At our last church business meeting we voted to make a five year plan.  But do we really need a five-year plan?  We just finished our fiscal year with the highest tithe income that we have ever had.   We just sent the largest subsidy to West Coast Christian Academy that we have ever sent.   Our membership list shows we have the largest number of members that we have ever had.  We did all of this without a five-year plan.

So why make a five-year plan now?  Ellen White said, "An aimless life is a living death."   Sometimes I see people on their jet-ski boats going in aimless circles, jumping their own wakes.  It looks like great fun.  I'd like to have the experience.  But I wonder, how long does the fun last.  Do the aimless circles eventually get boring?  When I bought my first airplane I was thrilled to learn to fly it, to perfect my take offs and landings.  It was fun just to be airborne and look at the sites below.  But what really gave my flying a sense of purpose was when I went on trips.   The navigation charts would all be laid out, I would plan the trip, take off and set off on the right compass heading.  The correct landmarks would pass below as I aimed straight ahead.   And I felt a great sense of satisfaction as the wheels touched down on the destination airport.

Sometimes we expect our church to keep on providing for us that "first love" experience.  We want to be as spiritually thrilled as the day when we first met Jesus.   After a while, we start to have the sensation that our personal spiritual experience and our church is dead in the water, boring.  But there is nothing wrong.  This is just a sign that you are finally ready to graduate to higher more satisfying experience.  It is time to plan a long trip with Jesus.  To where are you and Jesus headed?  Make a plan.  Lay in a course and feel the deep spiritual satisfaction when you feel yourself touch down at the destination goal with Jesus.

Our church, all of us church members working together, need to experience the satisfaction of reaching some long term goals for Jesus.  Ellen White gave this advice to a couple of church planners.  "God needs men who can look ahead, and see what needs to be done.... He wants you to lay off work and be more a planner, a manager."  Planning and reaching goals for Jesus will bring us a rich spiritual satisfaction.

While the church is making a five year plan, why don’t you make your own personal five year spiritual plan with Jesus.   Remember, "An aimless life is a living death."

Pastor Brad

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