I’ve been reading the book Made To Stick by the Heath brothers. Great book so far and it’s helping me think more about how I communicate an idea. It was written with the intent that it would be applied in the business world, but as a speaker and communicator of the Word, it has even helped me think about how I can communicate Biblical truth in a way that sticks in people’s minds.
In the very first chapter, we are introduced to “Commander’s Intent.” The concept is that no matter how detailed or careful you have been in your planning, often in the midst of the battle, your plan becomes useless. You have to throw it out and do something else. However, you can’t just do whatever you want at that point, or else you’ll isolate yourself from all your allies and you might not accomplish anything. There has to be an overriding objective that governs what you do at that moment. That is Commander’s Intent. For instance, if the Commander’s Intent was to take hill 456, the battle plan might be to use a tank to get there. However, if your tank gets blown up you have to change your plan. Since the Commander’s Intent is to take hill 456, you know what to do even if your tank gets blown up. You’ll shoot, fight, or throw rocks as long as it’s moving your forward in the taking of hill 456.
That’s a pretty great concept: to define simply what your objective is so that no matter what happens in the battle, you can keep moving forward on the objective. You can easily see how that would be a very beneficial concept in the business world.
But I’ve been thinking about it a little differently. I’ve been thinking about THE Commander’s Intent. I think Jesus gave us a clear, simply stated objective that could be considered His Commander’s Intent. You’ll find it in Matthew 28:18-20.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking…. For all the battle plans, the discipleship courses, the youth events, the summer camps, the mission’s trips, the weekly Bible studies, the late-night counseling sessions and anything else you’re doing as a youth worker…. ARE YOU ACCOMPLISHING THE COMMANDER’S INTENT? It’s so easy to get lost in the details, but are you accomplishing these things?
Are you going?
Are you making disciples?
Are you baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
Are you teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded?
We’ll re-visit these questions in a future post and break them down a bit. But, for now, what are you doing to make disciples?
