I’m convinced that if you asked the typical church leader today what their vision for the local church is, most of them could not give you a clear, concise answer.
As a church planter, the first thing I (and my church-planting partner) experienced was a God-given vision for a church. Neither one of us even knew the other had a similar vision. We didn’t know the perfect location (it took months for us to figure that out). We didn’t know how (we had never planted a church before). We did not choose the purpose/mission (that’s given to use through scripture).
The first thing we did was document the vision and committed that everything we would do as a church, as the Spirit would lead, would adhere to that vision. Very few churches, especially older, more established churches, have such a document or means of communicating the vision. As a result, few people can communicate to others, when asked, what their church is all about.
And thus the problem…the church tries to be everything to everyone. As the old saying goes, “If you try to be everything to everybody, you’ll be nothing to no one.” Ministry schitzophrenia sets in, and…
Well, that’s the purpose of this blog–to help churches grasp a 20/20 vision of what God is leading them to do.
