What Is Your Vision?

In most churches the Lord planted that church in that place for His purpose long before the current pastor ever arrived. I know that is true in my case. In order to understand the vision we must come to grips with a very important question. Why? Why did God put this church in this place at this time? When a new pastor comes to a church the first question that is asked of him is “What is your vision for the church?” Most enterprising pastors have learned to keep a well-crafted vision in their suitcase should someone ever ask him about it. When asked, most pastors pull out the mission of the church rather than the vision, with full confidence that no one will recognize the difference. The mission of the church was given by Christ to the church as a whole. It will be the guiding force for every vision, but it is not the vision. The mission of the church is to “go then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples” (Matt. 28:19). This is the same for all churches. The vision, on the other hand, will be different for every church and every community. The question should be asked collectively: “What is God’s vision for our church?” By this means, the vision comes from the grassroots up as opposed to from the top down. As we redefine vision, we must realize the vision must come from the Lord by the Spirit through the grassroots—the people, God’s people. The way you find this “right” vision is to look for the activity of God in that church and in that community. Once we find where God is showing up we can more clearly see what God’s vision for that church is.