A UNIFYING CENTRE

A second lesson that I’ve learned early in my new pastoral role is the value of defining a clear ministry vision – a clear sense of what we are seeking to do that can serve as a unifying centre for all the activities of the church.

I’m aware that much has been written in recent times on the importance of vision, and that people tend to have a love-hate relationship with the concept. I confess that I’ve vacillated on the issue over the years – at times seeing it as all-important, and at other times dismissing it in favour of a more ad hoc approach to ministry. Re-engaging in pastoral life, especially in a congregation with a number of capable and experienced leaders, has made me deeply aware of the value of having something that unites people in their activities.

This is one of the elements of vision that Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in the USA extols. He believes it gives unity and allows the divergent ministries of the church to become convergent. The need for this “convergence” was brought home to him on one occasion when a friend of his daughter’s visited their home. She had been associated with the church for some time but hadn’t previously met either of the Hybel parents – not surprising in a church with nearly 20,000 members. But neither did she know anything about the about the larger life of the church. She had confined herself exclusively within its student ministry and hadn’t attended congregational gatherings for worship and teaching or participated in any of the church’s other ministries. As far as she was concerned, these other activities might not have existed.

This jolted Bill Hybels. It alarmed him to think that one of the church’s ministries could allow – even foster – a mentality that was so isolated from the rest of the life of the church. That wakeup call became the catalyst for a radical review of all the ministries of the church and their deliberate realignment around the vision of the church. Each ministry had to see that it was serving as a contributory part of the larger goal of the church and be restructured accordingly. And it was the overarching vision of the leadership of the church that provided the unifying goal that everything else was focused on.

Without consciously thinking about these things, that’s what’s happened in our early days here in Wyndham. One of the burdens on my heart in returning to pastoral ministry was to work for the spiritual renewal of churches. As I thought and prayed about this it became increasingly clear to me that the heart of vibrant spiritual renewal – especially as it relates to Christian spirituality – is for people to become fully devoted followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough that they are truly saved; they also need to be following Christ fully. That involves living in intimate companionship with him, seeking to be increasingly like him, and being available to serve him.

Helping people become fully devoted followers of Jesus has quickly become an all-encompassing vision for our work here. Everything the church is currently doing can fit into it, and everything that it could ever dream of doing does so as well. There’s nothing essentially new or novel about it; it simply provides a point of focus that sharpens the purpose behind everything we do. The ministry of the word in worship is orientated toward that goal; so too is the mid-week Bible study. The various other Bible studies and outreach activities – especially the Bible-in-school ministry – are also subsumed under it. So also is the pastoral visiting. Every activity can be thought of as contributing in some way to bringing glory to God by helping people become fully devoted followers of his Son.

What’s perhaps most exciting is the way in which people have spontaneously embraced this as the unifying centre of our life as a church. The phrase “fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ” has resonated deeply and naturally with them. They’ve nodded their heads when I’ve mentioned it, and smiled and nodded again when I’ve repeated it. It seems to fit – both with their situation and more importantly, with what the Bible calls us to be and do. We look forward to seeing how this idea weaves everything in the church together and energizes what we do. We are eager to see how it provides a unifying focus of our life as a community of the Lord’s people.

---oOo---