By Jerry Harris
I once heard a well-known Christian leader relate a story about a church member looking for advice during a struggle with his pastor. His frustration was born out of his pastor’s lack of vision. Exasperated, he declared, “Just put a target on the wall . . . any target on any wall!” People need to experience purpose in their relationship with Christ and effective leaders must set goals that reflect their vision for the church in creating that purpose. I’m not saying that vision is as simple as filling in the blank. Vision isn’t an afterthought. A leader’s vision for the church is the most important tool he possesses in living out his call to ministry. A vision is something you get married to. It’s going to define you. It finishes statements like, “We are the church that . . . .” Vision is not building a building, a new worship style, or a new marketing strategy. Vision is revelatory! It’s a God-given conviction that gives purpose to the position of leadership.
A Matter of Relationship
The first time I went through the Experiencing God workbook and class, I had been in ministry for 15 years. I thought I was “doing it right.” If someone would have asked me what my vision was, I think I could have come up with a good answer. Aside from simple obedience, however, I don’t think any particular vision was driving me. But as I plowed through that workbook something very personal and powerful occurred. I began to realize that many Christians were going through their whole lives never understanding that they could have an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The words stuck inside my heart: intimate . . . personal . . . relationship . . . with Jesus Christ. I saw Christian people committed to going through the motions, professionally putting up a front, but missing out on deep change. That study began forming a vision for me to break down every barrier standing between every person and that intimate, personal relationship with Jesus. I knew that couldn’t happen by doing business as usual. It required change.
I cast the vision before the elders of the church. I remember saying, “We have to do whatever it takes to help people find an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” Just the idea of the kind of potential changes that would need to take place in the church to remove those barriers was enough to give the elders pause. After a while, I realized that the necessary changes that needed to happen to make the vision a reality weren’t going to happen at that church. With this vision inside me, I wasn’t going to be able to honor God doing business as usual.
If a vision is revelatory, nothing will stop it. For me, it meant moving out of an 11-year ministry to a new location to give it a chance to happen. There are a lot of great things that have happened at the Crossing and every one of them has been driven by that vision. All I want is to help people discover an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Micropolitan wasn’t and isn’t the vision. Megachurch isn’t. Multisite isn’t. Missional isn’t. They are all just means or methods of achieving the vision God gave me. They are connected to the vision because they give form and function to it. They are the mechanisms that make the vision a reality. A vision is what sums us up.
Excerpted from Micropolitan Church
0 Comments