Vision, Part 1

ZacInAlaska

This is the first of a four-part series on VISION, that will be posted over the coming weeks.

The question left me almost speechless.

I knew we were going to be meeting with some unhappy people in our church.  I was ready to answer some tough questions, and to listen to some difficult criticism, but I was almost dumbfounded when the question was asked.

“What is your vision for the church?”

I was taken completely off-guard.  It’s not that I didn’t know the answer, I was just shocked that THEY didn’t seem to know.  Here I had been thinking that I was pretty consistent about communicating our church’s vision loud and clear… In fact, If you had asked me, I would have said that I repeated it a little too often.

  • Our vision statement is almost always printed in our weekly newsletter
  • It has it’s own dedicated page on our website
  • We say it out loud during every Sunday service
  • I preach the vision on a weekly basis
  • we also have banners, meetings, slides, and so forth, all centered around the church vision.

What in the world could I have been doing wrong?  HOW could I have not been clear?  How could they have possibly missed this?   What was I doing wrong?

Seeing that I was somewhat dumbstruck, they were pretty quick to clarify their question…

“Do you see our church having our own building one day?”

Oh.  That’s what you want to know about.  Now I’m not shocked… I’m dismayed.  What they then proceeded to ask for was a building, and a full menu of ministry activities that they could build a social life around.

Yes, we definitely need to be aiming toward having a building. Yes, we need to expand our ministry scope more and more. But when it comes to the “vision for the church,” I simply can’t escape or override the vision that Jesus himself cast for us. He clearly calls the Body of Christ to two things. The Great Commandment, and the Great Commission. (Matthew 22:36-40, Matthew 28:18-20)

We express them this way:

Love God, Love Others, and Make Disciples that Make Disciples.

At The Orchard, Jesus is the Senior Pastor, and this is his explicit vision for us. In fact, He didn’t just tell us this is what we ought to do… He prayed to His Father, asking Him to make sure we lived it out.  (John 17)

Jesus is much, much more concerned about who we become than what we have.  Are we? Are we becoming true lovers of God, and lovers of others? Are we deepening our walk by spending daily time with Him?  Are we lovingly serving others in our congregation in authentic relationships?  Are we serving our community well?  Why in the world would we build buildings or grow our ministry scope, if we aren’t FIRST concerned with becoming what Jesus calls us to become? Buildings, busses, property, and equipment are simply tools to help as we are about HIS vision for us. for Him, it is all about the PEOPLE God wants us to be, not the POSESSIONS he wants to bless us with.

Jesus is much, much more concerned about who we become than what we have.

So, yes.. The Orchard Church still has a long list of ways we need to grow. We need youth ministry back. We need to move into a permanent, or semi-permanent home. We need to bring on some staff. But these are all things that we, the Body, build together as we become who He wants us to become.  “As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:16)

 

Next in this series: “How Do We Get There?”