Vision is the blazing campfire around which the people of God gather. It provides light, energy, warmth, and unity. It helps us see through God’s eyes, to perceive his purposes and possibilities. It strengthens us with the conviction that “all things are possible through Christ.”
“Without a vision, the people perish,” warns the writer of Proverbs. But with too broad a vision, the people flounder.
Our church, for instance, has this statement of purpose: “To draw all men into a redeeming spiritual experience, restoring them to God through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and instructing them to observe all the teachings of Jesus Christ, as set forth in the Holy Bible.”
Certainly a comprehensive vision! But not anything our eighty-member congregation can ever accomplish. Such vision is essential, but without manageable goals and a strategy for reaching them, a church can be overwhelmed and paralyzed.
Case in point: Two summers ago, we had a schedule bordering on the insane. Besides two “work days” each week to help construct our new sanctuary, we hosted three choir-and-mission teams, two volunteer building teams, held a week of vacation Bible school, two weeks of day camps, supervised two college-age summer missionaries in a full slate of youth and children’s activities, and conducted two old-fashioned tent meetings.
About all we reaped that summer was an exhausted leadership and a listless congregation for the next six months. Even our most dedicated members were peeking from behind their curtains to make sure no one was coming to recruit them for a new project.
Our mistake? No strategy. Not wanting to quench the Spirit, we refused to “limit our vision.” We thought our vision was broad, but it was only nonspecific, and as a result, essentially useless.
What is the relationship between faith and practicality? With lofty vision and diverse gifts but modest numbers and means, what’s a church to do? Limit vision? Definitely not. But our vision can’t be blurry either.
Focusing vision isn’t an easy process, but our missteps as well as our successes have helped us discover some principles of sharpening the vision of our immediate ministry.
Reckon with Resources, Human and Divine
Faith and practicality are not opposites but partners. Faith is realism that takes God into the reckoning. Proverbs 18:13 is emphatic: “What a shame-yes, how stupid!-to decide before knowing the facts!” Jesus, too, told his disciples to count the cost and cited the foolishness of a king going to battle without assessing the relative strength of the two armies (Luke 14:28-31).
Faith doesn’t send us charging into every possible ministry, recklessly squandering financial and human resources, any more than it sends us through stores merrily filling our shopping bags, expecting God to pay the bill. That’s presumption, not faith.
No, faith brings us to our knees every time we face an opportunity, offering ourselves unreservedly to God and asking him to show us whether, if we put our hands to the plow, we’ll be able to see the commitment through.
There’s a limit to the number of unreserved commitments we can honor. How far will our resources stretch? Shortage of resources doesn’t close the door on new ministry, but it means we weigh the personal demands and costs.
Several members of our church have been interested in developing a facility for troubled teenagers. An ideal camp location became available, but the sale price was nearly $500,000. Many times we prowled the grounds, prayed, and-yes-plotted how we could get the money. Every potential donor was given a tour and a not-too-subtle nudge, but no one bit. Though the vision still has lots of appeal, we can’t make it a ministry priority. We haven’t abandoned the vision, but until a way to implement it emerges, we won’t pursue it either.
On the other hand, sometimes we stretch, painfully, to achieve a vision.
Five of our approximately thirty families live in the small, backroads community of Bridgewater Center, fifteen miles west. Most families have been there for generations and don’t feel comfortable mixing with the more sophisticated Woodstock population. Some of our people have wanted to reopen Bridgewater Center’s one-room white frame church that has stood unused the last twenty years. They prayed faithfully for years, but the $20,000 price tag, the absence of parking, and no septic or water hookup foiled their desire. We never, however, throw away a vision simply because resources aren’t available.
Recently the owner offered to sell us the building for half the price, and in rapid succession, we received offers from owners of adjacent property to use their land for parking and hook into their septic and water system.
The only remaining issue was whether our small congregation could afford to lose those five families to invest in a new work. The overwhelming response, however, was “If God has opened the door, we can’t afford not to!” It cost us, but God has multiplied their ministry and ours.
When to say yes? When to say no? We have two criteria:
1. Do our people “own” the vision? If it originated with only one or a few, are others beginning to see it as a priority need?
2. Do we have the resources? If funds and personnel aren’t immediately available, can we at least see the possibility of them in the near future?
If God has given us the vision and the ability to anticipate the resources, ours is an automatic yes. If either of these conditions is uncertain, we are learning to say “Not yet.”
Provide Clear, Consistent Leadership
The Roman bugler issued the call to attack. He also signaled troops to retreat-or go to bed. Small wonder, then, that Paul observed, “If the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?” Few of us would eagerly charge into battle if the signal were possibly intended to send us to our bunks instead!
Likewise, when church leaders come before the people with an authoritative “Thus saith the Lord,” it has tremendous rallying power, but it must be handled with the same caution as a loaded gun. If you shoot and miss, you may find most people gun-shy thereafter.
One of our favorite quips (an original, by the way) is “My credibility is a lot better than most people give me credit for!” A pastor may be sure of the Spirit’s leading, but if the people have been misled before, they won’t be likely to believe it this time.
We made this mistake when trying to decide whether to expand our meeting facility. We blew the bugle too soon! The first proposal seemed ideal-a nice, spanking-new, well-designed building on an eight-acre lot. We excitedly tooted the possibilities before considering what the $400,000 price tag would do to our ministry funds. The next possibility had some strong points, too, which we outlined with enthusiasm, but as problems surfaced, that idea also hit the scrap heap.
By the time we crystallized a sound proposal, people were slow to move. We’d changed directions too often and too fast. We shared our visions before defining and refining them first.
It took months of patiently submitting and resubmitting the final plan before people’s skittishness wore off and they began believing this proposal would really go.
Enter Open Doors; Knock on Closed
Long before our church was established six years ago, leaders from local organizations were involved at the community correctional center as their public service. Over the years they dropped out, and our church filled in with prisoner support programs centering around a weekly Bible study.
As inmates were able to obtain passes, we’d also shuttle them back and forth to church events and occasional meals in members’ homes. Word spread that our elders and deacons were “on call” for personal counseling, and some were allowed to visit in the cell blocks.
For prisoners who were allowed to work outside, we offered day labor. Those on furlough were helped to find and furnish living quarters, get jobs, and reestablish themselves in the community.
At one point we were given the use of a three-story house near our church that was equipped with both family- and dormitory-style quarters. We immediately opened it to a prisoner on furlough with his wife and two children.
We also began praying and politicking toward having it donated to us for possible crisis ministries: emergency housing, a foster care group home, a counseling ministry, a twenty-four-hour crisis hotline center. Big dreams, big vision!
The house, however, was recently awarded to another nonprofit group. Our crisis ministry has been scaled down, but we continue to do what we can. We helped the resident family relocate. Our weekly Bible study at the jail has expanded to include a Christian film series and singing by some of our talented young musicians. Some members open their homes for short-term housing needs; one member administers a clothing and food closet from her apartment; another assists welfare families through the red tape; one family is anticipating the arrival of three to six Cambodian teenagers as foster children, and other members will serve as support families.
We haven’t given up on the broad vision, but for now we’re investing our energy in meeting needs as best we can with present resources. We’ll patiently wait for more comprehensive ministries to crystallize as the people and finances to maintain them are called forth.
Aim for the Attainable
There’s a difference between the possible and the probable. It’s always nice to think of the possibilities, but when actually making plans, aiming for the probabilities is more helpful. Unrealistic expectations often simply set us up for disappointment and frustration.
Last year we tried to help a young couple with mission board support start a ministry to skiers at the Killington resort, twenty miles away. We located a site for a coffee house and discussed strategy. From time to time, people from our church would join them on the slopes and help at the coffee house with music, food, or just conversation.
But we struggled with a sense of frustration, largely because we hadn’t pinpointed what we wanted to accomplish during that first year. Our vision was so broad (“Reach Killington for the Lord!”) that our small steps seemed insignificant. Our sense of failure slowed us down even more.
Establishing a “night spot” as a drawing card floundered because it was too hasty, too low-budget, too unprofessional to compete with the ski lodges and bars. Being newcomers and nonresidents (high resort rents forced them to live elsewhere), the mission couple couldn’t build much identification with the employees on the mountain. Their occasional witnessing opportunities barely scratched the surface of our expectations.
We’ve reassessed our goals. We’re trying to redistribute the funds to enable the couple to live in the vicinity, and our focus will be on home Bible fellowships for the transient workers. Other limited programs will attempt to reach more widely, but we’ve recognized our limits, narrowed our focus, defined our priorities, and geared our expectations accordingly. With measurable goals that are attainable, we’re more likely to experience the joy and impetus of success.
Trying to catapult onto a rooftop isn’t usually the best strategy. Positioning a ladder that can be climbed rung by rung has a much better chance of getting the job done.
Have the Courage to Live with Unrealized Goals
Newsweek describes runner Mary Decker as “a pretty young woman traveling at unsafe speeds in a conveyance that can’t be trusted.” Because of her history of injuries, her coach insists she run in her workouts with slower runners to prevent her from overextending. She has a vision of Olympic gold and will run with complete abandon when the time comes, but in the meantime, she runs hard but not expending all her resources.
Sometimes churches need to pace themselves. No one can sprint all the way.
For quite some time, our church has sensed a need for a weekday child-care ministry. Our building, however, would need extensive renovation. Thus the study committee recommended we begin on a limited scale, providing care for up to thirty preschoolers and infants, five days a week, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M.
One committee member was thoroughly upset with this decision.
“Are we, or are we not committed to meeting the child-care needs of this community?” he challenged. “We should provide around-the-clock care seven days a week if we really want to minister.”
Others felt we should start a Christian school instead.
Despite the lofty vision, doing too much would almost certainly bring overextension, disillusionment, and collapse. Even when the vision is one we’re committed to, inducing premature labor would probably give birth to a project without sufficient strength to survive. So we’re negotiating with the various groups to establish a consensus on the long-range vision and a reasonable starting place. Then when the foundation is set, we can phase in other educational ministries.
Yes, without a vision, the people “perish,” a word that can also be translated “run wild” or “get out of hand.” Unless that vision is defined so people can see not only where to go but how to get there, they’ll still be “running wild.”
Our focus must be sharp, our goals achievable. We must set priorities, determine the best use of resources, and at times pace ourselves.
Finally, we must never be content with what we’re undertaking. Vision won’t allow us to be satisfied that we’re doing all we can. Recognize limitations, yes, but by stretching and straining we can always enlarge our boundaries. Have the courage to hold on to dreams you can’t possibly attain-yet.
That holy discontent is a price we must pay for the privilege of sharing the Savior’s vision of a world won back into the Father’s care.
David and Becky Waugh serve Woodstock Baptist Fellowship, West Woodstock, Vermont.
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