Gaining clarity

Over at our church blog, I post outlines of Sunday's sermons. Recently we looked at our vision, it being the beginning of the year. If there's one truth about the church and vision that I need to keep in front of me it is that people forget. If I don't regularly remind myself and the congregation what our vision is, we go off course and lose our way.

But there was something different this year. I think we're reaching a point of clarity. A point derived from 5 years of work and reflection. This is, in outline, how I presented the vision this year:

What is our vision? It’s really important that we remember at all times that we are called both to be the people of God and to do the work of mission and ministry. It’s not an “either or” it is a “both and” situation. It’s “both and” because what we do arises out of who we are, and it should always be that way around. Let’s remind ourselves then what is at the core of being Cotton End Baptist Church.

#1 A people of values

We have agreed on these five core values:

A clear commitment to Christ
Genuine, authentic Christian lifestyle
Commitment to one another
Committed to serve and to reach our community
The centrality of prayer and worship in everything we do

#2 A people on a mission

Our mission statement is: To know God and to make God known

I can’t think of a simpler way of describing the mission of the church. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was he responded with a well-known abbreviation of the Ten Commandments. Paraphrased we would probably answer that question like this: to love God wholeheartedly, to love others in the same way we want to be loved.For me, our mission statement defines our strategy.

#3 A people with a purpose

So, we have a mission and we have some values, but to what end? What’s our purpose?

Here’s a simple statement of our purpose: To love people into a deep and growing relationship with God.

Our mission, our values and our vision are all caught up in this single purpose. We are here that the world might believe in the one who came into the world and was not recognised by the world.This is why we reach out with God’s love and kindness through the car washes and the Christmas gifts. We want people to know that God loves them.

#4 A people of vision

We are a visionary people. Over the autumn we explored what it meant to be part of God’s big plan as we studied the early church in Acts. We saw how God moved his purposes forward step by step through the early church.

God has not stopped calling visionary people to take risks in his hands for the sake of the kingdom.

How would we define our vision?

Firstly, it’s not about building a big church, but a great church. A great church is one where we can believe together, belong together and build together. A great church is a church where relationships are deep not superficial, where broken lives find healing, where God is honoured and worshipped. A great church is a church that the community would miss if it were not there, a place where people come to find answers to life’s big and small questions. A great church will be a part of the DNA of the community that it serves.

Secondly, we would define our vision in terms of building a church within local communities. I’m thinking here about the opportunities in Cotton End, Shortstown and the Wixams.

#5 A people in partnership

1 Cor.12 paints a vivid picture of partnership. In the middle of his discussion about spiritual gifts, Paul presents us with this image of the church as the body of Christ. Everyone has a role to play, a gift to employ, a purpose to fulfil. We are all partners.

First we are partners with God. We are co-workers with the God who made it all, sustains it all, and will bring it all to completion. It’s his vineyard, his harvest-field, his kingdom, his call. He leads, we follow. Our question is simple: What are you doing Lord, how can I help?

Second, we are partners with each other. We have four things in common:

A shared vision
A shared set of values
A shared ministry
A shared mission

It seems to me that these 5 things are really important if we want to be clear about what we're doing, or "being" here. Perhaps the concept of partnership is less important than values, vision, mission and purpose, and maybe we'll rewrite this in the context of core convictions a la Saddleback. I don't know. What I do know is that this outline has helped me get clearer about what I'm doing in this place.