The vision for your church: Yours ... or God’s?

By Father DAVID EPPS
Contributing Writer

Father David Epps is Rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church which meets at 8 and 10 a.m. Sundays at 4881 E. Hwy. 34. He may be contacted at 770-252-2428, or at frepps@ctkcec.org

In the headquarters building of the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church once hung a banner which read, “Take your little church and dream God’s dream for it.” When I first saw that proclamation, I must confess that I was startled to consider the possibility that God might have a dream for the small church that I was pastoring at that time. I had always assumed that if anyone were to have a vision for a local church, it would be the pastor. Pulpit committees and official boards often ask that question of potential pastors who are candidates for their pulpits. “Pastor, what is your vision?” they inquire.

Is it possible that pastors and churches have this whole idea of dreams and visions backwards? Is it not true that many pastors, boards, and congregations spend long hours in planning for the future then take their ideas and dreams to God in prayer, asking Him to smile upon them and show favor to their plans? If so, we’ve missed the mark!

When God called Moses to lead His people from Egypt to the Promised Land, God, and not Moses, had the vision. God saw His people as they could be … free, whole, and complete. It was not Moses who had the vision. In truth, when God shared His vision with Moses at the site of the burning bush, Moses was ready to express his reluctance. He was very uneager to “buy into” the vision of God. But, eventually, Moses captured the vision and God’s vision for His people became Moses’ vision.

Forty years later Moses died, the dream only half completed. The people of Israel had been led out of slavery, but they had not yet entered their land of promise. In the first chapter of Joshua, we find the people in great mourning. Moses has died and the dream has not been fulfilled. What were the people to do? With their great charismatic leader dead, what of the vision? If the vision belonged only to Moses, then the people were, indeed, undone. But the vision was not the possession of Moses. It was the possession of God, and God was about to insure that His plans for His people would not be thwarted.

In the midst of this dark hour, God instituted a pastoral change. Joshua was called to lead God’s flock into the fulfillment of God’s vision! The vision was not Joshua’s but God’s. Later we find Joshua wandering near the camp seeking guidance. When he comes upon the angel of the Lord, he prepares to do battle and demands an answer to the challenge, “Are you for us or against us?” The angel simply replies, “No.” The real question was, “Joshua, where are you? Are you pursuing your own plans or have you laid them aside to seek the vision of God?” Once this matter was settled, Joshua humbled himself in worship and received specific information that would take him into the future.

The mistake we have made is in not seeing that God has a vision for His people of this day, not only for the Church Universal but also for the Church Local. What is God’s vision for your own local church? What specifically does He want to see happen at St. Whosit’s of Podunk Hollow? If we don’t know the answer to that question, then we haven’t begun to learn that we must discern God’s will for our own churches.

“Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained,” Scripture proclaims. Where there is not the capturing of the dream of God for a people or a person, then the “people are unrestrained,” that is, they then do what seems best according to logic. If a pastor is not ruled by the vision of God, he may be ruled by the latest cassette tape, or popular author, or pastor’s conference’ or theological fad. He runs the risk of being motivated by standards of success or by desperation to “see something happen” rather than by the dream of God for his church.

If a local church understands that God has a vision for them and if they are able to articulate that vision, then they will not be shaken when difficult circumstances arise or even if their pastor leaves, retires, or dies. The new pastor may represent a change in management style, personality, or leadership techniques, but the vision will remain constant. It is of utmost importance that pastors and their people seek God with an ear to hearing what God’s vision is for each local congregation. “I know the plans that I have for you, say the Lord…” Jeremiah 29:11 reveals. The challenge is to, “Take your little (or large) church and dream God’s dream for it.”