Vision – our challenge

I hope devoted readers (yes, both of us!) will excuse my “e-Sabbath” yesterday. I’m sure there is some spiritual etiquette around blogging, but if there is, I haven’t worked it out yet.

Today’s topic is an unashamed cross-reference to Chris Williams’s blog. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I’d recommend it. Anyway, his first entry refers to the vision of London Community Church, which he summarises as follows:

A gathering of believers in North West London, aiming to model the Christian life as taught by Jesus, reaching out with the good news message of forgiveness, love and healing that we have been commissioned to tell to those around us.

So what’s the purpose of a vision? My own definition is probably not very inspiring: a statement of an organisation's priorities and objectives, on whose delivery energy and resources can be focussed. I checked to see if there were any better online definitions of “vision”, with vastly differing results. Take your pick from:

- A compelling and inspiring image of a desired and possible future that a community seeks to achieve
- [Because a vision is idealistic], it may never be realized by the organization. Rather, the vision should serve to inspire the organization to move towards the ideal state.
- The direction of the data warehouse – what it is intended to accomplish.

So which of these do we prefer? For me, it’s definitely the first. I love the use of language like “compelling”, “inspiring”, “desired” and – yes – “possible”. The fact that a vision is achievable does not mean it is not ambitious. Look at God’s plan for the world, for example. Starting with a small, rather mixed bag of men and women, Jesus commanded us to preach the good news and make disciples of all nations.

I assume only geeks will prefer the third option. Any geeks like to shed any light on what “data warehousing” is, and why its “direction” is important?

So that just leaves the second as an alternative. But I think any vision starting off by admitting it’s idealistic deserves to fail. How will people build towards something that they can never hope to see finished?

So, where do we stand – both as a church and as individuals – in relation to the LCC vision? Are we:

- gathering with believers?
- modelling the Christian life as taught by Jesus?
- telling those around us the good news message of forgiveness, love and healing?

If you are, congratulations – and please keep it up! It will not only advance the kingdom, but it will encourage and inspire other co-workers.
If you’re not, is there a reason? Perhaps you disagree with the vision; or perhaps you would welcome encouragement / strength to do these things; or perhaps you’re focussing your energy on other things that seem more important? Whatever the answer, if you find yourself wanting to “press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called [you] heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3v14) then you needn’t worry about what has stopped you in the past. Just focus on how you can change that in the future.

With a few sold-out souls – LCC is about six- or seven-fold the original “mixed bag” to whom Jesus entrusted the Kingdom’s growth – just think what we could do!