Vision is important!   We just installed room darkening shades on our bedroom windows.   They are great for keeping our room dark, especially on those Queensland summer days when the sun is up soon after 4:00 am.    But they are not great for improving vision.   If I need to get up in the middle of the night I find myself fumbling and stumbling about in the dark.    I just cannot see where I am going.

This describes a lot of churches.   They cannot see where they are going.  They do not have a picture of where the church is headed as a whole. This is the power of vision.

The best way to determine a vision is by discovering the specific calling of God for your church.  Each church has a unique part in God’s blueprint for the world he has made and redeemed.  The vision relates to the time and place where God's people find themselves.  Think of those in the Bible to whom God gave a vision of their future.  For Abraham it was an endless line of descendants, as numerous as the stars.  God gave Moses a peek into the Promised Land—a clear picture of where Israel was headed.    For King David it was a throne.   For the disciples of Jesus it was the coming of God's Kingdom on earth.  For the apostle Paul it was a string of Gentile churches all across Asia Minor to the doorsteps of Europe.

Vision is the compelling picture of your preferable future. Some churches want to  include specific measurable goals like the type or size of building. This can be
desirable in certain circumstances, but often it is more effective to focus the vision on the quality or characteristics of your preferred future.  A vision statement may be as dramatic as including a specific end result.  For some it involves one large, courageus but possible (with God's help) accomplishment.   It may describe what will take place in the next 5-10 years.   Visions empower people to see what is possible and to move in that direction.  A compelling vision tugs at our hearts and motivates our wills.  It is very important that the leaders in the church feel passionate about the vision and can communicate it in a variety of compelling ways. This vision is what will give shape to subsequent programs, events, budgets, staff, goal-setting and strategic planning.

This is why churches need visionaries.   They need leaders who can visualize what the church's future under God's guidance and blessing would look like.   Alan J. Roxburgh describes such leaders as having the role of "cultivating an environment within which God's people discern God's directions and activities in them and for the communities in which they find themselves." (The Missional Leader (2006), page 17)   Last week I met with a church that was doing exactly that.   A small group of visionaries in that church were discussing their church's mission and vision.   They are hoping to help their congregation to clearly see where they were heading as a church.  Every church needs these kinds of men and women -- people who cultivate an environment within which a vision for a church is cast and communicated.   I am grateful to the men and women who helped our churches see that God's direction for the CRCA is "to multiply Bible-based Christian fellowships and congregations which equip and nurture their members and grow throughout Australia and beyond."  This compelling vision continues to tug at my heart and motivates me to engage churches in intentional ministry formation.  

Do you know where your church is heading?   Don't leave your church or your congregational members in the dark.   If you do, they will simply just fumble and stumble about as a church.   Discern the direction that God would have your church to go.  Help your church see what this future under God will look like.   And then implement strategies that will head your church in that direction.   It is all about having vision.   In the words of Proverbs 29:18 (MSG):  "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed."