Vision

I’ve been thinking a lot about the vision of the church. At least what I feel the vision is for God’s people. The only time most church members hear about vision is when their pastor is trying to get money for a building project. The pastor uses Proverbs 29:18 (Where there is no vision, the people perish) to get people to give money. Pastors use this verse out of text to get money. I feel pastors need to address the vision of the church as Jesus showed while He was on Earth.

To me, the vision of the church (and Christians) is to reach the community that surrounds them with the love and light of Jesus Christ. The body of Christ should show the same type of compassion Jesus did. The early church grew by leaps and bounds because of the love they had for one another and for the lost around them. I just finished reading the book “Love, the Ultimate Apologetic: The Heart of Christian Witness.” This book basically puts in easy to understand how we, as Christians, can reach our community and loved ones for Christ by showing real love to them. The vision of the church should be outward focused.

Being outward focused takes time, energy, and money. The body of Christ, should be so outward focused that our community changes. Most of the time, our community influences the church instead of the church influencing the community. I feel the reason why we have so many churches either plateauing or declining is because the church stops being outward focused and starts being inward focused.

Inward focused churches have programs that please the members. It’s all about the members’ comfort and happiness. The longer a church is inward focused the harder it is to change the focus to the actual vision of the church; which should be an outward focus body.

A healthy church with a Biblical vision is an outward focused church that reaches out to the community with the love and light of Christ. This church equips the members to share the gospel to loved ones, neighbors, and co-workers. This church has a pastor who leads the people to be more like Christ and less like the world. In my option, this is the true vision of the church of Jesus Christ.