Monday, May 17, 2010

The Mission is the Vision

The way we're usually told it works is this: receive a vision for where you want to go, then formulate a mission to get there.

I don't see that in the Bible as the task of the pastor. (Sorry.)

Instead I think the mission comes first, which is to say God's mission comes first. It's not my vision -- for a bigger church, for revival, for whatever -- I want to put my church on mission toward; it's God's mission I want a vision for, and his mission I want to shepherd my church to joining.

The mission is the vision.

But of course this requires reframing success as faithfulness and health, not as . . . well, "success."

2 comments:

Spike said...

Beautifully put. Helps us see the forest through the trees.

Roberta said...

As the Blues Brothers said, "We are on a mission from God!"