Of Reservoirs and Aliens: Church Vision

You would be hard pressed to hang around church leadership or church growth seminars and not hear the word, “vision.” As in:

“What’s the vision of your church?”
“What’s your vision?”
“What is your vision statement?”
“Does your vision statement follow a sequential process that is specific, transferable and measurable?”

Or was that last one a purpose statement? Sometimes I confuse the two!

The intent of the vision question is clear, and I think well summarized by Pastor Rick Warren in his book, Purpose Driven Church:

People want to join a church that knows where it is going. When a church clearly communicates its destination, people are eager to get on board. This is because everyone is looking for something that gives meaning, purpose, and direction to life. When Ezra told the people exactly what God expected them to do, the people responded, “Tell us how to proceed in setting things straight and we will fully cooperate” (Ezra 10:4 LB). (The Purpose Driven Church, p.91, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids MI, 1995)

Never mind that it was Shecaniah son of Jehiel of the family of Elam that explained to Ezra what needed to happen (and why) – Ezra was the Scribe approved by Artaxerxes Longimanus to lead the second group of exiles out of Babylon. As such, Ezra’s leadership and clarity was essential for the rest of the community to follow.

If there is a clear purposeful path laid out by Pastor Warren, Charles Swindoll speaks to the grandeur of a vision:

Vision is essential for survival. It is spawned by faith, sustained by hope, sparked by imagination, and strengthened by enthusiasm. It is greater than sight, deeper than a dream, broader than an idea. Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected. No wonder we perish without it! (Make Your Dreams Come True, Charles Swindoll)

That last sentence is drawn from the KJV of Proverbs 29:18a: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I have heard this passage used many times when talking about vision, but it really doesn’t seem to fit when taken into context and by a different translation:

• Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law. (NIV)

• Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled, but those who obey what they have been taught are happy. (NCV)

• When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful. (NLT)

As in Ezra, the passage from Proverbs speaks to the revealed law of God. It is a way of seeing, a divine communication as it were. These are references to God’s word to us; a reflection of God’s character, holiness and mercy. He reveals His word that we may see – or have vision – who He is and what He desires.

With all due respect to any vision statement of a church, nothing compares to seeing God’s revelation of Himself.

It is true, however, that we gather around common ideas, practices and dreams and that we give ourselves more fully and purposefully when we know what we are doing counts – it is moving us in a direction together.

So I looked up vision.

Main Entry:
1vi•sion
Pronunciation:
\vi-zhən\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin vision-, visio, from vidēre to see
Date:
14th century
1 a: something seen in a dream, trance, or ecstasy ; especially : a supernatural appearance that conveys a revelation b: a thought, concept, or object formed by the imagination c: a manifestation to the senses of something immaterial
2 a: the act or power of imagination b (1): mode of seeing or conceiving (2): unusual discernment or foresight c: direct mystical awareness of the supernatural usually in visible form
3 a: the act or power of seeing : SIGHT b: the special sense by which the qualities of an object (as color, luminosity, shape, and size) constituting its appearance are perceived through a process in which light rays entering the eye are transformed by the retina into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve
4 a: something seen b: a lovely or charming sight
(“vision” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. http://www.merriam-webster.com (14 April 2009).

Something seen. The act or power of imagination. Something seen or imagined is translated into words. Or not. Sometimes words can’t communicate sight or imagination – so nothing less than the picture itself can suffice. Only in seeing it can its meaning be perceived. Even this, however, can fail us when it comes to articulating what we sense.

In the 1977 quasi-theological movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) builds a mountain of mashed potatoes on his plate and comments, “This means something. This is important.” He doesn’t know why, just that it is. He sees this shape replicated in shaving cream, pillows and other objects. Later, he finds what he intuited: the shape was of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. To this tower Roy is inexorably drawn – and there he finds what he perceived played out in reality.

Okay. This is not an endorsement of UFO’s and five-tone musical phrasings in a major scale. But it does tie into the issue of vision.

What is the vision of a church? What is deeply intuited by God’s Spirit in the heart and imagination of elders? What is seen?

Here is what I see.

A Reservoir. I first saw a lake – a perhaps that still fits – I am not sure. The only thing in my seeing the distinction was intentionality.

A reservoir is intentionally created in order to provide needed resources for a thirsty population. A reservoir is intentionally created in order to provide measured, intentional releases of water for agriculture and commerce. One benefit beyond its more important functions is that of recreation. Reservoirs become gathering places for families and friends. Swimming, hiking, boating, fishing, BBQ’s – good days to be alive and enjoy one another.

A reservoir is intentionally placed where it is fed by watersheds and streams from small to large – even rivers.

Reservoirs do not exist unto themselves and for themselves. They exist to serve, to nurture; to bring health and growth. Reservoirs serve their primary purposes in two stages: gathering and releasing.

Without gathering, there can be no release. Gathering is receiving. Gathering is receiving from the source. Taking in. Being filled. From potential to realization, every aspect of gathering signals its ability to provide. The reservoir knows without gathering it cannot supply the need.

Two things direct the reservoirs release: the tension and pressure against that which restrains it and the needs of those who are recipients of the supply. There is always tension between gathering and releasing. This tension is essential for the well being of all concerned. To little release and pressure can build to the point of weakening the structures that boundary the reservoir with the result of radical rupture. Too much release and downstream channels can be flooded – again bringing destruction to that which was meant to be nourished.

While gathering is receiving, releasing is satiation. The intentional outflow of the reservoir now moves throughout the surrounding areas – bringing nurturing life to the community. Evan as the tap in the kitchen or the faucet in the shower is experienced by people, the water moves to supply crops that will produce harvest months yet to come. In the foreground of life and in the backdrop of seasons and plantings – the waters make life possible in a community that often never perceives what it takes to bring such blessing.

God is sourcing his church. He carefully builds and defines its structure. He pours into it waters of life – springs that never cease – a flow of His Spirit that prepares and adorns His church with His presence.

There, in that reservoir, we gather and find fellowship and family. We recreate in the beauty of what He has made in Christ. We live in the warmth of His Son and the enjoyment of His people. Each gathering He is pouring into that reservoir, building, strengthening, and sustaining His grace.

There is a city waiting. There are a people who thirst. In our own thinking we seek release and we strain against the means of His release. But God knows the reservoir and the people. He speaks and streams of living water move throughout a city carrying life to all who live there.

Acts of mercy and kindness. Prayers over neighborhoods. Assisting the hurting and the broken. Befriending the isolated and rejected. Living our lives, as the apostle Peter puts it, in such a manner that our good works bring praise and glory to God. Streams into the desert, God spoke through Isaiah. A church carrying all its gathered grace even as it is dispersed throughout a community.

We are both: a reservoir and the streams that flow out of it.

This is the church. This is the vision, the picture, the imagination. This is the dream, the hope, the intention.

What is my vision of San Ramon Presbyterian Church? Do you see it? Can you perceive it?

Now, may God grant us an awesome wisdom to follow the contours of His creative construction in the building of this reservoir for His incredible name. As He releases us onto the community, I pray we carry the life-sustaining presence of His Spirit, nourishing this city for His glory.