Timing Makes all the Difference!

Phil Stevenson, who will be the keynote speaker at our Texas District LCMSM2C Partner's Retreat, May 6-8 wrote the following about timing in his weekly blog "Expanding Wave", April 2, 2008. His article has great questions which will help you as you plan to live missionally.

Timing makes all the difference. Being in the right place at the right time can be the difference in an opportunity taken or an opportunity missed. A good idea can go unattended if given at the wrong time. In football the link between a completion and an incompletion is often the result of the timing between the quarterback and the receiver.
In II Chronicles 2:1 we read, “Solomon now decided that that the time had come….” This had to do with the building of the temple. David had wanted to build it. David had a wonderful dream, but the timing was not right. This reminds us that the distance between the dream given and the dream fulfilled can vary.
It was 1989 that God birthed in me the vision to participate in a multiplication movement through churches planting churches. It was not until 1996 I had the privilege to lead my church in planting a new congregation. It was six years between the birth of the dream and the implementation of the dream. During those six years I cultivated the dream through education (reading, listening, attending seminars, talking to others, etc…), prayer and scribbling down ideas. I discovered this key principle: Make preparations and wait for God’s timing!

Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:25, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Keeping in step with God’s leading is critical in timing A right idea, even if it is God-given, is limited when delivered at the wrong time. Some have said it this way:

• The wrong idea given at the right time results in ineffectiveness
• The wrong idea given at the wrong time results in failure
• The right idea given at the wrong time results in resistance
• The right idea given at the right time results in success

Since timing is such a critical element when do you know, as a leader, when it is right? When is it the right time to rally your congregation to a new mountain top? When is it the right time to lead a congregation in daughtering a new congregation? When is it the right time to build? Relocate? Begin a new ministry? Start another campus? Implement small groups? Plant a church? Go to multiple services? Move to a new ministry? This is only a sampling of “right time” questions leaders wrestle with.
To the question of timing, I offer more questions. Navigating through these will provide you some guidance as to “when.”
• How you given it enough thought?
• Have you talked to the right people?
• What is the fallout of the decision?
• What is the benefit of the decision?
• What is your leadership “pain” threshold?
• Is it right, or just popular?
• Is it right, even if unpopular?
• Is there a stirring among the people?
• Are you willing and able to implement the decision?
• What does your gut tell you?
• What are you hearing from God?

Last thought: Most leaders miss the right time more to an unwillingness to decide than deciding too early.Who will applaud the decision? Who will boo?