Bible Passage

Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. …

Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the Tower of Hananel. The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zaccur son of Imri built next to them.

Nehemiah 2:17–18; 3:1–2

Devotion

I stepped off the plane, and the pastor and the chairman of the long-range planning committee met me. As we were waiting on my luggage, they gave me three notebooks thick with data, which they had invested two years in gathering. They asked me if I would look at them before the 7:30 breakfast the next morning.

When we gathered for breakfast, they asked me, "What do you think?"

"Good friends," I said, "the day for analysis is over. The day for action has arrived."

If you had a bar graph to determine the level of certainty for their decision, it would have read 65 percent. They'd spent two years and gathered three notebooks of data because they believed the more data they gathered, the more they could raise the level of certainty—perhaps to 85 or 90 percent.

There are a lot of decisions in life we have to make with only 65 percent of certainty.

I said, "Even with seven notebooks of data, the level of certainty for the decision is still going to be about 65 percent. So let us decide."

–Kennon Callahan

Character Check

What tough decision that I've put off do I need to make?

Something to Think About

He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire life on one leg.
–Chinese proverb

Go Deeper

Strategic Planning Collection

This 5-pack resource bundle will help your church turn its vision into action.