Activity is not achievement

As quotations go, John Wooden isn't a bad source.

There is an inherent danger in life and ministry to confuse activity for achievement.  To imagine that all that we do are the ends in themselves. 

We can't all be Wooden.  Coached UCLA to the national basketball championship ten times.  Won eighty-eight straight games during that fantastic record.  Was named national coach of the year six times.  An overachiever, that guy.

Yet for all of his success, he was a man characterized by balance. In his book, They Call Me Coach, Wooden writes, 

"I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior."

For each mission that is undertaken on behalf of JEMS, we try to make certain that amidst the certainty of activity, that there are clearly achievable standards for ministry. 

• Outline clear objectives.  
• Establish measurable goals.  
• Lay out a plan of implementation.

For each JEMS worker, for every JEMS mission team, and every time Pastor John travels to South America, JEMS must make certain that these three standards are in place in order to assure a successful result.

The song, "Let Your Kingdom Come" by Sovereign Grace, asks that God would allow us to fulfill the following:

May Jesus Christ be known
Wherever we are
We ask not for ourselves, but for Your renown
The cross has saved us so we pray
Your kingdom come

Let Your kingdom come
Let Your will be done
So that everyone might know Your Name