Living The Vision
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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? |
