Jesus would have made a terrible dot com billionaire

Scope creep. The bane of every project manager. Apparently, Jesus didn't account for it, or else we'd all be in heaven by now.

Web strategist Mario Alexandrou defines it as:

Scope creep refers to the change in a project's scope after the project work has started. Typically, the scope expands by the addition of new features to an already approved feature list. As a result, the project drifts away from its original purpose, timeline, and budget.
This change in scope often comes about from small, seemingly insignificant change requests that the project team accepts to keep the project sponsor happy. Eventually, the change requests become numerous enough that they are significant or one of the requests turns out to require much more work than expected.
Scope creep can come about from:

• Poor change control.
• Lack of proper identification of the features that are required to bring about the achievement of project objectives in the first place.
• Weak project manager or executive sponsor

I think I've spotted our problem. He left us in charge.

Jesus was the ultimate entrepreneur. Wikipedia says so:
Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist, is believed to have coined the word "entrepreneur" in the 19th century - he defined an entrepreneur as "one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediatory between capital and labour".

The Bible calls Jesus our mediator:

1 Timothy 2:5

King James Version (KJV)

 ⁵For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Jesus is literally the entrepreneur between God the Father's capital and us (the labor). So, as entrepreneur, it was up to him to train the first generation of managers in the scope, project parameters and time line of the project, namely, the winning of the world to Christ's salvation.

Scope: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you."

I think it's important to note that nowhere does Jesus say, "Wait until you feel led of the Spirit" or "Wait until you get a specific calling to go to a particular place" or "Wait until God decides in his time to display his 'will' for your life". He says "Go". It's the first word of his project scope.

Then he says to make disciples and a little further down to teach them to observe everything (emphasis mine) that He had commanded them. It's also crucial to see that Jesus didn't tell his newly minted project managers to teach some of what He commanded and then to add some other stuff as it came up. Like "Success Doctrine", or "Putting children first" or other such nonsense. It's just not in there folks. Nowhere in the gospels does Jesus say that we are to be wealthy or successful on earth. Our treasure is in heaven. He repeatedly warns of the difficulties that earthly possessions bring on.

Mark 6:7-9 "He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a walking stick: no bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts. They were to wear sandals, but not put on an extra shirt."

The twelve were supposed to teach in like manner, and I bet they did, but it didn't take long before someone said, "This is hard. Can't I take a thermos with some soup or something? How about an apple?" The disciples may have thought that sounded perfectly reasonable. In fact, they could probably remember being somewhat hungry along the way, and the creep started. 

The bottom line is that God wants us totally dependent upon Him. That's where He is at His best. We say we want His best for our lives, but we keep cluttering it up with stuff.

His will is not distant or unknowable. It's right there in the Bible. It's just hard, so most people make up something else that sounds better.

Scope creep. Kills every project. The church we have now has almost nothing in common with the early church. People thought that group was nuts because they gave everything up to gain something that no one could see. We make sure that we have the nicest stuff and then justify it by claiming that God wants me to be rich so that other people will see my life and want it for themselves.

You may be doing it wrong.