011820-A Jn. 1 29-42
There is SO MUCH to consider.
Business is NOT EASY TODAY. There is SO much to be CONSIDERED.
It is actually QUITE COMPLICATED.
Obviously you start with the “BUSINESS PLAN or MODEL.”
A GOOD “business plan” is A MUST.
“A business plan” is that FORMAL WRITTEN DOCUMENT containing your business GOALS, the METHODS on “HOW these goals CAN BE ATTAINED,” and the TIME FRAME within which – these goals NEED to be achieved.
HOW do you get to be SOLVENT? How do you get to “that place” of having ASSETS in excess of your LIABILITIES?
THE PLAN also describes “the NATURE” of the business, “BACKGROUND INFORMATION (or History, if you will) on the organization,” the organization’s “FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS,” and “the STRATEGIES” it intends to implement to achieve the STATED TARGETS.
It is kind of like your “Mission Statement” YOUR REASON for existing.
But all PLANS are just THAT “they are plans” and are subject to change and REVISION along the way!
In its ENTIRETY, this document serves as a ROAD MAP that provides FUTURE DIRECTION for the business.
SWOT analysis (or SWOT matrix) is a “STRATEGIG PLANNING TECHNIQUE” used to help a person or organization identify “STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, and THREATS” related to “business COMPETITION or project PLANNING.”
It is intended to SPECIFY “the OBJECTIVES” of the business VENTURE or PROJECT AND IDENTIFY “the internal and external factors” that are “FAVORABLE and UNFAVORABLE to achieving those objectives.
But planning is not “fool-proof.” “GLITCHES” happen along the way. And sometimes, plans just end up getting scrapped…for different MODELS.
Financial planning IS ALWAYS A must.
Or, if you are gutsy…you just JUMP IN “feet first”-willy nilly and hope for the best and LEARN AS YOU GO! The latter IS NOT recommended by-the-way!
So, Jesus did none of this. At least as far as we know – there was “no synopsis of his future plans.”
There was “no initial plan for expansion” beyond teaching these 12 that he would try and pick up along the way.
We do not even know if there was ever “any kind of discussion” regarding “EXPECTATIONS for potential followers.”
I wonder if there was “THOUGHT GIVEN” as to HOW TO FINANCE these escapades of 13 men traveling all over the countryside?
WHAT ABOUT their ACCOMODATIONS?
Maybe “give us this day, our daily bread” was something the Rabbi heard on a regular basis!
WHERE”S THE BREAD COMING FROM?
And WHO came up with the BUSINESS MODEL of these “wealthy women” who followed wherever they went?
BENEFACTRESSES – they called them…patrons, supporters, subsidizers, philanthropists…
The scriptures are silent on all of this. As a matter of fact, dependent on which GOSPEL you read – it is ALL quite SIMPLISTIC!
“Follow Me” (period.)
Or, “Come and See!” What kind of a business model is that?
Talk about being “laid back!”
But it worked! It worked for the Rabbi from Galilee. WORD SPREAD BY MOUTH. PEOPLE TOLD OTHER PEOPLE. PEOPLE BROUGHT “OTHER PEOPLE” with them. Andrew brought Simon.
I am sure it took a while. But people “started to respond.”
At one point didn’t the Rabbi send out 72 people to PREPARE THE WAY for him and for his journeys?
And then, there was the 12…
There were DISCIPLES or his original STUDENTS, there was the “inner circle of three” – there were FOLLOWERS…and there were the APOSTLES…
Somehow it all managed to “take off” and “go” as expected even without a formalized BUSINESS PLAN.
So the real question is a “PERSONAL question” for each and every one of us.
Just “HOW IS IT” that you RESPOND to HIM?
HOW do you RESPOND to his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his blessings? HOW committed are YOU to HIM?
HOW COMMITTED are YOU to prayer?
HOW COMMITTED are YOU to WORSHIP?
HOW COMMITTED…to serving HIM? What about serving OTHERS?
HOW COMMITTED…are you to his HOLY WORD?
Like I said, it is ALL personal. Amen.