We will set goals that will make us look good at the end of the year rather than goals that grow from faith in a God of hope. Such goal setting is a dreary exercise. If all our energies are focused on a measurable goal, we tend to use people as mere cogs in our wheel, to help us accomplish our goals. Measurable objectives tempt us to coerce people into accomplishing our precise goals. If we are trying to control the future, we are forced to try and control people.
Measurable objectives encourage a domineering, authoritarian leadership style.
While measurable objectives are usually trivial, heretical, and discouraging, faith goals help us to focus on the eternal in a world of anarchy. Faith goals are visionary and become a driving force for our ministry. Faith goals give us pictures of how the Lord God Almighty might use us to make an eternal difference in the hearts of people. Faith goals give us a strong commitment to vision and direction in a world filled with unpredictability and ambiguity. Faith goals keep us attuned to unfolding opportunities in a chaotic world out of our control.