It’s the time of year for taking stock (including, occasionally, year-end gifts by way of stock transfers!). Many of us are:
- Writing our final reports for our supervisors (where we tell some of the “story” of the year—what we’ve seen God do, how we feel about our work, where we’ve grown spiritually/professionally—as a complement to our numerical reporting on the AFR).
- Beginning our MPD efforts for next year (even as we perhaps seek extra gifts to finish the fiscal year well)
- Gathering with colleagues at our Regional Staff Conferences for encouragement, training, and renewed vision.
As we finish up this ministry year, we give thanks to God for his grace over GFM and we begin to look ahead.
Major goals for next year
The GFM Leadership met in Boston in early May. We took stock of our progress at the end of year four of our five-year GFM Strategic Plan. We laid out a laminated map of the U.S. on the dining room table of the Airbnb and marked with dots all the new witnessing communities added over four years and, with little pictures, all the new GFM campus staff appointed. Standing back to look gave us a sense of “Wow! God has been good to us! Much progress has been made!” We had affixed 63 chapter dots and 44 CSM mug shots! We also tallied 532 decisions by grad students or faculty to follow Christ since 2013.
How do we finish the final year of our plan strongly? Here are three of our major goals for the 2017-2018 year:
1. “Be strong in the Lord. Stand firm. Pray in the Spirit.”
We always choose a “spiritual foundation” goal for our team. This touchstone arose from our study of Ephesians 6:10-20 where Paul speaks of the armor of God and the fight against powers of darkness and the challenge of bold witness. As we confront our most difficult challenges in the GFM mission—evangelistic fruit, multi-ethnic growth, staff recruitment, funding resources—we are committing ourselves to draw strength from God, persevere through obstacles, and depend on God more deeply in prayer, especially prayer against principalities and powers. We invite all of you to join us in this focus.
2. Fruitful evangelism.
We long to see an increase in decisions by students and faculty to follow Jesus and intend to press into faithful witness on campus in three specific ways:
- All of us on campus need to attend to core practices: modeling witness, offering training, guiding chapter leaders in planning outreach efforts, and engaging in regular prayer.
- We will offer resources: opt-in E-calls, funds to pilot evangelistic endeavors on campus, and a chance for staff who have not seen a conversion in the chapter for several years to participate in a cohort for learning and coaching.
- We will focus the March GFM staff conference at Mundelein on evangelism.
3. Vocational Stewardship.
Albeit somewhat delayed, we have launched our project involving 35 campus staff to examine more closely how effectively we teach and train about vocational stewardship as part of our discipleship ministry. We want to foster a learning environment for all of us around this aspect of our Integration commitment. Thanks to Pete Williamson and David Williams for coordinating this project.
Future Strategic Plans
Even as we finish out our strategic plan next year, national leaders will be mapping out strategic priorities for these next 3-4 years, which will set the context for the next GFM strategic plan. These plans will be designed to accelerate our mission toward a large, even audacious, visionary goal for what we hope to see by 2030. Even now, Tom Lin and the Executive Leadership Team are seeking God for how to express this goal in a way that inspires us and places us in deep dependence on God to work by his power.
Pentecost
Speaking of power, I welcome the opportunity in the liturgical calendar to be praying and worshipping in light of Pentecost and seeking for God to pour out his Spirit in fresh ways—so that we would be emboldened and empowered to speak of his Kingdom confidence, love, and joy. May this be true for all of us.
Thank You!
Finally, let me express my gratitude to everyone who has worked so diligently this year to advance the mission of GFM, whether paid or volunteer, full-time or part-time, serving on campus or providing administration or offering focused leadership. Thank you for your love of students and faculty and campuses and for your faithful service.
