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Vision: Future thinking

Carlin Weinhauer

It seems very little happens that doesn’t first begin as vision. We envision what it would be like to finish school, and we press on. We do some future thinking about a job, a career, a car, a home, and then we work toward making our vision a reality. Forecasting, trying to “future think”, is daily fare in the business world.

For purposes of this article, I am using the terms “vision”, “planning”, “purpose”, “future thinking” and “dreaming” as being synonymous, even though there are differences among these terms. Specifically, I’m talking about looking into the future and seeking the mind of the Lord for direction and focus.

Is vision discussion, or “future thinking”, appropriate for believers and the church? Some suggest trying to forecast the future is running ahead of the Holy Spirit. They say only God knows the future and we shouldn’t be that concerned about it; we should live one day at a time, and that will be good enough.

There is truth in this line of thought. The Bible says in James 4:13-15 “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ ”

I don’t believe James is telling us not to plan. Rather, he is calling us to have the right perspective in our planning. We must acknowledge the Lord is ultimately in charge of our lives and our world. For the believer, future thinking must always be in terms of seeking God’s ultimate will for us.

Similarly, in Matthew 6:31-34, Jesus said “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Again, I don’t think Jesus is calling us to not plan or do future thinking. He is calling us to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness first. Jesus is calling us to envision the future. But He is saying in our future thinking, the Lord’s Kingdom should be our focus.

As we look into the next year and future years, how can we generate vision from a biblical perspective?

Vision must be rooted in God

In Exodus 3:6-10, God appeared to Moses through a burning bush and said:

“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. . . . I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. . . . So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Three things stand out in this passage: There is a need (“the misery of my people in Egypt”), there is God (“I am the God of your father”), and there is a person (in this case, Moses) whom God is nudging into a future direction. Vision isn’t that complicated if we focus on these three items.

The purpose statement of Willingdon Church flows out of need. Our world is imprisoned in sin and darkness. Romans 3:23 makes this clear: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” To meet this need, Jesus said to His followers in Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”

At Willingdon Church, we have stated our purpose is “To know Jesus Christ personally, and to carry on His ministry.” This vision is rooted in God, in God’s heart for the needs of people and in God’s direction to us to meet those needs.

How do we implement this vision? This vision impacts everything we do at Willingdon. We want people to know Christ personally, so we engage in many forms of evangelism. But we also want people to know Jesus Christ personally by having a growing relationship with Him. We encourage this growth through the study of God’s Word in Sunday school, Bible Study Care Groups, hands-on ministry opportunities, personal devotions and a growing prayer life. We are excited by the possibilities in the coming year for a growing number of people to find Christ and for a growing number of people to be growing in their relationship with Christ.

How do we carry on Christ’s ministry? By doing what Jesus did. Jesus taught and preached the Word of God; He lived with a few men, discipling them and sharing His heart with them; He healed people; He walked and talked with people; He fed people physical food; He took time to bless children; He blessed marriage relationships; He defended the repentant; He purified the temple; He taught people to pray; He set an example of true humility; and He sacrificed His life for the world.

Vision rooted in God is vision that has access to all the resources of heaven.

Vision must be energized by faith

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. . . . By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. . . . By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time (Hebrews 11:6-8, 24-25).

Faith looks into the future and believes. The future is friendly to those who have faith. Yes, there are surprises in the future, but faith helps them keep going. That is why the people of vision I know, are also people of strong faith. Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible. Faith is focusing on God’s promises and cutting out the world’s discouragements. Raymond Edman, the president of Wheaton College for many years, said, “Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.”

Vision must be cast in hope

“In this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:24-28).

Vision must be cast in the hope God will ultimately work out His will through His obedient servants.

Sometimes as leaders we have a dream we pursue with great vigour. We have spent time with God and believe the dream is rooted in God. Our faith is rising, and “a fire is burning in our bellies”. We then must cast our vision in hope, knowing God is working out His will in our lives.

It is at this point we must be ready for our dream to die. There are times God allows our vision to die so He can give us His more perfect vision for our situation. The need has not changed, the people have not changed, God has not changed. However, leaders must be willing for their vision to die, even when they were convinced that they knew best how to address a pressing need. Through a growing lack of consensus on the part of those they lead or a dramatic change in attendant realities, even a specific, well-defined vision can roll over and die on us. And here is where we are the most vulnerable in leadership.

In 1987, we knew we needed a larger facility to handle the growth God was giving Willingdon Church. We learned that an 11-acre piece of property and buildings, a former public high school, was for sale. We started negotiating with the school board for this property, and arrived at a figure of $6 million, subject to the approval of the congregation. We planned to sell our present 3-acre site and building, and move there.

The elders thought we should have an 80% favourable vote from the congregation. Excitement was running high. We had spent time with God and felt the vision was rooted in God. We could see all the possibilities of the new site.

We took the vote, and, of the over 1000 members who voted, 79.47% voted in favour of the project. If 17 more people had voted yes rather than no, we would have had the mandate to move and build at the new site. That property was sold to developers a couple of years later for $11 million.

In John 12:24, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Our vision had been cast in hope, but now it had been defeated. Our vision seed went into the ground and died because we were convinced unity was more important than expansion. Whatever we did for the cause of Christ we were going to do together.

Did we still have a need? Yes. Was our God big enough to meet our need? Yes. A Development Committee was struck, and work was begun to see what could be done. The result was a $5.8 million expansion program including an expanded sanctuary, a new chapel, fireside and music rooms, and a three-story education, gym and food services complex with underground parking on the old site. The project came in three months ahead of schedule and $75,000 under budget. The harmony and commitment to press ahead with this redirected vision was truly amazing to behold.

Vision must be cast in hope, listening for the voice of God as we move along. As we hear His voice, our vision will go forward as is, be modified or be recast.

Vision must be caught through relationship

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:71). “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

We can have all the vision in the world, but if no one catches it, the vision remains only a dream. There is much wisdom in the motto of the steel company Dofasco: “Our business is steel; our strength is people.”

In our early years of ministry, my wife Marcia and I served as an associate pastor couple at Bethel Community Free Church in Chicago. Brian Ogne was our Sunday school superintendent. During the day, Brian worked for the Internal Revenue Service, collecting back taxes in the concrete jungle of Chicago. But his passion was Sunday school and people. There were 500 students in Sunday school at Bethel. Brian’s favourite line was, “Oh, just smile and do it!” – and people did! Why? Because Brian always smiled, and everyone knew Brian loved Jesus, loved the church and loved his teachers. They would go the extra mile for Brian because they knew they were appreciated and loved. Brian was a man of vision, and his vision was caught through relationship.

Vision requires a steady course

“I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Once a vision is developed and caught, it takes leadership to maintain the course. The main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing. In ministry, the vision must be verbalized, agreed on and then followed with faithfulness and integrity. When leaders show up every day with faith and vision in their hearts, over time, they will make a difference by the grace of God.

Carlin Weinhauer is senior pastor of Willingdon Church in Burnaby, B.C. This article is based on a sermon preached Jan. 4, 1998 in Willingdon Church.

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

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