Be Thou My Vision

It is important for a church to have a clear vision... a vision of itself, a vision of the future and a vision of God. Churches often produce a "vision statement," a clear, concise statement of the church's identity and focus. This vision statement becomes both a target for which to aim and a means to measure progress. An old Diana Ross song asks, "Do you know where you're going to?" Not great grammar, but a great idea-- if you don't know where you're going, then how will you know when you get there? Sure, it's easier just to shoot and then draw the circle around whatever you hit. That's easy. but it isn't very productive. We need a clear vision of where we are going.

The text that is often used in vision-casting is Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV). The idea here is that unless we cast a clear vision (and vision statement), then the church will die. The problem is that the verse has to be quoted from the KJV before it makes this great statement about vision casting. Look at what this proverb seems to say when read in different versions--

• NIV: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint” 
• NLT: “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.” 
• NCV: “Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled” 

Remember Indigo Montoya's famous line, “I don’t think that Bible verse means what you think it means.” (OK, loose paraphrase).  In fact, the verse says the opposite of what we often make it to say! The vision we need is a clear vision of God and from God. It’s about following God’s revelation.  That's why we sometimes skip the second part of the proverb, "But he that keepeth the law, happy is he" (KJV) or "but blessed is he who keeps the law" (NIV).

So the point really isn't for us to come up with a cleverly worded and polished "Vision Statement" printed up on business cards and published on a spiffy new web site (OK, we do happen to have all of those). The vision to which Proverbs 29:18 refers and the vision that we die without is a clear vision of who God is through His revelation of Himself.   The point isn't for us to decide what we’re going to do in a clever way; the point is to see what it is that God is doing and join with Him in that!  It is God Himself who is our vision!