The Preacher's Post

What is vision anyway?

I am a visual person!  I can get easily distracted or impressed by what I see.  Vision is an essential element of a person’s life, family, and it’s especially vital in a local church!  Vision is a seeing word.  I like and can relate to author Aubrey Malphur’s definition of vision: vision is the clear and challenging picture of the future of our church as it can and must be.  Vision is possible and vision is also urgent—it must be!  In order for our church to not just survive but thrive we must have a vision.  Proverbs says that without vision the people perish.  I believe the opposite is also true:  a church—group of believers in Christ WITH a vision will flourish! A church with a great commission Christ centered vision will flourish and become all that God wants them to be and do all that God wants them to do in their community and beyond!

Where does a vision come from?

Vision is the picture of the future of what our church will become!  Time and time again we can see in the Scriptures that vision comes from God Himself.  God spoke to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1 and relayed the vision for His people to him.  Then Joshua cast that vision to the people—they in turn caught the vision and they together fulfilled the vision!  Habakkuk is another good example.  In Habakkuk chapter 2 he met with God in his “watch”.  He prayed, seeking God’s face and God’s direction. God then responded challenging Habakkuk to write down and share the vision He had given to him.  Habakkuk then was to cast the vision to the people so they could catch it, run with it, spread it around, and fulfill the vision together!  I was never so excited when God through prayer and studying His Word revealed to me the vision for our church!  The pastor that is serious about knowing, fulfilling, and leading his people to do the impossible for Christ in their community and beyond is ready to receive a God sized vision!  After much prayer and worship and even some fasting God revealed to me the vision.  Now a vision is not just something exciting and needful for the church to accomplish. Vision is specific!  God will show you specific things, whether they are goals or objectives that must be done so the church can accomplish its mission best.  Now let me say that our mission is the same as what all Bible believing Christ following churches should be pursuing: make disciples of Christ the best way possible.  Our mission is to help people become fully functioning followers of Christ in our church, community, and beyond.  My responsibility as the pastor is to lead our church in fulfilling our mission!  To lead our church to know Christ and make Him known!  Now that means that the vision will consist of specific things we will do and become so we can fulfill that mission better than ever before!

What is our vision?

As I began to write down the vision for my life and ministry I discovered this vision was for our church to fulfill! After writing out the vision for our church’s future I have to say that I was extremely excited.  When God gives you a vision it will propel you forward with passion and help you lead others to make that vision a reality! Here is the vision that God revealed to me for our church to fulfill.  Our vision is to improve the quality of ministry by building a church of ministry teams!  That was it—team ministry!  There is no I in team!  The pastor cannot do it alone!  Together we can do it!  God gave me this great verse in Philippians 1:27, “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”

On February 13th I cast the vision to our church!  Our business meeting turned into a vision night service!  It was a great night.  God really worked, blessed, and moved in our hearts.  Our church has gone through a lot in the last several years.  Our church has seen several pastors come and go in a short amount of time.  In the process we have had some members come and go too.  But now God in His divine intervention has given us a vision to fulfill! A vision that will enable us to fulfill our mission in our community and beyond better than ever before so we will become the church God wants us to be!

How is our vision becoming a reality?

Now it’s great to have received a vision from God and His Word! It is very exciting to cast that vision to the people.  But let me tell ya there is nothing like it when God’s people start catching the vision and you actually see the vision becoming a reality in the church!  Right now God is allowing our church to  build 6 ministry teams.  So far we have a:

• Leadership team
• Music and media team
• Outreach team
• Hospitality team
• Youth team
• Maintenance team (Men of Acts)

Now these teams are still forming and developing.  Each one still needs work and more team  members!  But God is putting them together and it’s awesome to see!  The good news is that God has just started building these ministry teams.  Soon we will have a kid’s team, a mission’s team, and many more!

How can I get involved?

I am so glad and excited for all of the members of Emmanuel Baptist church who have decided to be a team player and join a ministry team!  The good news is that there is an opening for you to be on a ministry team too.  Are you on a ministry team?  What areas of interest and experience do you have?  How has God gifted you to help us fulfill our mission of making disciples of Christ at Emmanuel Baptist Church?  Just let me know you are interested in serving on a team and I will help you get plugged in. The future of Emmanuel Baptist Church is bright and will be exciting.  But our vision will continue becoming a reality as more and more people get involved and become a part of a ministry
team!

Since your arrival at Emmanuel Baptist church how has God used you to help us fulfill our mission and vision?  What team have you joined or what team would you like to  join?  If you’re a member of another church how has God used you or your church to form ministry teams to fulfill the mission and vision of the church?

Start the conversation by leaving your comments!