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Vision – What Are We Doing This For?
- Nehemiah is very grieved about the ruined walls. The king provides resources and then he casts a vision to the people of building.
- There is always a story behind a vision statement.
- For Andrew, God spoke to him in a dream about church planting in Cardiff – and then particularly led him to Pontypridd in a way that gave a narrative story to him being there.
- After moving in to an area the vision begins to get more clarity through other prophetic words.
Action – Do The Things You Do Fit With Your Vision?
- Sometimes the diary and ‘essential’ things can crowd out things that are actually the vision.
- This is often the point where things fall down.
- The things that we do instead can be really good things – but they may not be the things that God is calling us to do.
- After God has spoken to Nehemiah about building the wall, they got on with it and built.
- It is possible to accept so many invitations and be away so much that you end up distracted and tired and not doing the thing you are called to.
Matrix – What You Measure Shows What’s Important to You
- Does what you measure fit with your vision?
- Things that are often measured include Sunday attendance and money.
- Are you measuring baptisms or people responding to Jesus or churches being planted?
Culture – Shapes Everything
- Sometimes we can make culture into the end goal.
- Culture things are important but the culture needs to be pointed towards the vision.
- Often people have more clarity about what they don’t want than what they do want.
Keep Going!
- Your Relationship with God – Make sure it is in a good place.
- Have People Around You – Who can speak honestly to you.
- Create Church Community – People who know you and love you.
Q&A
1. How much is the story behind the vision the main leader’s story versus the team’s story?
- There is a story that God has spoken to you about that you carry.
- But other people get excited about it and come into it – and they have their own story of what God is doing there.
- There will also be a corporate prophetic story as you go on together.
2. How do you keep people focussed on what you are doing together and give them space to grow into their own thing?
- The stories of people in the church will shape what the whole thing becomes.
- The bigger the vision the more room there is for people to go for it.
3. What do you do in your training sessions with your leaders?
- It takes time to realise who you will be building with – and sometimes you might be surprised.
- There is a chemistry between you.
- Eat and dream together.
- Then start to think about how you can develop them and what they need of you.
- In a lot of ways it is like parenting.
- There comes a point that you need to release them and let them go for it.
- If they go for it and it doesn’t work out they will ask for help.
4. What if you don’t have a particular word from God?
- Nehemiah didn’t have one – he had an emotional response.
- God speaks in many ways.
- Recognise and go for it – this is part of the story.
- The motivation is important.
- If there is a passion this is the story.
5. How has your faith been challenged in the good times and the hard times?
- God seems to work on our character most during the tough times.
- God loves the faith that whatever you have walked through we still believe him!
- We need a doctrine of failure as well as a doctrine of success.
6. How can we restore people who have tried and failed?
- Barnabas is a great example – he went to get Paul and he defended John Mark.
- We need to create a culture of encouragement.
- We need to connect back with people who love us and can encourage us, and learn the lessons about what happened.
- Paul argues his apostolic authority based on Corinth!
7. How do you carve out time to do things central to the vision?
- Be ruthless.
- Look to your team.
- Often you can wear yourself our gathering your first 25 people.
- A lot of the people who gather to you in a church plant can be very needy people.
8. What are the top three things that you measure?
- Are people getting baptised?
- Are people growing in maturity and taking on responsibility?
- Are we involved in the nation? – Church planting and serving
- What other nations are we involved in?
9. How do you talk to people who try to use other metrics?
- Always go back to what we’re trying to build.
10. How can you create a culture that serves the vision?
- Is it outward looking?