What Do You Need Before You Ask For Directions?

Hypothesis: Our congregation lacks a compelling and widely shared vision of what God is calling it to be and do as it moves into the future. Without a fresh discernment of God's vision for us, we risk being irrelevant to God's mission in our contemporary time and place.

 This is the eighth challenge identified blocking churches from being transformed into powerhouses of Jesus’ Spirit.  How does it affect us?

 Imagine stopping for directions.  Isn’t that what all husbands are charged with never doing?  Of course, in a generation with GPS, maybe we don’t have that joke as often as we used to.  But even if you have GPS, imagine having to set it.

 You need to know where you are going.  Otherwise, you are driving in circles, or off a cliff.

Churches too need to know where they are going.  It is a guide for what we are then going to do as a community of faith.  For us, it isn’t a destination on a map, it is a statement of vision, of purpose.  It is a manifesto declaring why it is we do what it is we do.

Jesus had one, drawn from John 10.

“I am the Great Shepherd.”

That Vision, that metaphor, that statement, for me it encapsulates Jesus’ entire ministry.  He lays down his life for his sheep, he knows his sheep and his sheep know him, he is their protector and their guide.  He is not some hired fellow who runs when the going gets tough.  Jesus’ teachings, his healings, his miracles, the way he built up his followers, all can draw from that central image of him as the Great Shepherd.

There are other images that Jesus could have used as his central vision, other things that he is referred to in the Bible.

His central vision could have been that of “Teacher”, because he certainly did teach us.  But Jesus was so much more than just a teacher.  He cared for his people, he lived among his people, he did for them.

His central vision could have been that of “Judge”, because the bible records that the judgment of the people has been passed by God to our Lord Jesus.  But the Judge pronounces sentence and carries out justice on the sinful in the world.  And “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Jesus lived mercy, not judgment.  The declaration by many Christians today that boils down to “Believe or Hell” is not what Jesus did.

Churches following in the footsteps of Christ will follow in how Jesus created his ministry.  They too need to know where they are going.  Not every church is going to have the same vision, the same purpose.  Not every church can be everything to everyone.  Only Jesus can be everything to everyone, and he has the advantage of being God!

We are a Neighborhood in God’s Kingdom.  That’s our vision, our purpose.  How well can we take it and let it lead us into our ministry for Jesus Christ?