Prayer and Organization

Prayer and Organization

I’ve been meeting with the President of ISCA this semester. We decided to read a book together on leadership but we also wanted it to be a Bible study, so we decided to read John White’s book: Excellence in Leadership. It is a book on leadership but it also follows closely the Biblical book of Nehemiah. One of the things that amazes me is that John White quotes me a lot!

Okay, truth be told, I read this book in the mid eighties when I was an emerging leader. As I read this book now, some 25 years later, I’m realizing how much this book influences the type of leader that I am. Now that is a sign of a good book, it lasts the test of time! I just looked, the book is still in print and you can buy it at Amazon or IV Press!

Today we discussed the section titled “The Leader and Organization”.

One of the battles that I have fought over the years, often feeling like I’m calling out in the dessert, is the importance of beginning our planning in prayer. Instead of planning a lot of things, and letting the planning take up a lot of the meetings so that we end in a “quick prayer”, I've advocated that we start our meetings in Bible study and prayer and then let the planning squeeze in at the end. I apparently learned this in this book:

Nehemiah “illustrates a principle in godly planning – the principle of anticipating difficulties and bringing them in God’s presence beforehand. Prayer is where planning starts. Our first goal in prayer is not to get a steamhead of power but to find out what God wants. Planning that arises from and is the product of prayer is far superior to planning that is merely “backed by” prayer.” Pg 40

“Prayer at the beginning of a committee meeting is of infinitely greater value than prayer at the end. If you allot ninety minutes to the meeting, let forty-five minutes be set aside for prayer. Prayer needs leisure. . . . The more time the committee spends in prayer, the less its members will need to spend in futile discussions and the more its discussion will count for the kingdom.” Pg 41

“The plan that is God’s plan, revealed by him to those who wait on him, is a plan that cannot fail. . . If the plan is not of God in the first place, no amount of prayer will make it count for eternity.” Pg 40

I think it’s time to pray.