"Where there is no vision, people perish." We have probably all heard this proverb at least one time in our life. However, have you ever stopped to think about what that really means? Without vision, people run around frantically hoping to end up at the right place in the end. Without vision, armies suffer defeat. Without vision, nations fall. Without vision, churches suffer a slow, painful death. You see, if there is no vision, there is nothing for people to rally behind.
God is a God of vision. What is God's ultimate vision? To bring glory to Himself. That's why he created everything. That's why he sent His Son to die for you and me. That's why He's coming back to take His family home. It's all to bring Himself glory, and everything that he does is focused towards caring this vision out. I think that it's time that churches learn a thing or two from God and get a vision to follow.
Let me take a moment to explain how a lack of vision leads to a slow, painful death for your church. Across America, there a thousands of churches who do not have a singular vision to get behind. What happens in these churches is that well intentioned church members come up with their own vision and begin to do things that they believe will accomplish the vision. Also, staff members come up with their own vision and begin to do things in their specific ministries that they believe will fulfill their vision. The end result is a church that has multiple different visions, doing multiple different things, which eventually leads to frustration and burnout. Perhaps this describes your own church right now. Is your church busy about doing a lot of good things in order to accomplish several visions? If so, your church is experiencing this slow death that I am writing about. It may not appear that way at the moment, but one day you'll wake up and realize that the church has been spinning it's tires continuously, but has never moved.
So how does a singular vision help? First off, it unites people. If everyone is on the same page as to what the vision of the church is, then people stop coming up with their own visions because they now have something to rally behind. Secondly, a singular vision allows the church to say NO to good things in order to focus all of its time and resources on GREAT things that will carry out the vision. Lastly, a singular vision within a church will bring God more glory than a 100 people running around doing their own thing.
Churches are dying a slow, painful death, and we are all to blame. The journey to becoming singularly focused is a difficult one, and an area in which I will be blogging about in the coming weeks. However, the journey is well worth it in the end. So... what vision does your church have?
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