Are you growing in life and/or ministry? Many years ago, I believed God was inviting me to go to seminary. As I made my LifeGroup, family and friends aware of this, they began to encourage me and ask me what I was going to do about it. My husband became my biggest cheerleader when I was ready to back down from pursuing the goal of getting accepted into seminary. I kept going, believing that God had invited me to this party, so he must have a purpose for me.
Since that time, God has taken me through many different assignments. I’ve had to rethink my purpose and how he wanted to use me in each new role or situation. As I’ve said many times, Noah wasn’t called to stay in the boat forever! There came a time when his purpose changed. He had to come out of the boat and learn to follow God in a new way. That’s life.
It is hard to grow without purpose, without setting some goals. I don’t know where you are in your faith journey, but I do know God wants you to live intentionally. If you find yourself lacking direction, focus or purpose in life or ministry, I would like to share a coaching model with you. It is called G.R.O.W. I’ve used this with many people (including myself) and it works! This model was originally developed by John Whitmore. I’ve learned more about this tool through Tony Stoltzfus and his writings on leadership coaching.
In this post, I’ll cover the first letter, G. G stands for Goal. You will never get very far if you don’t have a goal. What are you aiming for?
Here are some good questions to help you (or your family, ministry team, volunteers, etc.) define a goal as you pursue purpose:
- Is there something I sense God is inviting me to do?
- Is there something that I long to do, but I’m afraid to even consider it?
- What would be different in my life or other’s lives if I did this?
- What do I want to change about my life–ministry, program, family, world, team, etc.?
Don’t hurry in answering these questions. This is a process that requires honesty, thought and prayer. I challenge you to begin working on this step to more clearly define your purpose or goal and begin growing in life and ministry. Don’t worry about how to get there or when. Just find the goal. We will look at those questions, and the remaining letters R (reality)–O (options)–W (will) in the next few posts.
