Leaders who fail to plan for their departure invite trouble on their team. Read 2 Samuel 2:4-11.

Saul could have been a hero if he had cooperated with God in preparing David to succeed him. Instead, Saul’s death led to all kinds of turmoil over who would be the next king. Despite Saul’s knowledge that God, through the prophet Samuel, had anointed David to be the next king, he viewed David as someone attempting to seize power. Saul’s decision not to aid his nation in finding their next leader after his departure caused the people of Israel several years of confusion after Saul’s death.

Ultimately to be considered competent and effective a leader needs to get the job done. Joshua’s assignment from God was to conquer the land and divide it equitably among the tribes. Read Joshua 11:1-19:51.

In his seven-year military campaign to take the land, Joshua conquered 31 kings. His strategy was to first conquer the cities in the center of Canaan, thus driving a wedge between the northern and southern cities. Once Joshua had conquered the center cities he turned to the southern cities and then finally to the northern cities. This kind of extended military campaign took extraordinary planning to keep the military flanks and the home front protected, the supply lines open, the troop movements coordinated and the communication clear and concise.

James 4:13-17 states “Now listen, you who say, ‘today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it sins.”

James is not against planning. He is not putting down trends, charts, graphs or planning meetings. He is not making an argument against commitments. James is simply warning us that our freedom to make plans is not a license to live free from God. Using plans to live free from God is arrogance. Every Christian leader should allow the phrase “if it is the Lord’s will” to infect their thinking and become a standard part of their vocabulary.

A built in question for a Christian leader is “When does human planning get in the way of trusting God for results?” Or conversely, “When does faith become a leader’s presumption on God, expecting God to do for us what He expects us to do for ourselves?” Read Joshua 8:1-29.

In Chapter 7 we read of the debacle that took place in the first attack of Ai. In Chapter 8 Joshua demonstrates a balance between faith and human planning as the Israelites prepare to attack Ai a second time. God ordered the attack and instructed Joshua to “Set an ambush behind the city,” but gave few other details of the attack. Once God had given Joshua the green light, Joshua planned and carried out the particulars of the attack. Once Joshua knew he had God’s blessing on the project, he gave clear orders to his army in obedience to God’s instruction. There was no hint of uncertainty or indecisiveness; instead, his commands were clear, authoritative and specific.

Effective leadership involves planning. Planning is generally cherished by the more naturally introverted leaders who find their energy from times of solitude and generally not-so-cherished by the naturally extroverted leaders who find their energy with people. But for leaders to become all that God intended them to be, no matter their personality, they will have to find a method of planning that allows them to live within their personality and still create carefully thought out short and long-term plans. Read Numbers 10.

Estimates say there were approximately 3 million Hebrews that left Egypt under Moses’ leadership. We know that God determined the times and directions of the Israelites’ movement. They had no way of knowing in advance whether they would camp in a particular location for a few days or for a year. Each time they set up camp, they had to do so as if they might be there for a lengthy duration, but they also had to be flexible enough to break camp at any time. If there was not a carefully thought out plan in place to add order to pack up, march out and set up all 3 million Hebrews would have lost motivation for being part of this team. To put some personal understanding to the scope of this task, just think for a moment what it takes to get your family fed, dressed and into the car to get to church on time.