Core values – Strategy
1 Chronicles 28. 1-13
1 Corinthians 12. 4-13 & 12.27 – 31
I am sure that many of you enjoy sports programmes of one kind or another. And before an important match or competition, there is inevitably an interview with some of the participants, asking about their strategy for success.
As I am sure you know, a luge is small one- or two-person sled on which one travels feet-first down an icy track at 85mph. The thought of that is not inspiring. But that is exactly what you have to do to if you want to become an Olympic luge gold medallist. And the slightest lapse in concentration can be punished by a spectacular and bone-crunching crash. When one Olympic medallist was asked about her strategy for success, she laughed. “Luge strategy?” she said “Lie flat and try not to die."
There are times in life when such a simple approach to strategy is appropriate. But more usually, strategy has to be a bit more sophisticated.
A strategy is a plan, or series of moves or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result. A strategy incorporates not only a plan, but also the practical resources and the people involved. As you will probably know, within our group of churches we have a Plan for the Future. And one of our core values in the Evenlode Vale churches is that that we strive to be a strategic church.
Now words like strategy and the Church of England are not often found in the same sentence. But they ought to be. For strategy is important and strategy is biblical.
The plan
Our Bible reading from 1 Chronicles (page 432) shows how King David had made plans for a new temple. By any stretch of the imagination, such a thing would have been a great undertaking. And what is fascinating about this account is that you see the interplay between God and David. In coming up with his plan for a new temple, it was not just David’s plan. David had clearly been guided by God’s Holy Spirit. In v12, it talks about ‘the plans that the Spirit had put in his mind’. It was God’s plan that he had put into David’s mind. It wasn’t something that David just dreamt up in the bath one night. It wasn’t something that he thought would make him look better on international stage. No, it was God’s plan. But God’s plan required David to be part of it.
You see, God is a planner. He has a plan for the salvation of mankind. We get a wonderful sense of that in Ephesians 1:11, where we read ‘ In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who worked so everything in conformity with the purpose of his will’. God is a planner, and it was God’s plan to build the temple. It was God’s plan that David should have a part to play in this. But interestingly, the part of David played was not the one he thought.
The provisions
For the part that David was to play was not to actually build the temple, but to enable the provision of the resources. David part was to assemble the materials, and encourage others to contribute, so that somebody else could build the temple. But as any good strategist will know, the provisions, the materials, the resources, are an essential part of any plan. Not for nothing does the British Army have the Royal Logistics Corps. In any strategy in battle, the general needs to know that he has the resources, the ammunition, vehicles, food to achieve his battle plan.
And so in the plan of God to build the temple, provisions were needed. David gave substantial amounts of material and finance to the building of the temple. You can see all this in chapter 29. But it wasn’t just David alone. God’s people corporately contributed to the construction. As families and tribes and communities the people contributed. And it says that they gave willingly, freely and joyfully, not least because of the example that David had set.
The people
Of course, it is no good having a plan, or the provisions, if you do not have the people to carry it out. God had made it clear that David’s task was to enable the provision of the necessary resources. God also made it clear that it was Solomon’s job to make it happen. But Solomon could not build it on his own. He needed skilled craftsmen, engineers, masons, decorators, labourers. Some of those skills had to be imported, some of the people involved came from outside the country. The king of Tyre sent an especially gifted at person to help (Huram-Abi 2 Chron 2:13). And you can read about the many people that Solomon involved in the second book of Chronicles.
So in these few chapters about the building of the temple, we see God’s plan, God’s provision, and God’s people all working together strategically to achieve God purposes.
So what has all this got to do with us? Surely, what David and Solomon were doing happened an awful long time ago.
Our Plan
Well that may be true, but principles still remain the same. God does have a plan, and he has a plan for his people here in Evenlode and in the Evenlode Vale churches. Through his Holy Spirit, God has been at work here, putting the elements of the plan into place. He has brought Richard here as our Rector. And through the work of his Holy Spirit in the minds of his people, and especially Richard and planning group, a strategic development plan for the benefice has been put together. This hasn’t been dreamed up in the bath. Rather, there is a very real sense that God has been at work through his Spirit in guiding those involved as they have sought God’s direction for our churches.
Our Provisions
So we have a plan. But we do need provisions. And just as families and tribes and communities of David’s time were delighted to contribute to the work of building the temple, so the people here have contributed to the work of realising God’s plan in this place. I’m sure that some of you will have committed yourselves to supporting the work among young people, and particularly by contributing to the Evenlode Vale Ministry Trust, which employs Alan Saunders. It has been my experience over the years that God never puts a plan in front of his people without providing the necessary resources. In my last church, we reached a stage where it was necessary to have a major refurbishment, reordering an extension of the church building. The total cost of this was something in the order of £750,000. And God provided the financial resources necessary, in a remarkably straightforward and unstressful way. And as God’s strategy for these parishes unfolds, I have no doubt that he will release and provide the resources necessary to achieve his purposes.
Our People
But is also been my experience that when God puts a plan in front of his people he also provides the people and the skills that are required to put the plan into action. Sometimes those people come from outside, just as Richard and Alan have done. But most often the people and the skills that are required are already in place, just waiting to be recognised and released. That’s very much the point that St Paul is making when he wrote to the Corinthian church. Our second reading 1 Cor 12 (page 1153). What he makes absolutely clear is that each one of us is given a particular manifestation of the Holy Sspirit for the common good. Each one of us is given a gift, a skill, an ability, to contribute to the work of God in this place. One of the dangers of the church is that we often forget how many different people and different gifts are involved. We see the man or woman at the front and forget so much more goes on behind the scenes. The image that St Paul uses of the church as a body is quite good. And if we get it wrong and focus on what can be seen on a Sunday, then we would have a very strange and distorted body. We would have a body that sings well and talks a lot. But the church family is not meant to the like that. God provides us with a balance of gifts and skills, so that we can have a balanced church family. A balanced body. God provides us with the right balance of gifts and skills to achieve his plan for the place in which we find ourselves. And it is only when God’s people release those gifts and skills and abilities into his service that his plan can truly be achieved. You will remember that St Paul said in 1 Cor 12:27 ‘ you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it.’
When my children were smaller, they had one of those games where it is necessary to get the right shape piece into the corresponding shape hole. When they were beginning to learn the game, they were get frustrated and try to bash the pieces in. And when that happens, things get damaged and the game doesn’t work. It’s a bit like that in the church family. So often in churches we find that some jobs are being done by people who are only doing them because nobody else will come forward. That’s a bit like pieces that have been bashed in. When that happens, it is often the case that they find it difficult, because what they are doing isn’t necessarily what they are good at. They are square pegs in round holes. But in God’s economy, square pegs go in square holes. And in God’s economy, there are exactly the right number and shape of pieces for all the holes available.
God has given each one of us a gift. He gives them to each one of us in the way that he determines. Isn’t that remarkable! God thinks so much of you that he has given each of you a special gift, so that you can play a part in his plans. God thinks so much of you that he has given you a special gift of the benefit of everyone, for the common good. I am sure all you have been in the situation where you have given a friend a birthday present, only to find that they do not unwrap it and do not thank you for it. If God has given us a spiritual gift, we really should be thanking him for it, unwrapping it and using that gift, because without the contribution of each one of our gifts, Gods work here is incomplete.
Fundamental to this then, is to establish what gift it is that God has given to each one of us. We need to know what shape we are, so that we can fit in to the right shaped hole. Perhaps you already know, but sometimes we need the help of others to draw that out. Perhaps we are reticent, and need encouragement.
But knowing and using the gift that God has given each one of us is strategically important as together we put into action God’s plans in this place. And because this is so important, the plan is that in the autumn we will be running a course to help us recognise and release the gifts that God has given to each one of us.
It is tremendously exciting to be part of a Christian community which has a strategy, which as a plan for the future. And it’s great to know that this plan is part of God’s plan for his people. And it’s even better to know that God’s plan, Gods provisions and God’s people can come together to achieve God’s purposes.
Each one of us has been given a gift from God to enable us to play a part in this. My prayer today is that we will all realise that gift so that we may truly be the body of Christ in this place.
