Outthinking The Business World

By: Jacob Ouellette

Youth leaders have a sigma about them that is lazy, unproductive and always pulling things off last minute. The sad thing is that in many cases it is true. Many of us have the incredible gift of just winging it. We think that God speaks best right before we are supposed to preach.

This concept of not planning is completely unbiblical and doesn’t line up with the nature of God. Track with me for a second… What is salvation? It is a PLAN to redeem the world. If you don’t think God plans ahead check out Jeremiah 1:5 or 29: 11. God is a planner! I know that on rare occasions God does speak to us right before a message and wants us to change things but we cannot use that as an excuse to not prepare!

Let’s be completely honest right now. We put off planning because we are lazy. I know we like to use excuses like, “I am really busy and don’t have time to plan.” But again when we are being honest we know that planning actually maximizes our time & makes life a ton easier. When we plan ahead we have time to delegate the work load to lighten our load.

Almost nothing frustrates me more than the fact that the business world has greater plans to make money than the church does to reach souls for Christ. Eternity is on the line and many youth leaders barely have a plan.

Think about it.  McDonalds, Target, and Starbucks have incredible plans on how to make more money. NASA has plans 10 years from now and we can’t even get stuff together for next week. Listen, youth leaders, it’s time to become executive level thinkers! It is time that the business world starts coming to the church to get the example of how to achieve a dream. Could you imagine the people at Disney World contacting your church and saying, “What is it about your services that are so creative that people can’t stop talking about them?” What if a top marketing firm came to you and asked you how your youth ministry became a powerful movement that captured a community? This is the way it should be!

When God puts something in our hearts to accomplish, we need to put a plan together to achieve that dream. In Matthew 25 the master gave the servants talents and it was up to them to do something with what the master gave them. The master was appalled with the servant who took his talent and put it in the ground. That is what many of us do when we don’t put strategic plans together!

Here are some things that we must do to become an executive level thinker and begin to outthink the business world.

1.  Have “Inventing the Future” Meetings

This is a meeting that you & your inner circle team focus only on the future. The goal is to think only about things that are at least 6 to 12 months out. By working this far ahead it will give you enough time to make God’s dreams for your ministry a reality. You must have your team come to these meetings prayed up with marinated ideas to accomplish your God given vision. The key to these meetings is to have them often (at least 6 per year) so that you can keep charting the course.

2.  Unleash impossible thinking

People do not rally around an average idea. They do not drive 30 minutes for an average restaurant. But you will see people flying across the country to see or experience something incredible. The point is… start thinking God-sized thoughts. He hasn’t called you to make a small impact, He has called you to do something great! Stop thinking in the box that you live in now… unleash thoughts that are so big God has to come through! Those are the ideas that rally a city and capture the hearts of a congregation. Those are the thoughts that people want to give their time & money to. 

3.  Stop living from crisis to crisis

Many times we want to spend all our time putting out fires in our ministry but this limits us from accomplishing what God wants for us. You will never accomplish all that God has for your ministry when all you are focused on is the immediate. Living this way is incredibly stressful and I think leads to many youth leaders burning out and quitting the ministry. Planning ahead safe guards yourself and it will give you the opportunity to accomplish God’s plan. 

4.  Get around some incredible thinkers

We love to be comfortable and be around people who make us comfortable. But that is just what the devil wants us to do. It’s time to break the mold of hanging out with only local guys and start connecting with some of the top youth ministry minds in America. The internet has really made the world a smaller place. It is easier to connect now then it has ever been. It’s time to break relationships with the youth pastors who want to sit around and complain about what they can’t do and get around people who want to change the world and have a plan to do it! 

5.  Master the big ask

It blows my mind that a company can ask people to risk their entire life-savings by investing in them in the hopes that it will grow and be able to give them a profit. If the business world can have the guts to ask big I don’t see why it’s a problem for us to ask people to give their time, money, and energy for God. You will never get the help you need until you have the guts to master the big ask. When you ask, don’t beat around the bush. You are giving them a privileged opportunity and they should be thanking you for even asking them to give to the youth ministry.

It’s time to change your thinking from barely getting by to an executive level planner who outthinks the business world! It’s time to get strategic and plan like there are souls on the line…oh wait, there are!

Jacob Ouellette is the primary speaker & co-creator of the ATF Youth Ministry Conferences and a local youth pastor in Highland, MI. His passion is to see ministry leaders reach their God given dreams. www.ignited.org