Universal
“If you do not cut the moorings, God will have to break them by a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and you will get your eyes open.”
- Oswald Chambers
It all started with the desire to help businesses of all sizes have a similar experience to the one our corporate clients were enjoying. It would require us breaking down the processes and methodology we use to coach larger clients into bite-size, fill in the blank type experiences. We called it a roadmap.
We’ve spent the last three years refining that process with dozens of clients of all sizes and types. Once people experienced and got comfortable with the roadmap, they started to suggest other demographics that might benefit as well.
They told us start-ups, ministries, sole proprietors, etc., could easily walk this roadmap. They said it gave them an easy and comfortable way to grow and mature their businesses while integrating the culture of the Kingdom into their leadership and organizations.
The entire time we were walking through this process, we believed that God had something much bigger in mind for us and this roadmap. He was starting conversations that He was preparing for us to complete.
When we met a global ministry multiplier from South Africa who needed something to support the enterprises around his movements, we thought we might have an answer, but we had a lot of questions:
How universal was our roadmap?
Would it translate to different contexts?
Does a process that works for North American organizations also translate to ones in different countries?
We believed that it would, and embarked on a two-year conversation with the ministry leader and business leaders from three cities in South Africa (Durban, Johannesburg, & Cape Town.) After several video calls, we were reasonably assured and packed our bags for Africa.
We hosted 2-day events for 60 leaders during the last two weeks of November. We were overwhelmed by the response.
Mature businesses got incredible clarity and mapped more inspired futures.
Small/medium-sized businesses found a path to becoming more professional and mature.
Fragile start-ups found firmer ground, inspiration, and a way forward.
A few budding entrepreneurs took their ideas and turned them into a basic business plan.
Ministry leaders were encouraged by the clarified purpose behind their mission and inspired by God’s intended future.
The portion of the roadmap we shared with them turned out to be far more universal than we could have possibly imagined. The interest in continuing the journey with us in some form is humbling and overwhelming.
We met with an online delivery platform company while in Cape Town. There is talk of getting a simplified version into the hands of thousands of NFP leaders, licensing our content for groups on several continents, additional trips, recording video instructional content, and writing a book to support everything.
There is a lot to discern. This year, our annual planning for our little business will take 2 full days. The first to craft a vision big enough to include all of the above. The second to figure out all that we can reasonably get done in 2020.
It is amazing how much better your story is when you completely release it to God as the author!
Consider
Is there a better and larger story lurking behind the things you are doing?
Are you clear on what the next 3 or so years are supposed to look like for your life and business?
Do you have time set aside in the next few weeks to thoughtfully figure out the answer to both those questions? (Time spent doing that will pay for itself many times over in the coming months and years.)