When to Ignore Best Practices

There are aisles and aisles of books dedicated to explaining best practices for organizations, businesses, ministries, etc. I’m grateful for them because they can be helpful and informative.

But there are also times when we should completely ignore best practices—when blindly following best practices could push us away from God’s call rather than towards it.

How?

When Deborah and I planted Victory in the Philippines in 1984, we knew that God had called us to reach the future leaders of the Philippines. Because of that call and because we knew the largest concentration of future leaders is on the university campus, we planted Victory in the very center of Manila’s University-Belt. Many Filipino pastors and well-meaning American missionaries told us that the U-Belt was the worst place in Metro Manila to plant a church (and they were probably right). But we knew we were called to reach future leaders, so we ignored good advice and best practices.