Unique Vision
Daniel 9:22-23
God loves creativity and nowhere is that found more than in creation. Where I grew up in Kansas City, we have an average snowfall of 20 inches a year. One of the things you learn growing up there is that every snowflake is unique. No two snowflakes that have ever fallen throughout all of creation are identical. How is that possible? It is God’s handiwork. Each snowflake has an infinite number of discernable crystal formations. As they blow through the wind, the everchanging conditions lead them to grow in different patterns so that the final design is a reflection of the unique conditions which produced it.
Now take a moment and look at the people seated around you. Though there are great similarities between you like 2 arms, 2 eyes, 2 feet, hair etc, there are also vast differences. All living things come with a set of instructions stored in their DNA which create those differences. DNA is the blueprint for everything that happens inside the cell of an organism, and each cell has an entire copy of the same set of instructions which are unique to that individual or thing. DNA is a genetic fingerprint which is unique to each individual.
Now if a church is made of unique individuals who are not identical to any other person in the world then it stands that the combination of those individuals in the church would make every church unique in and of itself. What makes a church unique is not the style of worship or even the buildings it inhabits. It’s the sum of the unique people and their interactions with one another which we call its culture. Culture is the combined effect of the people values, thoughts, actions, attitudes, traditions, symbols, language, morals , rules and laws. Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro write, “Culture gives color and flavor to everything your church is and does. While each church has the same mission, to “go and make disciples”, how that is expressed and lived out in the life and ministry of the church is different, because it has been influenced by the culture of the church and the opportunities provided by its ministry environment.
Yet culture, while no doubt real and influential in everything the church does, can be hard to identify. It is hard work to discover the unique DNA or culture of a church and God’s call upon it. Too often churches have not taken the time or invested the energy to look inward and reflect on the most important questions of ministry: Who are we? How are we unique from the other churches around us? Why should someone come and be a part of our church as opposed to any other? And most importantly, what is God’s vision for our church? Yet, without you cannot be the church God has called you to be.
Vision has always been at the heart of serving God and doing His will. Proverbs 29:18 puts it this way: “Without a vision, the people perish.” In the Old Testament, the Prophets and the book of Daniel are all written from visions of God. But God also gives visions to individuals he calls, like Moses when he led the people of Israel, David when he slayed Goliath, Solomon when he built the Temple, and Nehemiah when he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. In the New Testament, Ananias was given a vision to go and heal Paul. Peter was given a vision of the unclean animals as a call to reach the Gentiles, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia calling him to minister there and the entire book of Revelation is a vision of the end times. So a God given vision has always been at the heart of doing the will of God. God’s vision takes us to new levels and challenges us to do new things we would not think to accomplish ourselves.
So what is a vision? George Barna defines it as, "Vision for ministry is a clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God to His chosen servants and is based upon an accurate understanding of God, self and circumstances." Vision is more than simply what could be. It’s something that must happen. Vision moves you from passive concern to action. It gives you a sense of urgency. Barna goes on to say, “Unless God’s people have a clear understanding of where they are headed, the probability of a successful journey is severely limited. Unless you attend to His call upon your life and ministry, you are likely to experience confusion, weariness, dissipation and impotence…..visionless congregations fail to experience spiritual and numerical growth.” So having the clarity of God’s vision is absolutely critical. Most churches know the Great Commission but they have fuzzy sight as to how the Great Commission is to be uniquely expressed and lived out in the church’s culture or its ministry context. Having clarity of God’s vision is absolutely critical if a church is fulfill God will and purpose for it.
What are the benefits of gaining clarity of God’s unique vision for the church? Will Mancini in his book, “Church Unique” shares the following benefits of clarity regarding a congregation’s unique vision. First, clarity makes direction unquestionable. You cannot travel an unmarked path. A vision sets the direction for our life together. It serves as a road map. Clarity not only allows a congregation to know the direction a church is headed but also keeps you on track. Second, clarity makes enthusiasm transferable. The Vision Team is very excited about what God has revealed to us about His unique calling on our church. Clarifying the mission of the church makes us want to share it with you. Nothing is more exciting than knowing God’s vision for our life together and the fact that God has a unique plan for this church to accomplish something that no other church in the city has to date. We believe that when you see, hear and are able to pray over and digest the vision, you will not only catch the vision but share in the excitement about the journey ahead God has in store for us.
Third, clarity makes work meaningful. How many of you would be excited to spend all day today filling bags with dirt? How many of you would be excited to spend all day today filling bags with dirt to build a CAT 5 levee around the city to keep it from being flooded? There’s nothing glamorous or fulfilling about filling bags with dirt, but saving a city is another thing altogether. Building a levee gives meaning to the chore of filling bags with dirt. The same is true of vision. Too many times the routines of life begin to feel like shoveling dirt. But take those same routines, those same responsibilities, and view them through the lens of vision and everything looks different. Vision brings your work into focus and gives it purpose.
Fourth, clarity makes synergy possible. How do you get a group of unique individuals working together as a team? A common vision or purpose. When everyone understands the unique mission of the church, they then can join together in working towards it. No longer is it the children’s ministry, the choir and the men’s and women’s ministry working on their own, but now they can consider how their ministry contributes to accomplishing God’s unique vision. Fifth, clarity makes focus sustainable. Henry Ford said the great weakness of human beings is trying to do too many things at once. That’s the problem with most churches. Clarity allows you to say no to the things which can distract you from the unique mission of the church. Too often the challenge isn’t saying yes to opportunities which come along but rather saying no because it would divert time, talents and treasures from the vision. Sixth, clarity makes success definable and measurable. How do you know you’re doing what God wants and being effective at it? Clarity of God’s vision with a strategy and mission measures attached allow people to see how far down the field they carried the ball and whether or not they have scored for the kingdom. Lastly, clarity makes uncertainty approachable. Fear can paralyze people and deter them living with courage and investing in kingdom initiatives. In times like these, clarity about God’s unique vision for the church has the ability to inspire hopes and expectations. Marcus Buckingham writes, “By far the most effective way to turn fear into confidence is to be clear; to define the future in such vivid terms, through your actions, words, images, pictures, heroes and scores that we can all see where you, and thus we, are headed.” A clear vision of a better future, albeit unknown is a powerful anchor during the uncertain storms of life and economy.
I want to share with you how the journey we have taken thus far as a leadership team to gain clarity regarding God’s unique vision for Gretna UMC. When I arrived, I started with meeting with you in Meet and Greet sessions. In those sessions, we got to know one another but we also got to see your heart as it relates to this church and to God. I asked you three questions: What do you like about GUMC? What do you want to change? What do you want to keep? From those conversations, several repeated themes arose. You love the church and its friendliness. You want to see a strong children’s program. And you want to grow younger as a church and more multi-ethnic. The dream to become a multiethnic church is a huge and exciting shift. Up to this point, those of ethnic representation who have joined us have done so because they chose our traditional worship and music. Yet if we are going to reach more ethnic minorities, it would mean we have to take some steps culturally speaking toward the desires, needs and preferences of those who are younger and from different cultures. That’s a big challenge filled with sacrifices and change. So last Fall the Ad Council read together Bill Easum’s book, A Second Resurrection: Leading Your Congregation to New Life” where Bill challenges churches and leaders to be willing to make the sacrifices needed to reach more people for the sake of the Gospel. In many cases, as with Jesus, that means some things have to die so there can a resurrection. We ended our discussion with whether we are willing and ready to make the sacrifice for Jesus?” The answer was a resounding yes.
Adrain Vaughn was then enlisted to help us move from a traditional service to a blended service, since we had people who preferred each style of worship. Unfortunately, the contemporary service stopped due to Katrina. So we began singing both praise choruses and hymns in worship. After six months, she was hired, and God sent us our wonderful musicians, which in many respects was like winning the spiritual lottery given the shortage of musicians in the city. Last summer, we enlisted all 45 of our leaders to skip our worship and attend another church. Four churches were chosen because they were growing, had a younger membership and ethnic representation and were on the WestBank. They then came back to church for lunch and a discussion. At that meeting, several decisions were made. First, we wanted to increase the number of greeters. Second, they wanted to continue to transition the worship service to include greater varieties of music and liturgy. Third, we would stay with one service so as not to divide the congregation.
In July, we partnered with a company called Auxona who are navigators helping missional churches discover God’s unique vision or thumbprint for each local church and to articulate a strategy and develop a process. I’d like to ask those of you who are or who have been a part of the Gretna Vision Team to please stand. Over the last six months, these persons have given up a full day each month to meet, pray, study, work and meditate with our navigator, Jim Randall. Through the Auxano process and by the very guiding hand of God, we have labored, struggled, yearned and prayed for God’s unique vision for this church. This vision is rooted in the values and vision of the past for this church but now directed and defined by God as we face new ministry challenges post-Katrina. In addition, we have further defined the values you identified last summer, chosen a strategy and mission measures by which we can evaluate how we’re doing in accomplishing God’s vision for our church. Page 113.
Over the next four weeks, we’re going to look closely at the vision God has revealed to us. After each service, we are going to have a dialogue session. We want to hear from you and be in discussion with you as we begin this journey together. But for now, let me share it with you in its entirety: To connect diverse communities to a lifestyle devoted to Jesus.
Paul Harvey tells the story of Ray Blankenship preparing his breakfast and gazing out the window, when he saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the floundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. "If I can just hang on until help comes," he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. Ray Blankenship can’t swim.
In many respects, we are like Ray Blackenship. We are jumping out in the deep waters without the knowledge of how to swim. For some, that’s reason enough to go back to the shore. But we need to understand that is exactly where God wants us to be: in the middle of the deep water, amidst the swift currents of our culture, doing a new thing for the kingdom of God, something we may never have done before. Let us step forward in faith and recognize that God never calls his servant to a work he will not accomplish or resources for Paul said, Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”
