Maybe it’s just me but it surprises me how muddy we make this idea of vision.  Shouldn’t vision be clear, be memorable, be worthy of allegiance, be something that gets the blood flowing, be inspiring, drive prayer, be met with anticipation…

My favorite question to ask people, particularly people who attend other Churches is “Tell me about your churches vision”.  Often I get a blank stare, with a few “ums” and “ahhhh’s” before they begin to spew random words in a weird sort of word association experiment that goes something like… Jesus… Discipleship… People… Serving… Reaching… People… new generation… generosity… Newt Gingrich… deeper teaching… Love

I think the goal of all that is that if you throw enough words at the wall one will stick and that will be their version of the vision that we talk about.

Moreover if there is a vision you ask about the strategy…. well then we might as well start splitting atoms or something because people have no clue how they are going even accomplish or measure all the random words we just threw around.

Leaders, why are we so bad at this.  To me it seems critical that we are absolutely and critically clear on where we are going, how we are going to get there, and how we are going to know when we arrived.

I am not saying at my ripe young age I some how have found the answer, I haven’t but I think about it a lot.  We have tried to be very clear with our people at MCC.  But what I miss in our area, what I want to hear a lot more of is people captured by the greater vision of God’s Kingdom and His power to work out His will through His people in this area that is unmistakeable.

Where are the big dreams, the big ideas, the big prayers.  I am restless to see a Church stop settling for an hour on Sunday morning and start praying and hoping for a revolution, a movement, a revival, a outworking of God’s Spirit that sees hundreds if not thousands accept Jesus as Savior and call Him Lord.

As we move into this year that is occupying the prayers for the Church I am lucky enough to serve and those that serve alongside of us.  In fact one of the most encouraging parts of my month is when I gather with my brothers and sisters from other Churches and we lift up the people of our area, we lift up each other, and we call out to God to move and to unite and work through His Kingdom people as only He can.

Moreover that He would get the glory!