Normal vision is described as 20/20 and means that you can see what an average individual can see on an eye chart when they are standing 20 feet away. It literally is seeing things out in front and ahead of you. You go to an eye doctor to determine how good or bad your vision is and what needs to be done for you to see well. With this New Year and decade just days ahead the time is now for us to do the necessary work to envision His future for us. What do you see that the Lord desires for you to do in and through your church in 2020?
Make sure that you do an honest evaluation of the spiritual health of your church. Two great dangers for any church is an unwillingness to assess the condition of their ministries and then an unwillingness to take the necessary steps for change to occur. What is your present reality? Your church is not meant to just survive but rather to thrive and vibrantly carry out the Great Commission in your community and context. What areas are you strong in and where is your church challenged the most?
Take some time over the next several weeks to prayerfully work on your ministry and consider what might be the next steps towards your preferred future. Even if your church is doing well and you believe it is quite healthy where can you improve and what do you need to tweak and improve? Begin to plan how you can make your preaching, prayer, worship, ministry, discipleship, outreach, and fellowship better. No matter how well your ministry is functioning and your systems are working there are always ways to make them better.
How can you improve your preaching and teaching? Are you consistently delivering a meal that is worth showing up for? Are you feeding the flock in a way that explains the passage in the context of what it is actually saying then applying it to their lives? Are you putting the time in for proper preparation? What needs to change in the New Year if you are not? What do you need to stop doing in order to deliver messages that convey the essence of what God is leading your church to do out of His word? What tools or training do you need to look into to get better?
How are you doing in the area of prayer? Is there a focus on intentional intercessory prayer for your church, church leaders, ministries, and your community? What could you do to formulate a recommitment to a deliberate and systematic approach to involving everyone possible in a season of prayer? Ask God to raise up prayer warriors that would champion a call back to “effectual fervent prayer” throughout your congregation. Leonard Ravenhill said it well, “Prayer is not preparation for the battle; it is the battle.”
How could you improve your worship? Work hard at focusing your church on being centered on God. Develop a plan to challenge your people to participate in worship privately and corporately. Do you have a daily Bible reading schedule for the entire church and have you considered teaching them how to S.O.A.P. journal? When your people are worshiping daily the Sunday worship will be an overflow of their hearts. Prayerfully think through how you can systematically get everyone into the Bible more and challenge them to offer themselves as living sacrifices.
Are you making disciples? Do you see evidence in your church of disciples being developed to the third and fourth generation according to II Timothy 2:2? What is your 20/20 Vision for developing a clear discipleship pathway? Have you trained and developed disciple-makers who know how and are willing to invest in consistent intentional discipleship? Without a system and pathway, normally, discipleship will not happen. Take time to think through a discipleship system that can always answer this simple question; “What’s next?”
Are you engaging the community around you? Are you working hard at exegeting your culture to discover how you can best love, serve, and build relationships with them? What is your community like socially, economically, physically, and spiritually? The apostle Paul was very aware of his surroundings and the emotional and spiritual climate where he was ministering. Do the homework of observation (What do you see with your eyes?), conversation (What do I hear with my ears?), and implementation (What should I do with my hands?).
How is your fellowship? Is there a climate of cooperation and a willingness to help encourage one another to love and good deeds? Are the relationships shallow and on the surface or are they continuing to go deeper? In our individualistic society we must continue to get better at real relationships that encourage trust, transparency, and vulnerability. A pastor friend recently said to me, “Truth travels best on the tracks of relationship.” Work hard at building a Matthew 18:15-20 culture where you do not talk about one another but to one another.
20/20 vision will require prayerful planning and a determination to take the steps necessary to move your church from its present reality to its preferred future. It is not easy but it is well worth the journey. Take time to think through how you as a church can develop better systems that will improve assimilation, spiritual growth, discipleship, and multiplication. Now is the time to work “on” the ministry through prayerful planning and dreaming because soon we will be focused again on working “in” the ministry.
Mission
Vision
Strategy
Team
How are you handling the preaching of the word?
How are you connecting and engaging with your community?
How are you focusing on and developing a prayer culture?
How will you disciple those God entrusts into your hands?