Sizing Up Opportunities

[This article is part of the “spiritual leadership today” study/discussion going on this year. For all articles in the series, click the Spiritual Leadership tab at the top of the page. To have them delivered, subscribe to The Brook Letter]

How can we know when a God-given opportunity is opening up before us? Here are some signs:

1. Does the opportunity line up with your values as a believer and/or the values of the group or organization you are part of? We should do things not just because we can, but because we should.

2. Is the opportunity consistent with your objectives? This assumes you already have a carefully formed idea of your purposes (personally or organizationally). Most of the time we ought to decline opportunities that have nothing to do with our purposes–unless this is God’s way of redirecting us.

3. Is the opportunity God’s way of reshaping your purposes and objectives? This makes spiritual leadership different from other forms of leadership. When we are in control, we decide our objectives, and we respond to opportunities as we wish. But those who believe they work under the sovereign and benevolent superintendence of the Creator of the universe assume that there will come a time when they are asked to change their assumptions, their objectives, and their  prior trajectory. Abram was told to leave Haran. Moses was told to make an exodus from Egypt. Saul of Tarsus zealously protected the tenets of Phariseeism before being radically redirected into a belief in Jesus. Any of us at any time could be called by God to do something different with our lives.

4. Does the opportunity line up with biblical values? Some people want to find a biblical reference to line up with every decision they make on the assumption that being faithful to scriptural truth means that there is chapter and verse for everything we do. But Scripture never says Scripture is prescriptive for every eventuality of life. There are no verses specifically telling us to take a job in a different city. Scriptural truth gives us principles and values, and then we have to apply spiritual discernment in making decisions.

5. Does the opportunity violate biblical values? This filter is very important. It will prevent a believer from taking a job in a movie production company that produces pornography. It should prevent a Christian executive from making unethical moves to squeeze out a competitor.

6. If the opportunity requires the movement of a whole group or community, can the leader convince the group that this is a good direction? Here is another delicate issue for spiritual leadership. On the one hand, if God is opening a door of opportunity, the leader has to call it that. But we all know of times when a leader claimed God’s leading, but it was imaginary or manipulative rhetoric just to get people to go along. Our protection from arbitrariness comes in the form of deliberation and counsel. Only insecure leaders leap out of the gate and impose on others a full redirection with no process at all. God may give a vision to a singular leader (in fact, vision is ordinarily an experience of the individual), but wise leaders are willing for the vision to be tested by reasonable forms of deliberation. Watch out for the leader who puts a major new idea on the table, and forces it as an issue of personal loyalty or obedience right out of the gate.

One of the most vivid memories I have of an opportunity that was like coming to a fork in the road is from years ago when our church was desperately in need of expanded facilities. That was most painfully obvious when we saw people arrive for services, and then leave because there was no room. What we needed to do was double the facility, but the local municipality had banned any expansion. There was some thought about moving to an entirely different location ten miles away, but what would have necessitated giving up a wonderful location, strategically placed.

And then in a casual discussion of the church board, one member commented that the township board had turned over and perhaps someone should ask the new president whether they would entertain a building expansion proposal. There is not much to lose by asking, and the church board member was surprised by the response: go ahead and make a proposal, we’ll consider it.

The door was open–just a crack. That set in motion a number of discreet conversations among our church’s leadership inner circle, and then with a potential architect and contractor who was a member of the church. I remember the exhilaration of the unfolding realization that maybe this would actually happen. Not the excitement of a building program, but the enthusiasm at the idea that our outreach as a church, and our deepening as a church was at a new fork in the road. We created a proposal. One church board member who was a trusted community leader kept the channels open with the town board. The architect approached the state highway commissioner who could have quashed the whole idea because of overloading of local roads with a church seating 3,000. In the midst of that discussion, as the commissioner was equivocating, the architect simply asked him: “you don’t want to stand in the way of the work of Jesus Christ being done in southeastern Wisconsin, do you?” The commissioner approved the project.

What unfolded in the next couple of years–design, getting approvals, communicating with the congregation, raising funds–was a progression through dozens of different doors. At any number of points the door could have slammed shut. Sometimes a hinge got squeaky. A bit of pressure needed to be applied. But nobody ever put their shoulder down and destroyed a door, which would not have worked.

But the beginning was the slight crack in the door. The sound of a small creak which signaled something new might open up.

[More on this: Making the Most of Every Opportunity]

What have you done when you’ve seen the door of opportunity open up before you?