Advanced Pastoral Training

Doing this may not be in your wheel house. That’s okay. There are many pastors who feel the same way. Yet, it has to be done. Sadly, preaching and praying is not enough to create a healthy and sustainable church.

A simple plan is required. That starts with vision.

Our vision process is simple and straightforward. Completing it, then implementing it will get you off on the right foot.

Vision is not about creativity; it’s about discernment.

Discernment is about discovering the heart of God and the mind of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, accessed through prayer, processed through God’s Holy Word, and confirmed through the counsel of leaders.

There is a lot packed into this statement. This is the reason why establishing a vision can take time. You also might need an outsider to walk you through the process. 

As you begin, keep this question at the top of your mind.

How does God want to express himself through my church in my community at this time?

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1.1 The Glory of God

The place to begin in discerning a vision from God is to have a vision of God and a visionary understanding of God’s vision for Himself.

• Why does God do what He does?
• What is the ultimate destination that God has in view?

God does what He does to be glorified.

He has a vision of His glory and a church’s vision must focus on bringing glory to God.

Rightly discerning and developing a godly vision begins with God’s ultimate purpose of displaying His glory and being glorified.

Assignment:

• Identify God’s glory in Scripture and how people brought glory to God. Be sure to include both Testaments.
• Write a paragraph summary of your findings.

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1.2 Our Seeking God:

Our God is a seeking God; seeking what? Rather, I should say, seeking whom? Scripture informs that God is seeking two categories of people.

He is seeking

• the “lost”
• “true worshipers.”

Rightly discerning and developing a godly vision incorporates God’s commitment to seeking and saving the lost and growing them into becoming true worshipers.

Assignment:

• Trace God’s missionary nature from Genesis to Revelation. Pay attention to his heart for;
  • The lost – how he never abandons or forsakes them.
  • True worshipers – how he desires to have his people fully devoted to him.
• Write a paragraph summary of your findings.

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1.3 The Seeking Church:

Ezekiel 34 revealed that God the Father originally took the lead in the search and rescue mission to gather the scattered and bring them home. Luke 19:10 revealed that this responsibility had been passed to God the Son, who came to seek and save the lost. Corroboration is seen in other places in Scripture such as Luke 4. The Son passed the responsibility to the church.

Rightly discerning and developing a godly vision incorporates God the Father’s sending the Son and God the Son’s sending the church.

The church is empowered by God the Spirit, to seek and save the lost, then grow them into becoming true worshipers, all to the glory of God.

Assignment:

• Trace the passing of the torch from God the Father to the church to seek and save the lost and true worshipers.
• Answer this question: how does my church fit in?
• Summarize what you find in a paragraph.

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1.4 Great Commission Central

The Great Commission is central to both the vision and the strategy of the church. In this section, our focus is on the striking simplicity and clarity that church leaders can find in embracing the Great Commission as the core vision and core strategy.

God has a vision of a church that goes in the authority of Jesus Christ and makes disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded, resting in and empowered by His continual presence through His Holy Spirit.

Rightly discerning and developing a godly vision places the Great Commission front and center of it. Jesus commissions the disciples as the root of both vision and strategy.

Assignment:

• Incorporate The Great Commission into your vision and strategy. Trace how the Great Commission was central to starting the Christian movement and planting churches in the Book of Acts.
• Summarize your findings in a paragraph.

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1.5 A Reached Community:

God has a vision of an eternal church, an eternal family, that lives with Him forever. By design, He will be their God and they will be His people. Some of his future family have not been reached.

How do we, as a local church reach into the community to find them?

There is a harvest to be gathered from the community. They are waiting on us to become part of that eternal family.

Rightly discerning and developing a godly vision puts us in alignment with God’s plan to use our church as his instrument to reach into our community. They are waiting on us.

Assignment:

• Ask God which part of the community that he want you to reach over the next 7-10 years.
• Incorporate them in your vision.
• Summarize who they are in a paragraph.

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1.6 Vision in Motion:

A healthy, credible vision is organic, meaning that it lives, it breathes, it develops, it matures, and is fluid and flexible enough to make course corrections.

This is important for two reasons.

• Despite our best efforts at rightly discerning God’s vision for our churches, more than likely we won’t nail every element of that vision on the head. We are trusting God to move us in the right direction, but not everything will turn out exactly as expected. At best, our view of God’s future for us will be incomplete.
• As we move forward toward that desired future, we’ll encounter new elements that we didn’t anticipate.

Rightly discerning and developing a godly vision requires us to acknowledge that vision is organic, that it is in motion. Our vision gets us started on the right path and allows us to adjust along the way. In so doing, the lost in the community are reached and God is glorified.

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Now use the five summaries to inform you on how to answer this question:

How does God want to express himself through my church in my community at this time?

Assignment:

• Write a one paragraph synopsis from your five paragraphs of summary. This will clarify your answer to the above question.

What did mean by that? 

• Boil your synopsis into one sentence. This is your vision statement.