We just had our Vision Sunday, a day in which a vision is cast for us as a church. It gave us a picture of what we’re moving to become, and a reminder of what God has in store for us.
Our first Vision Sunday was in June. Vision was fresh for us. It’s something we were without for some time and we were newly receiving it. Our more recent Vision Sunday wasn’t to redo what we did in June or to say “never mind, we actually have a different plan that we’re going to pursue.”
Instead, the purpose is to remind us, refocus us, and maybe even re-energize us
in what we’re seeking to pursue this year as the vision for our church.
This is an opportunity to get the heartbeat of our church from the very beginning. You get to see what we’re about and what we’re pursuing as a body.
Watch or listen to the message
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Having a vision is critically important
There are many important days on the church calendar, but Vision Sunday is becoming one of my favorite days.
There’s value in every single Sunday that we gather, but Vision Sunday is just a little bit different. It’s the day when we’re given that picture of what we are actively moving
to pursue as a church. It’s that clarity of where God is leading us to go and what we are intentionally grounding ourselves in as a body in this season as a church.
It’s a set aside time where we are reminded of the purpose of the church. We are refueled in what we’re doing as part of the kingdom of God. The power of Vision Sunday is that it can have the ability to set the tone for what the church does for the next year.
The lesson in life coaching about vision
I’m currently in this master’s program, and one of my favorite courses in this program thus far has been a class in life coaching.
In life coaching, there’s a certain principle that we’ve learned. When you’re coaching a person, if they have a picture or goal of what they want to become and understand the kind of person that they want to become over time, coaching them is more feasible and doable.
It also becomes a lot more successful. The reason why is because if the person has a picture or understanding of the kind of person that they want to become, then we can work with that. We can say, “now let’s begin to see what steps we can take to get you to where you want to go.”
On the other hand, if the person you’re coaching has no goals or vision of what they want to do or who they want to become, it’s more difficult to move them to where they want to be.
It’s hard to move them where they want to be when there’s no specific place or space in which they’re trying to grow into. It’s also harder for them to know if they’re still on track to the kind of person they want to become. It makes it harder for them to know if they are actually growing in the ways that they want to grow.
Conversely, when a person that you’re coaching already has that pictureand has those goals, it’s much easier to coach them to become who they want to be.
What vision does for us
The advantage of vision is that it helps us move with purpose.
If we take a look at how this principle plays out, we’ll see that it’s actually very applicable. When they have a picture of who they want to become, we can help them say, “okay what steps can we take to get where we want to be?”
It’s true for coaching an individual and for a team. If a team has a picture of what they want to become, they say “we want to win that trophy. We want to get to the Super Bowl. We want that Heisman.”
At that point, you can say, “What do we need to do to get you to that point?”
It’s also very true for the church as well. It’s easier to coach or to lead a church when it has vision and has goals than when it doesn’t. When the church has a picture of where God is moving them, it’s easier to map out steps and create a plan for growth and development.
What scripture says about vision
If you’ve been around Green Mountain Christian Church, you can probably see the impact here since our last Vision Sunday. It has helped us move with purpose. It’s been a blessing for us, for me, and has helped me move with purpose in my own leadership.
We see some of the value of vision reflected in Scripture
“When there is no Revelation, people cast off restraint. But blessed is the one who heeds wisdoms instruction.”
Proverbs 29:18 (NIV)
My favorite version of this passage is in The Message.
If people can’t see what God is doing they stumble all over themselves. But when they attend to what he reveals they are Most Blessed.
Proverbs 29:18 (The Message)
I feel like that verse really puts it pretty simply. When we don’t know what God is doing, or don’t have that understanding of what he’s up to and what he’s moving us to, we end up stumbling all over ourselves. If there’s no revelation or clarity, we do whatever.
I know that’s true. I’ve experienced that quite a few times in my life. But on the inverse, when we attend to what he’s revealing and get clarity on what he’s doing, we get to join in. It changes everything for us and a real blessing occurs within us.
The vision and burden for our neighborhood
While vision is a blessing from God, that blessing began for me with a burden starting in November of 2022.
If I can be honest with you, I was pretty confused. I struggled during that time. Eleven months into my time at Green Mountain, I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. What was God doing with us as a body?
I was praying this prayer asking, “God, what do you want from us? What are we supposed to do? Do we just keep gathering and having Services? If that’s what you want, that’s fine. I just need to know what it is that we are supposed to be doing here.”
God answered my prayer with a burden. Sometimes God might straight out tell you what he wants from you. Other times, he might give you something to hurt for as a burden. Not “I think I should do this.” Instead, “I know that I need to do it.” Gog gives a burden to move you to action.
I remember praying that prayer, and going down the street to the grocery store. As I was driving by each house in this neighborhood, the burden became that the people in this neighborhood would know Jesus.
The burden was heavy, to the point that by the time I got to the store, I asked God to lighten
the burden a little bit. It was almost overwhelming for me.
Let me be clear: A burden for the neighborhood does not exclude a desire to reach everybody. We want to reach everyone we can in Lakewood and Denver, in the state, the country and internationally. We want to reach everyone we possibly can reach. That does not eliminate the special burden for those in our neighborhood.
The history of the burden
Since then, what I’ve learned from that time as a fresh leader at GMCC is that while the burden was fresh for me, it had always been present in our history.
I’m thankful sometime ago, I got to call up and have a conversation with Joy. She’s been around the church beginning. I thank God for people who really know the history of a church and can testify to how it’s moved, grown, and evolved.
My conversation with Joy, along with some church records, showed that the church began as a House Church on Swadley Street about a mile from here. Then, after some time we moved to a new building off of Moore and Alameda Place, which is also very close by.
After that we moved to another building near the Glennon Heights swimming pool area. And then after that, we had grown so much that we needed more space that we started
here in 1986, and have been here ever since. We’ve always been in the neighborhood.
Sixty-Three years later, we are still in the neighborhood. The burden to reach the neighborhood was fresh for me, but it had always been in the DNA of this church.
Our burden and our vision
Through that burden, and a congregational meeting last year, we got together and talked about what God is stirring within us as a community.
It took fasting and prayer, more fasting and prayer, and multiple conversations to get to where we could understand what God is doing. We were ready to receive the vision, which for us as a congregation is reflected in our vision statement: To be a Neighborhood Church That reflects the love and the hope of Jesus.
That is what we are moving with purpose to become.
Reflecting the love of Jesus
Our vision is to be a neighborhood church that seeks to reflect the love of Jesus in a world that is full of frustration and tension and even hate. We want to reach and serve the people of this community.
We are choosing to take Jesus’ command to love your neighbor seriously. There’s a lack of love in the world and we have an abundance of it in Jesus. We are choosing to be intentional about imparting that to our community.
Reflecting the hope of Jesus
Our vision is to be a neighborhood church that reflects the hope of Jesus. In a world that is often without hope,that often has hope in the wrong places, we are choosing to impart a hope of Eternity.
A hope of living a life with Godly purpose.
A hope in the promises of Jesus.
We have a real hope in Jesus, and we are becoming intentional about reflecting that hope to our neighborhood.
That’s the vision for the church.
Pursuing that vision
Pursuing the vision helped us move with purpose, leading to multiple outreaches in this neighborhood.
It led to 30 days of Prayer in the summer. We covered the neighborhood with 30 different prayers for our neighbors Every Sunday we saw more people from the neighborhood come to our church and we saw that God was active in answering our prayers.
After 30 days of prayer, the vision led to a neighborhood picnic. We have an annual end of the year picnic, and we said “why don’t we just invite the entire neighborhood to this thing?” We had games, free food, Inflatables, snow cones, and a water balloon toss. We saw tons of kids and neighbors come and enjoy a free and fun Saturday afternoon.
The vision then led to a trunk or treat that we hosted indoors because it was so cold outside. Jen and I dressed up as Spider-Man and spider-woman. I had kids asked me, “what is it like to be Spider-Man?” Alex was Ken from Barbie. It was great.
And then we had a Christmas concert in December, where we christened the new stage. We had a ton of people roll through and an unholy amount of cookies. And it was great.
Allowing vision to move us with purpose helped focus on loving our neighborhood better. It let us host events, talk and pray with neighbors, and invite people to Jesus. When people move in, we’re at their door with a gift to welcome them to the neighborhood.
Vision leads us to showing our neighbors they not only have a place with Jesus, but with this church as well.
Can you see the vision?
As we pursue this vision and pursue people of God to build up the kingdom of God, we will become and continue to become that neighborhood church that reflects the love in the hope of Jesus.
Can you see it? Are you able to see people in this neighborhood knowing of a savior who loves them and is actively pursuing them?
Can you see it? Do you see outreaches as a gateway to the biggest blessing of Jesus on this side of Eternity?
Can you see it? Are you able to see people finding free and true and lasting hope in Jesus? Can you see God working in this place so that more people would know him?
Can you see it? Do you see this building being a safe space in this community?
That’s the vision.
I’m excited and thankful that we get to pursue this again together this year. I’m eager to see what God does in response to our willingness to follow him, and see where he leads.
That’s the vision for our church.
What is the vision for us as individuals?
I could not have Vision Sunday without also talking about God’s vision for each of us as well. God has vision for our church, but what is His vision for us individually?
We have a picture of where God is leading us as a church, yet it’s also important to ask God personally, what are you asking of me in 2024?
We know he has plans for his church, but we also know that he has plans and
desires for each person that make up the church.
As we enter 2024 as a church, aware of where God is leading us, it may also be wise to enter the year asking God, what are you asking of me, personally?
An alternative to resolutions
We started the new year with Phil and Ron bringing the word with a sermon and a communion meditation. In both of those messages, they talked about New Year’s resolutions. The consensus was that the people of this church are not about New Year’s resolutions, which is totally fine.
The thing about New Year’s resolutions is they’re often me-centered. What do I want for me? What do I see for me? We ask, what do I Envision for me?
Phil brought up a statistic where New Year’s resolutions only last about a three months.
But what if instead of starting off the new year asking the question “what do I want from me?”, we ask God “what are you asking of me in this season?”
What if we didn’t just pursue God’s vision for us as a church, but we also pursue the vision he has for each of us personally as well?
God might have things and plans and vision for each of us in 2024 that he might want
us to pursue and engage and follow. We might miss out on what God is asking of us if we don’t ask him, “What are you asking of me in 2024?”
God may have plans for you
He might say “I’ve got plans for you.”
He might say “I have people that I want you to be intentional with this year. I have people that I want you to talk to. I want you to practice hospitality this year, or I have plans I want you to engage this year.”
We might ask God. “What are you asking of me this year?” He might say, “I want you to rest. The pace that you’re moving at is going to wear you out this year, so you need to rest.”
God might say, “I want more of your time this year. I want you to engage me more this year.”. Or “I want you to step up. I want you to step up in your family. I want you to step up in your relationships. It’s time foryou to step up in your and your faith.
He might say “I want you to step up in your church. I might want you to lead something or get
involved in something.”
If that’s the case, talk to me. We’ll get together.
God might say “I want you to step back from some of the things that you’re engaging in.” I’ve had that prayer myself,where God says he wants me to step back from things I want to do, to not get involved..They’re good things, but he’s saying not right now.
God might say “I want you to be an encouragement. I want you to be a generous giver.” He might have a whole new revelation for your life.
He might even say “just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re killing it.”
What is God asking of you?
However, we may not know what he’s asking if we don’t first ask him, “what are you asking of me?” What if we enter 2024 not only knowing the vision God has for us as a church, but the vision God has for each of us as well?
What If instead of a New Year’s resolution we chose to practice New Year obedience to what God is doing within us. Could you imagine how the year would change for the better if this is what we start off the year pursuing?
Could you imagine how the church as a whole would change for the better if we as a body of people chose obedience? If we encouraged each other to pursue what God is leading us to both corporately and individually?
What if we as a body chose to pursue in unity what God is leading us to in 2024? Can you imagine the impact that would have in our lives and in our relationships and in our families and in our neighborhoods and our churches?
If we did that, I think that this year could be legendary, no matter what we encounter. I believe if we choose this together, it would be a year of blessing.
Individual parts of the body each with a vision
First Corinthians 12:12-27 talks about all the different parts of the body. It discusses how the body has many different parts, yet when they all come together, they make up and contribute to the whole.
It says that the eye is just as much of a part of the body as the feet. The feet are just as much of a part of the body as the nose. While different parts, they come together and contribute and make up the whole.
Think about the value of blessing, and the value each of us brings to the body. Think about If we saw the vision God has for us as a church, if we saw the vision God has for us personally, and if we committed this year to obedience and pursuit of God’s purposes.
The blessing that would occur both personally and to the entire body of Christ could be transformational.
It starts with vision. Could this year be a year in which we intentionally pursue what God is asking of each of us? Could this year be a year in which we continue to move with purpose in the plans and vision of God?
If so, I believe a real and wonderful blessing of transformation will be present this year.
Let’s allow God.
Let’s allow ourselves to pursue God’s vision and move with purpose in what he has for us both corporately and personally. Then let’s watch what he does with our obedience.