Imagination Meets BHAGS

As I mentioned in an earlier blog some time ago, Jim Collins, author of Built to Last and Good to Great, coined the phrase Big Hairy Audacious Goals, otherwise known as BHAGs. He noted that great companies all had them, although they hadn't used his terminology. What I want to propose is that when a good imagination develops BHAGs appropriate to it, the potential is enormous. Perhaps you could say that a BHAG is the imagination sculpted to more specific form.

Sadly, most churches suffer from YGITS syndrome: Your God Is Too Small syndrome. For many reasons, probably, we don't expect much from God and so don't ask for much. And even those things we ask for we ask like timid children rather than with the trust and boldness God commends to us. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened." The scriptures endorse a combination of bold asking and stubborn persistence when we approach God in prayer.

Think of youth ministry, for example. What if we were to let our imaginations run free and develop some BHAGs in this area? Medfield has very little for teenagers in town. We have a vibrant youth ministry thanks to Wendy, but we have no space for teens. What do you imagine that we might do to address the needs of youth in our church and in our town. I can imagine us buying or renting a space for youth ministry where teens can hang out, do Bible study, play games, do homework, staffed by a team of youth ministers. I can imagine a lot more, too, but how about you? What can you imagine and what kind of BHAGs would you like to see?