///Tuesday Briefing///

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Story and 3 Numbers

During prayer this morning God took me in an unexpected direction.

Last night by the grace of God I was making smooth progress on outlining the business plan for Our Stewardship University. I was drawing upon various materials to craft a skeleton that will connect the parts of this critical document.

Then shortly after I woke up and I was praying my attention was strongly drawn to the story that happens between the main points of the business plan. I kept praying and then got to my computer. The narrative version began to spill out. I know enough about myself that I need to capture the essence of a creative flow while it is happening. Then I can come back later and make revisions. It is not easy to recreate the initial creative flow.

So what I have begun that I did not expect is a purely text version of the presentation of the new ministry named Our Stewardship University. This will work well as an appendix to the business plan.

The wisdom of this kind of presentation is that it can easily be published on a website. It can be sent as an email attachment and passed out as a printed document. It does not require that I be present to add verbal comments like a mind map might.

Pray for God to guide me in writing the core story in an easy to understand and brief text document. Then watch for the first version to be ready soon, maybe tomorrow. I will be requesting comments and questions to make it better.

Also because this is Thursday I have a promise to send out my weekly money report to a few close friends. This deals with my current condition and the near future. What I request your prayers for is for God to lead me to 2 of the 3 numbers.

One number is to total amount of the money needed immediately to bring me current on all accounts.

Another number is what is needed soon to get the ball rolling toward the next milestone that is the habit of making fund raising presentations.

The third number I already know is the fund raising goals of 40 thousand dollars.

Lord willing tomorrow on Friday I will share with you the first draft of the story plus the three numbers. The Holy Spirit keeps telling me not to worry. Just pray over the numbers and ask others to join, He will bring in the money right on time.

John 4:16 PM

Monday, April 23, 2007

I Wept on Sunday

I was sitting in Sunday school class looking up at the lights in the ceiling wrestling with God.

It is rare that I resist the voice of God. But I thought I had good grounds. This was Sunday and to honor the Sabbath I do my best to put out of my mind all considerations of ministry all day long. That is one of my ways to rest.

The day before the Holy Spirit had led me in a way to simplify. This was proving to me very useful. In the previous email I had mentioned sheering two kinds of sheep. They are mind maps and text. That is still the challenge that is before me. But God made it clear that it would be wise to focus on text for now and do mind maps as a summary of those.

As I started down the path to put the presentation into a text format I needed a way to organize the document. That is when I remembered the concept of a business plan. Over these many years I have made several attempts to write a business plan. I rarely made any progress. It was always the financial numbers that frightened me. How could anyone that is writing a business plan for a start up put down sales projects for the next three years. I concluded that what I need to do is raise some initial seed money and pay a consultant to do that for me. They deal with those matters often.

This time because God was guiding that did not put me off. I did online research and came upon various articles and guidelines about how to write a business plan. Also what was very helpful for me was a multimedia presentation http://paloalto.com/ps/bp/demo/sba/index.html# .

These presentations took me by the hand and led me along the process of writing a business plan. They gave the general guidelines and specific questions. By the end of the day on Saturday the first very rough outline had taken shape. And like what one of the presenters said this will guide your thinking into new directions.

There is not one write way to write a business plan. Essentially it is an orderly format for telling a complex story. There are various major and minor headings that can be adjusted as needed. There is some amazing software that I hope to buy soon that will take this to the next level. But for now I can craft a version 1.0.

I told someone that this is like learning a foreign language for me. I have most of the data but I need to translate it into the business plan lingo.

God has shown me that there are major advantages of developing the business plan apart from all the multimedia and web things that I enjoy. This is the typical way that those who provide major funding communicate. I knew that I was just reminded. Also I can easily send out this document to many people as an attachment plus have it on a website. It does not require that I be present nor any special software to view. That will allow me to request all kinds of comments and suggestions for all sorts of people in the coming months.

The process of creating a business plan involves thinking clearly about each facet and writing a very short summary. This orderly review of the market demands plus the product and services offered leads to new perspectives and better understanding.

The reason I was resisting on Sunday is that the little work I had already done was pointing in an unexpected direction. I was willing to wait until Monday to consider this but God would not let me go until I got His message. Finally I surrendered and very quickly I got what He was saying.

The bottom line is that what all this points to is Our Stewardship University. Back in November of 2003 I began this website http://www.osuonline.org/ Some where along the way I hit a wall. I recall talking with a person that had started a school for missionaries. It had to do with preparing them for the cross cultural world they were entering. I do not clearly recall the conversation. The part that put me off was that he learned that you needed to offer degrees and have classes in class rooms to call yourself a university. My vision was than and is now to offer most materials online. The people I will serve do not have the time or energy to get a full degree.

Since then I have come upon all sorts of websites that use the term university in their name. And I have told my closest friends that all the plans I have had since just point back in that direction with a different name. Maybe that person was referring to the restrictions on getting a web address with EDU at the end. He spoke from conviction and much experience. I can live with not having EDU at the end of my web address.

So I have gone back to just a few of the notes from 2003. The good news is that there is lots of material that are the result of many answered prayers. The bad news is that the number of pages I need to trim now increased by about seven times as much. Part of what I was weeping about was that I knew there will be much more editing needed.

The business plan and many other major factors point to this as the best direction. I told a deacon that prayed for me at church about these developments. I told him that this is the single umbrella that will allow me to bring all others under it. That includes that long term aid to those impacted by hurricanes as well as the online passive business income.

Another critical factor is that over the years as I have asked myself what is the one big idea that I am most passionate about and the answer is always the same. Exhorting believers they will give a private account to the Lord Jesus Christ for the stewardship of their time talents and treasure. Then providing both the general guidelines as well and the practical steps to consistently improve their stewardship.

Beginning with this end in mind this is the best path. It will be easier to enroll more people interactively on a large and growing web platform with this big banner.

Please pray for God to guide me in the process of sifting through this abundance of materials. I need to find the core sentences and paragraphs that fill in the blanks for the business plan. Then there can be plenty of supplemental materials in the appendix and on website or CD.

Thanks again for your prayers.

Thanks for reading these updates.

I really want to get this off the drawing table and in from of prospective supporters. Lord willing I will send a link to the online version 1.0 of the business plan by noon tomorrow. Then I will start to set appointments. I will add the visual aids as needed.

I guess that my birthday present from God for me today is this new direction. I know that preparing these materials this is the best stewardship of my time. It will have short and long term ripples for helping others become better stewards too.

The Holy Spirit has led me to invest three hours today to start a central update website like I did for Shebaa. Then those who want to keep with the daily developments can come there or sign up for the RSS feed. That way I can send out just a weekly update instead of a long message like this.

Pray for this to unfold gracefully.

John 6:17 PM