Christians is done by Chinese Christians for Chinese Christians. It may be 10 years from now -- or 20 or 40. Trusting God's power and grace, this is the direction we are heading. It’s an attainable goal. Not because of anyone involved in 316NOW. But because our God is greater. He is greater than any plans we might envision.

We rest on God’s promise. He "is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20 EHV). Therefore, we dream big. We are ready to embrace Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.

Jim Aderman // Executive Director, 316NOW