THE NECESSITY OF A REAL VISION

About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?

Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.

It can be tempting as a pastor to just preach with a vision for lost souls and leading God’s people in service to Him. What is more difficult is leading a church in activities that will bring people in to hear that preaching. I’ve been talking for a while about this idea that “The Back-of-the-Church-is-the-front-of-the-church. On the first Saturday of this month we rallied as the people of God to take the first steps in making this happen. Will it work? Only God knows, but we are going to move forward and do the best we can. We’ll adjust as we go and if this isn’t of God we will have to find some other vision to follow.

Friends, if we fail as the Lord’s churches to have a vision, not a vision of our own making, but God’s vision for us, we lose our pioneering spirit. We will become ineffective. So we need to have the courage to try different things even if some of those things are different or unusual. Even if we aren’t sure if they will work. Not trying new things means things will stay just as they are. Just as they are cannot work for us because God has called us to grow His church. We need:

The courage of vision to say “Lord if that is you, let me come to you walking on the water.”

• The courage of vision to say “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
• The courage of vision to say “If God be for us, who can be against us.”

I believe the Lord has a vision for our church and for each of us. I know that unless we are moving in the right direction, we cannot be content in life. Vision for ministry is a reflection of what God wants to accomplish through us to build His kingdom. So let’s pull together by working, contributing, suggesting and having the courage not to be “comfortable”. Who’s with me?

Pastor Rich