Our church is about to begin an intensive process of defining, articulating, and then determining how to live in to, a vision. It's not quite fair to say we are just now beginning. For the last 3 months, 24 people have been in prayer and share triplets, meeting weekly to pray for one another and the church and discuss the church and its ministries and so forth. So we've been sort of doing this for a while.
But now we are really starting the process. Glenn Akins (with the Virginia Baptists) will be helping us, but we all know that we have to do the work ourselves.
What is a vision? Visions come cheap nowadays. Pat Robertson says that God told him that America would be stuck by a terrible terrorist attack in 2007. God apparently wasn't specific about what kind of attack, but that one would happen. Thanks Pat. It reminds me of the televangelist Oral Roberts who, if my memory serves me correctly, told his people several years ago that he would die if they didn't contribue $7 million to his university or hospital or something. They did. And he's still kicking I suppose.
I don't think this is the kind of stuff we think of when we think of a vision. We mean a shared sense of identity, a common sense of direction and purpose, and an intentionality about coming to these decisions.
All that may not sound exciting. But it can be. If we listen well to one another and to God and if we dream well about our future and God's plans, we will move closer to being the church God dreams for us to be. That's exciting to me.
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