Tag Archives: vision

Vision to Help Your Church or Ministry to Become More Missional

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Developing a missional vision is crucial for churches and ministries seeking to engage in God’s transformative work in the world. It goes beyond traditional paradigms of church and opens doors to innovative approaches that impact communities with the Gospel. In this blog post, we will explore key principles for developing a missional vision, drawing insights from theology, biblical passages, and the wisdom of missional practitioners. By embracing a missional vision, we can align our churches and ministries with God’s mission, actively participating in His redemptive work and making a difference in the lives of people.

Vision: Embracing God’s Mission and Kingdom Mandate

To develop a missional vision, we must first embrace God’s mission and recognize His Kingdom mandate. As believers, we are called to join God in His redemptive work. This understanding is rooted in Scripture, as Jesus commissions His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). Many Christians (especially Wesleyans) interpret this as a holistic call that encompasses evangelism, discipleship, social justice, and cultural engagement.

Theologically speaking, we recognize the centrality of God’s grace in our missional endeavors. It is through God’s transforming grace that we are empowered to proclaim the Good News and invite others into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. This grace extends to all people, and our missional vision should reflect God’s inclusive love and desire for all to experience His salvation.

“The world is my parish.” – John Wesley

Vision: Cultivating a Discipleship Culture

A missional vision requires cultivating a discipleship culture within the church or ministry. Discipleship is not merely a program but a way of life. As Christians, we should emphasize the transformation of heart and character through the power of the Holy Spirit. A missional vision compels us to nurture disciples who actively participate in God’s mission, equipped to share their faith and embody the love of Christ in their daily lives.

Quoting John Wesley’s emphasis on “holiness of heart and life,” we recognize the importance of personal holiness in missional leadership. It is through our own transformed lives that we become effective witnesses for Christ. As we grow in Christlikeness, we model the transformative power of the Gospel, inspiring others to follow Jesus and experience His love.

“The spirit of a movement calls for leaders who long for God’s guidance themselves and know how to help others find it though deep spiritual conversation. Disciple-making leaders will do the work of spiritual guides by investing in a few at a time. Those few, in turn, become capable of multiplying that investment in the lives of many other…This is the pursuit of mission-shaped discipleship” – Phil Meadows of the Inspire Movement

Vision: Contextualizing Ministry and Engaging the Culture

Developing a missional vision requires an understanding of the cultural context in which we minister. It involves listening to the needs and aspirations of the community and discerning how the Gospel can be communicated effectively. Contextualization does not compromise the truth but enables us to bridge the gap between biblical principles and the lived experiences of people. By engaging the culture, we create spaces for authentic encounters with God.

From theologians and missiologists (as seen in this work by Shawn Behan), we learn the significance of contextualizing ministry. The missional leader recognizes the diversity of contexts and seeks to communicate the unchanging Gospel in ways that resonate with the culture. This requires humility, cultural sensitivity, and a willingness to learn from the people we serve. Through contextualization, we demonstrate God’s relevance and His desire to meet people where they are.

“A Christian congregation is…God’s embassy in a specific place.” – Lesslie Nebigin

Vision: Collaboration and Partnerships

Missional leadership involves fostering collaboration and partnerships with other churches, organizations, and individuals who share a common mission. By working together, we can pool our resources, expertise, and passions to make a greater impact on the world. Collaboration allows us to break down denominational and organizational barriers, recognizing that we are united in the mission of making disciples and advancing God’s Kingdom.

In the spirit of collaboration, we draw inspiration from the early Wesleyan movement, where John Wesley and his colleagues formed societies, classes, and bands to support and hold one another accountable in their mission. This relational aspect of missional leadership emphasizes the importance of building strong partnerships within and beyond our own church or ministry. Through collaboration, we can share resources, ideas, and strategies, maximizing our collective efforts to reach more people with the transformative message of the Gospel.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4.9-12

Conclusion

Drawing from theology, biblical passages, and the insights of theologians, missiologists, and missional practitioners, we have explored the vital role of missional leadership in developing a missional vision. By integrating these principles into our churches and ministries, we can create spaces where people encounter the living Christ, experience authentic discipleship, and become agents of God’s love and transformation in their communities.

Let us commit ourselves to developing a missional vision that reflects God’s heart for the lost, the broken, and the marginalized. May our churches and ministries become beacons of hope, compassion, and transformation in a world that desperately needs the Gospel. Together, let us embrace the call to be missional leaders, proclaiming the Good News and advancing God’s Kingdom for His glory and the flourishing of all people.

Creating Missional Alignment

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Creating Alignment

Hans / Pixabay

I read an interesting post on Fast Company’s website today called “Popularity Means Nothing–The Missing Step to Startup Success.”  In the article Bhavin Parikh and Aaron Schwartz make a convincing claim that alignemnt is a key factor for success.  They share five ways of creating alignment.  In this post I’d like to apply these ideas to creating missional alignment in a Christian community.

  1. Set Your Vision — Parikh and Schwartz begin by saying that a company should be able to say why it exists in one sentence.  I believe that a Christian community should be able to as well.  Why does your community meet?  What are y’all about?  Here’s an example: “Together, we want to connect with God, foster authentic community, and serve our neighbors.”  Pretty simple to write…but the challenge would be aligning all you do around that one statement.  Doing so would necessitate saying “no” to things that fall outside of the vision!
  2. Define Your Values — In order for a company to succeed, the people working there need to be able to make decisions.  How do they do that?  One way is by having clearly-defined values that help folks choose what might be best.  The same thing holds true for a missional community.  The community needs some core values or it will begin to drift from its vision.  Those values might look something like this: Inclusivity, diversity, honesty, sharing, incarnation, and proclamation.  Thus, when push comes to shove, any member of your community can call to mind your core values and make a decision in support of them!
  3. Identify your BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) — Parikh and Schwartz label the BHAG as a goal 1-3 years out on the horizon that should be a stretch.  It’s important to have a BHAG because it lets everyone know what is the company is driving toward.  This can absolutely apply to a missional community.  But a word of warning: many of us followers of Jesus will make a way-too out of reach BHAG.  For instance, we might make it a goal that within the next three years we’ll eradicate homelessness in our neighborhood.  This is just ludicrous!  A better goal is more specific, measurable, and do-able (though a stretch).  So perhaps something like this: We will multiply our missional community three times in the next three years.  That’s a big goal that will help create alignment!
  4. Set Department Goals — Having a clear and inspiring BHAG is good but by setting department goals actual progress toward the BHAG can be tracked.  So, for a missional community that might look like this: We’ll have more people at our communal worship times, we’ll have 85% involvement in intentional communities, and we’ll average 2 hours of community service a person a month.  If those goals are met, alignment will be forged and progress toward the BHAG (multiplying) will come!
  5. Track Key Metrics — Measuring stuff is important.  Duh.  But what we measure might be even more important than the measuring itself.  Parikh and Schwartz write: “At the end, though, you need to make sure that the metrics you track and the targets you pursue on a daily basis will help you hit your BHAG and thus fulfill your greater vision.”  Thus, for a business to succeed it needs to track the right things well.  How does this apply to a missional community?  We need to track some stuff.  Traditionally Christians in the West have tracked butts, buildings, and budgets (AKA attendance, physical space, and money).  And while each of these things is important, so are intentional community involvement and community service.  It’s been said that what you measure tends to grow and this is, for the most part, true.  Why?  Because the things we measure are things that we pay attention to and celebrate publically.  Thus, we could possibly see significant positive change if we paid attention to and celebrated publicly intentional community and service!

Doing these five things can certainly build alignment into a missional community.  If we did each of them better, then  it would create a greater buy-in from everyone, thus helping us fulfill the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission!

What do you think?  What other sorts of things might create missioanl alingment?

Football or Going to Church?

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I ran across an amazing quote from Hugh Halter the other day.  It’s from his book entitled AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church, which is co-written by Matt Smay.  Here it is:

If the vision of the church is not scary, if it doesn’t require everyone to pitch in, if faith is not needed, then folks will stay home and watch the football game.” (139)

This one is particularly interesting to me since it is Monday morning, the day after which Tony Romo led the Cowboys, my favorite football team, to a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback!  And, to be honest, my wife and I decided not to go to church yesterday at all.  Instead, we went hiking and then we watched some football.  Before you get too worried about us, we did go to church on Saturday night, and our normal Sunday-morning responsibilities were canceled this week.

Hans / Pixabay

So even though it was “okay” for us not to be at church yesterday, it sure did feel funny!  But I wonder if it felt funny because it broke our deeply-ingrained habits, or was it because we are truly connected to a church with vision where we feel needed.  Honestly, it’s probably a little bit of both.

This leads naturally to another question for me: If lifers like Alida and I sometimes feel disconnected from the vision of gathered worship, what do folks who don’t have the same level of history think?  My guess is that they don’t think much about church at all on Sunday mornings, and that if they do, they probably just think it’s cute and quaint.  Sure, there will be a few who hate church and decry it for one reason or another.  But my guess is that for most people, gathering together at a building called a “church” to sing songs, sit and stand, listen to a sermon, and give money never comes up.

And when it does come up, I wonder how often hiking, football, sleeping in, having brunch, etc. trumps gathering with believers to worship God?

Who knows.  Provably a lot.  But here’s a better question: Why are people choosing to gather less and less these days?  Why aren’t people coming, including people who profess to believe in Jesus?

I think Hugh is right, our vision isn’t all that compelling.  We aren’t all that attractive relative to other choices.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that Jesus’ vision for those who follow him would involve going out and coming together (Matthew 28.19-20).  But it seems that we’ve simplified Jesus’ mission into activities that revolve around gathering together.  Sure, we’ll throw in a few scattering things here and there: we’ll pack a shoebox full of inexpensive toys at Christmas, and we’ll gather school supplies for those sad public school kids, and we’ll write a check to support missionaries.  But that’s pretty much the extent of our participation in the scattering of the church.

Not long ago I was convinced missionaries, evangelists, and their sort were the ones who were goers.  The rest of us were people who went to church.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who had envisioned the professionalization of scattering that way.

So we’ve limited Jesus’ mission for us by half.  We’ve more or less eliminated the scattering and just focused on the gathering.  But our vision for gathering together seems very different from what Jesus had in mind.

In the Great Commission (Matthew 28.19-20) there are several things to learn about gathering together: 1) It should enable disciple-making; 2) It should involve folding people fully into the family of God through baptism; and 3) It should involve instruction to obey all that Jesus commanded his disciples.

Let’s start with #3.  Our gatherings in most Evangelical churches are almost solely about teaching.  We’ll have one person stand in front of many people and teach for 20, 30, 40 minutes, or longer.  I hope that our teaching revolves around what Jesus taught his disciples, but I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t always.  Besides, Jesus taught about some crazy stuff like loving your enemies, prioritizing God above family, caring for those in the most need, and praying for God’s future reality to become real in the present.

Now to #2.  We have baptisms in our gatherings, which is awesome!  It’s always one of my favorite things!  However, since so few of us ever actually go out to make new disciples, our baptisms are few and far between, even at large churches.  (Caveat: there are some churches who are baptizing folks like crazy, which is awesome!  My guess: they’ve fostered a better sense of missionality in all of their people.)

#1. When we gather it should be about disciple-making.  “So are you saying that every sermon should be about deciding between Jesus and hell?”  No, not necessarily.  What I am saying is that when we gather one of the chief purposes should be for us all to grow in our discipleship.  So new believers should be learning and old believers should be learning.  All of us should be helping one another, in the power of the Spirit, to figure out how to follow Jesus better.

And following Jesus leads us to gather together and to go out into the world on mission with him.

So if our vision for church is about buildings, budgets, and butts, we’re not going to inspire many people to gather and scatter.  And if our vision is to tell people what we think they want to hear, we’re not going to inspire many people to gather and scatter.  And if our vision is really about our personal, financial security (“There’s a mortgage to pay…”), then we’re not going to inspire many people to gather and scatter.

It’s time we catch Jesus’ vision, namely that we get to participate with God as he reconciles all things to himself through Christ (2 Corinthians 5.19).  That’s a scary vision.  That’s a vision that needs all of us to pitch in.  That’s a vision that requires faith.  That’s a vision that will inspire people to skip out on sleeping in, hiking, watching football, etc.  That’s a vision that will transform our lives, our communities, and our world!

Failing at the Elevator Pitch

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Nemo / Pixabay

Nemo / Pixabay

So yesterday was a big day!  My wife and I were hosting a team of six folks at our place to chat about the mid-sized community that we all help lead.  My goal at this meeting was to cast the missional/incarnational vision very clearly so that the six of us could dream together about how to shift our group from away from being attractional.

So I had been praying and preparing for several days.  I had a solid feel for what I would say and how I would say it.  Then I checked my email and I noticed a message from the Michael Hyatt newsletter.  If you don’t know, Michael Hyatt is a publisher, author, blogger, and leadership coach and consultant.  There’s a bunch of stuff on his blog about leadership, personal development, developing your brand, etc.  He’s really great!

Well the email from his newsletter linked to a really interesting article called “Why You Need an Elevator Pitch (and How to Create One)”  An elevator pitch is a short but effective way to tell someone about your idea in a limited amount of time, say the amount of time you have in an elevator with someone.  Michael Hyatt gave four pieces of advice:

  1. Describe your idea.
  2. Talk about the problem.
  3. How can your idea help solve the problem.
  4. What’s the key benefit of your idea.

I wrote these four phrases on a piece of paper and stuck it in my pocket.  My plan was that all throughout the day I would use the elevator pitch idea to think more carefully about how to cast vision with the team that evening.  I practiced while driving, in my mind while hanging out with friends, while in the shower, before leading a devotional, while at an immigration-reform rally, and then while cleaning the house.

I had honed the pitch down to two sentences: “My hope is for us to view ourselves as missionaries where we work, play, and live because the “if you build it, they will come” version of church just isn’t working anymore.  We can accomplish this by being more intentional about our up (connection with God), our in (community), and our out (service) and in so doing we can begin to express tangibly God’s love in our world.”

Saying those two sentences takes no more than thirty seconds.  That’s it.  Thirty seconds.

Why, then, in the moment with the team in our living room, did I spend twenty minutes explaining the vision!  Ugh.  I really blew it.  Luckily the team knows me pretty well and each of them has extended grace to me before.  And, despite my inadequacies, they all seemed to understand what I was talking about to some degree.

It wasn’t a total loss.  But as an elevator pitch it was an epic failure!

Has something like this ever happened to you?  Tell me about it in the comments.

Here’s book I recommend by Michael Hyatt about developing your brand: Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.