Planning for Personal Growth
by Nelson Searcy
Lead Pastor, The Journey Church, NYC
Founder, ChurchLeaderInsights.com

“What is your plan for personal growth?” The first time a pastor friend and mentor asked me that question, the blank stare that answered him told him all he needed to know. My plan for personal growth? I didn’t have one to speak of. I thought that praying hard and trusting God was all the plan I needed. But I didn’t say that to my friend. I stalled. He pushed further. “Is your own growth something you’ve thought about? Planned out?” I told him that no, I didn’t really have a written, intentional plan for my personal growth. His next words stung. He said, “Well, then I can just about predict how much God will be able to use you…”

Our brief conversation that day changed my life. As I thought about what my friend said, I started to see his point. I began to realize that if God was going to be able to use me at the next level, I had to go to the next level. I had to intentionally prepare myself to be used. Over the next few years, as I learned to take my own personal growth seriously, God showed himself faithful in honoring my effort. To this day, one of my most consistent prayers continues to be, “God, make me into the person I need to be to do what you want me to do at the next level.”

Most of us have a vision for what we want our lives, and our churches, to look like a year or two down the road. And deep down, we know that we carry the responsibility of cooperating with God to become the men and women that He can use for his glory. We have to make ourselves ready to handle the reality of the vision God has given us. But too often, we don’t have any idea how to move from our current state of being into what we know we need to be. We don’t know how to grow ourselves into the people God can use most effectively.
      

There is a way. If we are willing to put a little planning and effort into sowing the seeds of our own personal growth, God will water them. Before we know it, we will be changing for the better and growing into more usable Kingdom people. So, just as that mentor asked me many years ago, I now ask you: What is your plan for personal growth?

Three Truths about Personal Growth

Take a moment to imagine what growth might look like for you. If you were growing, what would change in your life? Maybe some of the problems that keep you awake at night wouldn’t be problems if you were a growing leader. Maybe some of the dreams you hope to achieve would start falling into place. As you dedicate yourself to growing as an individual, the results of your growth will infiltrate every area of your life. You may decide you want to grow personally so you will be a better leader. In the process, you will also become a better spouse, better parent, better pastor, and better child of God. As you move to the next level, every area of your life moves with you.

Three truths help us understand the nature of personal growth:

1. Personal growth is necessary for spiritual growth.God calls you to a higher standard in your life and in your ministry that you could ever hope to reach without intentional personal growth. To become the person He wants you to be, you have to grow as an individual. As you do, and as God continues to move you forward, your dependence on Him deepens. Too many leaders miss this. They think that if they focus on developing their spiritual habits of prayer and Bible study that they will have all the tools they need to engage in ministry. But God has called us to be both faithful and fruitful. And to be fruitful, we need additional tools in our toolbox. If we don’t put the energy into pursuing growth in every area of our lives, we are not going to be able to attain all that God wants from us spiritually.

2. Personal growth precedes church growth. If you are not growing as a leader, you are limiting the potential of your church. Growing churches are led by growing leaders – and to continue growing as a leader you need to be expanding in both wisdom and knowledge. What do I mean by that? Most of us have quite a bit of wisdom because we know the source of all wisdom. We immerse ourselves in the Word on a daily basis. But many of us lack contemporary, generational knowledge. We need to add knowledge to our wisdom, because there are certain areas of life that the Bible is silent on – like the best way to set up an office or manage people. While the principles we build our lives and our churches on come from scripture, we often have to find the practices in other resources.

God calls us to an understanding of generational knowledge so we can share His timeless truths in the most effective way. Remember the shrewd manager Jesus spoke of? He was a man who understood how his contemporaries thought. That’s a characteristic God commands of us as Christian leaders. Most of the church world could learn a thing or two from companies like Starbucks when it comes to understanding people and welcoming them into our environments. We have something far more significant to offer than a good cup of coffee, but if we don’t grow as leaders by continually increasing in wisdom and knowledge, we may never get to share it.

 

3. Personal growth requires a plan. Proverbs teaches us that planning is our responsibility. The response is up to God. We can’t determine what happens as a result of the plans we make, but we know what will happen if we don’t make a plan – nothing. Directed growth does not happen haphazardly. You may decide you want to grow as a spouse, a parent or a staff member, but if you do not put an intentional plan in place, it won’t happen. You need a system to support the decision you are making. Putting that system in place will take you a little time – maybe an hour, maybe a day – but once it is set up, you will have a solid picture and a clear understanding of how you are going to grow over the next 365 days.

Developing A One-Year Growth Plan

With your calendar in front on you, define your one-year personal growth time frame. Don’t think you don’t need to be starting this process in January or at the beginning of your fiscal year. It doesn’t matter when your growth plan begins and ends, as long as you specify the 365 day period you will be working with. Once you know the parameters of your year, go ahead and make a note on day 350 to put together your plan for the next year. If you work through your life year by year with a solid growth plan in place, you will be amazed how God will continue to grow you into a deep, dedicated and disciplined leader. Creating your annual calendar may be the only chance you have each year to step back, take a bird’s-eye view of your life and do some intense planning, so enjoy the process.

I recommend that before you start the actual work of developing your growth plan, you take a moment to dedicate your endeavor to God. Acknowledge that the 365 days you have marked out are a gift and dedicate them back to Him. Ask God to help you learn and grow, and to cause you to be more like Jesus this time next year than you are right now. Ask Him to lead you to the exact dates on the calendar He wants you to carve out for specific events, and to the exact plans that He has in store for you.

Now, with your year defined and your plan committed to God, you are ready to discover how to grow through the year by Abandoning Annually, Measuring Monthly, Withdrawing Weekly and Diverting Daily:

• Abandon Annually

My Vacation: In setting up your one-year growth plan, your vacation is the first thing you should schedule. You like this already, right? As all of us in ministry know, our personal time is the easiest thing to sacrifice. So plan it now, or it will slip away. When over the next 365 days are you going to take time to leave everything behind and rejuvenate with God and your family? If you are going to grow over the next year, you are going to need that time of rest and reflection in order to keep leading at the high level God is calling you to.

Maybe you want to plan a few long weekends. Or maybe a full seven day block. Whatever it is you think you and your family will need, mark the specific dates on your calendar in pen and declare your vacation time non-negotiable. Inevitably, something will come up right before you are set to leave that will tempt you to postpone. Resist the temptation! If God is leading you to specific dates for your time away, He already knows what is going to happen around those dates. He will honor your decision to protect the time you’ve blocked out, especially if it’s an act of faith to do so.

My Conferences: Once you’ve decided on your vacation time for the year, commit to attending some conferences – both local, half-day conferences and longer conferences that require you to leave town. Getting around other leaders and investing in training will be invaluable to your growth over the next year. As you set up your calendar, research different conferences that you would like to attend. Most of them are scheduled months if not years in advance, so you shouldn’t have a problem pinpointing their dates. Decide that this year you will go to that conference you’ve always wanted to go to.


Conferences are also a great thing to do with your staff. I have often attended leadership summits with key people on my team. Leaving the office behind and immersing in a teaching environment together can recharge and refresh a weary staff. And when you return home, you can hold each other accountable to implement the things you learned.

• Measure Monthly

My Mentoring: Who are your mentors? Who would you like them to be? As growing leaders, we all need someone to look up to – someone who can guide us in the right direction. We need to be able to ask questions of those who have already accomplished what we want to accomplish. I am often challenged by the anonymous quote, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So, if you want to grow, you need to get around some minds that are better than yours.

Mentoring does not have to be a formal affair. I’m sure there are plenty of more experienced pastors in your area who would be willing to let you buy them lunch in exchange for answering some questions. They would look at it as an opportunity to encourage another pastor, and you would get the benefits of spending time with someone who has reached a higher level. If there’s someone you want to talk to but can’t get a meeting with, try for a phone call. Many busy people are willing to give you their time as they drive from one place to another. Be creative. You should never let a month go by where you are not spending two to six hours sitting under someone who could help you grow to your full potential. 

My Evaluation: Set a monthly appointment with yourself for an evaluation of the last thirty days. Consider, “What have I done right? What have I done wrong? Where did I really achieve? What do I need to fix? What did I say I was going to do when I put together my personal growth calendar that I haven’t been doing?” Reflect on the last month and recommit yourself to staying on track in the next one. Some say that experience is the best teacher, but that is not entirely true. Evaluated experience is the best teacher. So, plan to evaluate. To make things easier, you could combine your evaluation day with your mentoring day. If you have a lunch appointment scheduled with a mentor, take two hours that morning to sit in a coffee shop and review your last thirty days. Then, you should have plenty of issues to discuss over lunch! Never let your calendar turn to the next month without having mentoring and evaluation dates clearly marked.

• Withdraw Weekly

My Sabbath: Have you ever worked on your “day off?” Of course you have! It’s an epidemic among pastors. We think that if we slow down for even a day, things may fall apart. That’s a myth the enemy wants us to buy into. As God demonstrated when He created the world, we are engineered to work six days and rest one. As you develop your growth plan, pinpoint the day you are going to take off every week. It’s okay if that day has to change from week to week, as long as it is there. The release of a day away from work is absolutely essential to our growth. Only after that release are we able to go back to our responsibilities refreshed and ready to accomplish the tasks God has set before us. Also, as part of your Sabbath day, plan to spend a few minutes reflecting on your spiritual walk. Meditate on God’s greatness while you rest your body.

My Reading: Reading is one of the best ways to grow personally, so we need to be intentional in deciding what and how often we are going to read. I recommend disciplining yourself to read one book a week. They don’t have to be big books. If you are facing a week where you know you will be busier than usual pick a short book. The important thing is to get in the habit of making it through a book every week. Consistency is key. If a book a week sounds impossible to you, try starting with a book a month and working your way up. You need to set a goal that will stretch you. If you are intentional about reading, you’ll be amazed how quickly you can get through material. Keep a book with you all the time and you will find unexpected minutes throughout the day when you can get a few pages in. Read standing in line for lunch or waiting for a meeting. It’s a practice that takes time to establish, but reaps big dividends.

So what should you be reading? First of all, read books on theology – both popular and historical. Also read books on philosophy periodically. There are plenty of philosophy books you may not agree with, but if they’ve been on the Best Seller list for a while, you should know what they say. Your church members do, and you won’t be able to speak intelligently when confronted with their tenets if you haven’t taken time to read them. Finally, spend most of your time reading books on “best practices.” These are the books that tell you how to do specific things well – how to be a great manager, an effective leader, or a better spouse. Then, you wrap all of this information up in your consistent Bible study, and filter the knowledge of the day through the wisdom of the ages.

• Divert Daily

My Time with God: Make a daily appointment with God. Mark it on your calendar and stick to it. Just like you wouldn’t violate your Sabbath or miss a vacation with your family, don’t miss this appointment. Again, the time may change from day to day. But make sure you write it into your schedule, just as you would any other appointment. As you make time with God your first priority, He will make sure that all of your other plans fall into place. As Jesus teaches us, when we seek Him first all the other things we are concerned with will be under His care.

My Investment: There are key areas of your life that need a small investment of time every day to stay on track. For example, to keep your body ready for God’s service, you need to work in some physical activity every day. To continually strengthen your relationship with your spouse and your children, you need to invest in them every day. Also, try to make a daily investment in those who don’t know Christ. So often we get caught up in our Christian bubble and forget to interact with the people in our lives or in our communities who have never met Jesus. As you start your day with God, pray that He will give you the time and opportunity to make meaningful investments in your health, your family, and the unsaved each day. When you are faithful to take advantage of those opportunities, God will bless your efforts in a big way.

If you don’t control your calendar, it will control you. It’s time to stop living your life based on other people’s agendas, and to start cooperating with God to reach your full potential. My prayer is that God would use this system to work in your life in a powerful way, bringing about maximum personal and spiritual growth. As you prepare and live out your own personal growth plan, take joy and satisfaction in knowing that you are growing into a more equipped and powerful leader for the Kingdom of God.

 

This article is adapted from the new resource by Nelson Searcy entitled “Developing A One Year Personal Growth Plan.” For more on the resource visit www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com.

 

Nelson Searcy is the founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church in New York City. The Journey is an innovative, multi-cultural, multi-site church in Manhattan and Jersey City.  The Journey is one of the fastest growing churches in the United States and was recognized by Outreach Magazine in 2006 as one of the Top 25 Innovated Churches in America.  The church is recognized for its creativity, media and relevant approach to life changing teaching. Nelson is also the founder of www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com - a website devoted to resourcing pastors and church leaders.