A Place To Belong: Where Vision is turned into Reality

09/08/07

Scripture:

            One terse verse!  As I read the verse I am reflecting on two other translations of the verse.  The King James Version states Where there is no vision the people perish.  The other translation comes from Rev. Olan Hendrix, the very first church management consultant whose seminar I attended.  He paraphrases the Proverb in these words:  If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

            I have read hundreds of stories that illustrate the “vision” thing.  As good as many of those stories are, not one of them can measure up to the centuries old story of the twelve spies. 

            Who was painting a true picture through their report?  They all were!  However, their respective views of God, the congregation gathered at the border, and the formidable task that lay before them caused them to envision very different realities and outcomes.  Two of the spies had captured Moses’ vision of what could be.  The other ten saw only what was predictable.

            The children of Israel stood before the place that God had said was their place to belong.  Would vision become reality?  Or, would vision become blurred, destination unreached, roadmap lost, detoured for a generation.  Their quest for the next forty years is how do we get back to and claim the place where we belong?

            For us, the question is how do we go about becoming a place to belong?

I.        Start with the end in mind…seeing what we cannot see right now

II.      Do the right things…developing action plans, then doing them

III.    Behave like a larger congregation…pursuing strategies that allow the congregation to make major steps forward

IV.   Promote essential pastoral activities…expanding the pastors initiatives from being a congruent leader to being a transformational leader

Conclusion:

            Without vision there will be no clear sense of what is our mission.  This vision begins with our internal spirituality.  Vision becomes a picture of the future that produces passion!  Vision is the weapon that unleashes the power of the church!

Sermon Multimedia:

• A Place to Belong: Where Vision is turned into Reality

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