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Living The Vision

Most visions are reached as an increasing number of people within the church or organisation come to grasp and respond to the requirements of the vision. In the early stages, it can be helpful to see the first green shoots of the vision. Some of these shoots will need to spring up from leaders themselves as no vision will become reality unless it lives within the life of the leader, unless he or she has a passionate desire to pursue it, and communicates this through their daily actions. Other shoots may already be seen within the life of the church.

Vision Becomes A Priority
If a church agrees that the Spirit is leading them in a particular way, then the life of that church may need to change. Financial resources may need to be found, people's ministries redirected to focus on realising the vision. Unless the process of vision-seeking merely confirms the direction a church was heading in anyway, change, and quite possibly radical change, is inevitable.

Prayer

Every vision for a church or Christian organisation needs to be bathed in prayer as it is developed, and also as it is implemented. It is often easier to enlist the prayer support for the vision development day than it is for the weeks and months following. However, they are a critical time, and require as much prayer support as can be mustered. Make sure you make full use of existing prayer groups in gaining the prayer support - ask them to pray regularly for the leaders of the church, and for those who will steer the church forwards into the vision.

Identifying Vision Shoots.

Take a moment to consider how the vision might be achieved. What early signs of this are already present in the life of the parish or organisation? This may be within the gifts or professional competence of one or more church members, contained within an existing group, or through very positive interest and excitement amongst a group of church members. As the vision is shared and grows, these green shoots of the vision can be very important in providing something tangible for others to consider.

Learnings from Sport

In "The Way to Win", Will Carling quotes several successful sports people who had a clear vision of success. These visions helped them through the long and hard training process necessary to reach the very top of their chosen sports. For Tracy Edwards, her vision was crossing the line of the Whitbread Round the World yacht race in first place, skippering an all-female crew. A 12 year old Adrian Moorhouse saw David Wilkie win Olympic Gold in 1976, and that moment, on a black and white tv upstairs in his bedroom, provided him with the vision for the following eight or nine years. In 1988 after years of poor English rugby performance, Geoff Cooke shared a vision with the England team of reaching the 1991 Rugby Union World Cup final. Will Carling writes "Cooke delivered his vision with belief, with honesty, and most important of all, in detail."

Whilst we need to be careful about what we import from outside the church, having a clear picture in our minds of the acheived vision, can provide us with the necessary energy and commitment required to persevere through difficulties. If God provides us with clear insight, a spiritual "picture", or any other kind of image, let's hold onto it. The gospels are full of Jesus projecting images of the Kingdom of heaven to His disciples - things they would be able to remember and work with as they sought to establish the early church.

Pause for thought : Where in your church do you see green shoots of the vision emerging?  What can you do to nurture and encourage these?
 

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