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Seven
Dynamics for Advancing
Your Church in Missions
Page 3 — Dynamic #1: Vision
Vision
is the process by which a church explores and promotes its unique role in
God's global cause. As I have observed mission programs around the country,
visionary leadership is the driving force common to all effective programs.
I have found two crucial dimensions to leadership:
The
first is a clear, compelling and growing understanding of what God is doing.
Visionary leaders understand that the foundation to a mission-active church
is a congregation with a solid and growing biblical theology of missions.
As believers begin to understand that God indeed is a missionary God and that
the Bible is a missionary book, it virtually becomes self-evident that the
church is to be mission active. A sound biblical theology will clearly demonstrate
that “frontier missions” is not a side issue for the radical few,
but rather is the center stage in a 4000-year-long drama with the spot light
on the Lord of the universe who is declaring His glory to all nations?His
wonders to all peoples. (1)
Luke
24:45 says that “Jesus opened their minds that they might understand
the Scriptures.” Christians today suffer the same kind of cultural and
experiential biases that distort their vision and understanding of God's Word.
Visionary leaders find resources to teach the biblical basis of missions beginning
in Genesis. In addition, they find ways of telling the story of God's glory
as it has developed since the first century, showing the incredible progress
of missions throughout the years. Then, coming to our day, they demonstrate
the fact that there are adequate resources to finish the remaining task.
The
first dimension of vision, explaining God's relentless and glorious redemptive
purpose, provides the stimulus for a very natural and even spontaneous Christian
response. It counters the pluralism and materialism of our North American
culture and makes missions central to our Christianity. Once we understand
that God's redemptive purpose is to redeem a people from every people in order
to display His glory, then our natural response is: “If that is what
God is doing, then what role can I and my church play?”
This
leads us to the second dimension of vision. I would like to refer to Barna's
definition of organizational vision:
“Vision
is the clear mental image of a preferable future, imparted by God to His chosen
servants. It is based upon an accurate understanding of God, yourself and
your circumstance.” (George Barna, "The Power of Vision")
This
second dimension of vision does two things. It gives direction and focus and
also energizes members of the church to become involved in the vision. Vision
is critical in this information age because vision helps us to prioritize
among a constant barrage of competing needs, opportunities and choices. A
mission program with a clear vision makes world evangelization tangible and
doable even for one local church. Although no one church by itself can evangelize
all the unreached peoples, yet, if a church were to adopt one people group,
then the task becomes very specific, and individuals within a church can see
how they can contribute personally, which can energize a whole congregation.
The bottom line is that resources follow vision. James Engel has said that
“Resources come where there is vision, and the big job is to raise vision.”
How can a church increase resources for missions? The problem is not lack
of money. It's lack of vision. (2)
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