Where are we on vision development?

For several months now, the pastoral staff and leadership at Calvary have been praying and working on vision development.  


Where are we?  Who are we?  Where are we trying to go?  How do we get there?  How do we know we're there when we get there?


These are the kinds of questions we are asking and attempting to answer.


Our starting point is prayer and the Scriptures.


Prayer
In addition to significant times of prayer as pastoral staff and to a weekly Wednesday night prayer group, we have asked the congregation to spend forty days of prayer seeking God's face.  During these forty days of prayer our focus has been on seeking the kingdom of God: the spread of the gospel, and the establishment of righteousness, peace and joy in our lives, city and world.  Not only have we been praying for God's direction but we are praying around the kingdom themes that should help us expand our vision!


Scriptures
There are several Scriptures that help shape our thinking about who we should be.  The two that speak to our purpose for existing are the Great Commandment (Mark 12:30-31) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).  In fact, we are thinking that if we get the Great Commandment right, the Great Commission will be a natural result.  If we learn how to love God with all our being and to love others, God will bring Christ followers to himself through us.  In that sense, we should be about loving God and loving people!  Can you imagine what that would look like?


In terms of vision and strategy, several texts are of special interest: John 20:21-22 (sent as Jesus was sent); Luke 4:18-19 (Jesus' agenda becomes ours); John 15:1-12 (description of an authentic Christ follower); Luke 15:11-32 (the nature of the gospel of grace) and Acts 1:8 (a geographic strategy).  It is noteworthy that the focus in John 15:1-12 is about who we are rather than what we do.  Our essential task is to "remain connected to Christ."  The growth, obedience and multiplication, even the love for one another, are results of that connection.


Summary
Having said that, could we summarize the primary aspects of our church vision as (1) love God, (2) love people and (3) live his mission?


Values
As we ponder on this, there are several values that are important to identify: Biblical authority, Christ-centered teaching, grace gospel, spiritual & relational vitality, holistic ministry, kingdom living and multiplication.


Worship and Families
Furthermore, in terms of what we do as a congregation there are certain essentials.  We feel like congregational worship is key for God's people encountering his presence, having a sense of congregational identity, and receiving the power for being on mission.  (We hope our current change in Sunday worship schedule will help in this way).  We also feel strongly about the importance of families in the church.  That means we encourage the family to attend worship together.  (When parents attend worship only and take their elementary age children and/or students to Bible fellowship at the same hour, they are getting an unbalanced spiritual meal and the family misses the worship experience together).  It also means we want to find ways to do more intergenerational things so that we are not so divided along generational lines.


Bible Fellowships and Small Groups
We believe that disciples grow and multiply best in the context of community.  So Bible Fellowships and small groups remain a vital part of who we are.  The discipleship of our children and students is a great priority.  We do this in part through age-graded Bible Fellowships.  However, the key to it is to disciple parents so they can disciple their children.  How important it is also to identify adults who are willing to mentor children and students, especially in the absence of a believing parent.


Local and Global Impact
As a missional church, we further understand that we have the opportunity and the privilege of ministering to the needs of our community, helping plant churches in the valley, and partnering strategically in global endeavors to minister to the least of these and share the gospel of Jesus.


What's next?
These are the basic things that we have identified thus far.  We need to unpack these things, to grasp God's dream of what our church could look like when these kinds of things are a reality, and to identify the steps necessary to move in that direction.


Our pastoral staff will be having a spring retreat in early May to work on these things.  Shortly after that we hope to have another leadership lab to share and hear from key leaders what God is saying.


In the meantime, here's what I am asking from you as a leader:

• keep praying for God's direction and power;
• reflect on the things discussed above;
• as the Lord confirms some of these things in your heart, pass them on to your respective teams and circles of influence within Calvary;
• give us your feedback and input as to the vision;
• feel free to ask whatever question you may have.

May God get the glory both, now in the process, and when we get to where He is leading us!