The Project of Life in 2014

Making resolutions that stick.

At the beginning of the New Year most of us have resolutions for a better life. According to experts with the Bank of Montreal, 80% of Canadians plan for the New Year with resolutions:

51% want better health and fitness
36% want better finances
31% want personal improvement
19% want a better love life
17% want career improvements

That’s the picture on January 1, and apparently we keep about 60% of our financial resolutions, which works out to about 17% of the population. Otherwise, Canadians are mostly unsuccessful in their struggle to make life better.

So what should a Christian do? Too many of us have fervent talk and hype, with weak long-term results. Yet the Bible is filled with successful projects and it’s clear God is the great project manager; from the creation story, to Moses in the wilderness, and Gideon with 300 soldiers, and Paul and Silas sailing off to be missionaries, and the focused life of Jesus, and the entire book of Revelation.

My personal favourite is Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. That should be required reading in MBA programs.

I believe our society is drifting into an economic crisis because too many are riding on someone else’s success. There are not enough new things, start ups emerging, and we are clinging to institutions that are getting old; businesses like IBM, Microsoft, Canada Post, struggling pension funds, or churches with old buildings, and Bible Colleges we can’t afford. Apple computers showed a better way when they started in a garage in California, and grew to become the wealthiest corporation in the world, in one generation.

So where is the renewal among Christians? The Bible promises “Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.” (I Thess 5:24). With that infinite resource, we should be the pioneers of society. If we truly live by faith, there should always be something new in our churches, and in our personal lives.

I propose to work through the stages of project management; from ideas, to resolutions, to plans, to design and development, to execution and management of risks and threats, to success. This pattern should be normal for our new churches in rented gymnasiums, our businesses from failed careers, and any other mountain we want to move.

So please follow as we take this journey. This series will continue for several weeks.