Vision is not Optional

I mentioned last week that I'd post something on "vision". For those who think I've forgotten, let me say that I'm still buried in research and writing on "Post-Charismatics". If all goes well, Lord willing the final product will be online sometime in July. Brother Maynard has been a great help in proof-reading and beating me up offering helpful advice on the content and the writing, as well as sending me encouraging emails to keep at it. Thanks also to Tim Mitchell for his invaluable input!

Anyway, with that disclaimer, on to "vision"...

During my stay in Kelowna recently, the topic of vision came up repeatedly. A popular verse that speaks of vision is Proverbs 29:18. Different versions of the Bible yield different emphases on this tiny verse, but each contributes something worth considering.

The King James Version renders this verse in probably its most well-known wording: "Without a vision, the people perish."

Two years ago, we had a long discussion on this blog about dreams and vision getting beaten out people, to the point of them not daring to dream anymore. Unfortunately, Haloscan doesn't archive comments beyond a certain point, which is unfortunate because the honesty and vulnerability of the 40+ people who commented was amazing.

But the death of vision, for many of them, left them feeling directionless and hollow -- another way of saying "the people perish". Vision is (or should be) life-giving.

The New International Version words the same verse in this way: "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint."

Once upon a time, when I was worship/youth pastor at Eastgate Vineyard in Victoria, I remember our senior pastor, Jim Inkster, commenting on this verse to the effect of vision "restraining" people, much as athletes are restrained by their vision of Olympic gold, so they say "no" to things that would deflect or prevent them from reaching those goals. Vision gives us a grid of restraint, as we say "yes" or "no" to things (legitimate things, too) that don't move us towards our goals. Without a revelation from the Spirit as to what we're called to do, we have no parametres of restraint.

Eugene Peterson's The Message presents another facet of this verse: "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves."

If you want to see conflicting agendas and people running into/over each other, just take a look at any group or church that has no clear sense of what God has called them to do. Vision/revelation/seeing what God is doing gives a real point of community-shaping and direction. Shared vision, and common goals, are community-building.

Of course, in the name of "vision-casting", many people have felt artificially forced into a "church vision" that feels more like an agenda than a life-giving vision; some have suggested that if they hear the term "vision-casting" one more time, we'll see their latest meal in our laps.

We should perhaps devote some more time later to the concept of leaders encouraging multiple visions versus (or maybe in addition to) a one-size-fits-all corporate vision. But for now, I'd like to suggest that vision is extremely necessary to the building of healthy communities of faith. If there's been abuses of vision-casting, the antidote isn't to have no vision/dreams, it's to weed out the man-made additions and see what the Spirit really is saying to churches, home groups, and individuals.

Leonard Sweet once wrote, "Do you believe in what you're doing? Better yet, do you believe that what you're doing is what God is doing?"