Note that I have tended to ramble in this post, and it has gotten longer than I anticipated. My apologies, and I hope you'll stick with me.
The one thing I did prepare well for is the title of the class. "Vision" conveys the idea that we're looking for something beyond where we presently are. That it is "for the Church" means that we have a greater, collective purpose together as God's family. Since God is the One with the perfect vision of what His church should be, we of necessity look to His word to find what it is. His Word is, of course, revealed to us by the inspired writers. Paul was one of the more prolific writers of the New Testament, and he wrote primarily to churches. So, "Vision for the Church as Revealed by the Apostle Paul" seemed a fitting title for my class.
This blog will be my means of capturing the thoughts for each lesson, providing a means for class members to look a little more closely at what I've said and also allow them to make a comment or question they didn't think of during class, catch up on a class they missed, or share something with someone not in the class. This is a grand experiment on my part, and I have great hope for it.
Why VISION?
Let's first look at what I mean by "Vision." Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." This tells us that we as people need to know what's intended for us. The idea of a "Vision Statement" has been promoted widely in the last few years, but they've been around for more than a century (even centuries, I suppose). A good definition I found is "A vision statement is a vivid idealized description of a desired outcome that inspires, energizes and helps you create a mental picture of your target. It could be a vision of a part of your life, or the outcome of a project or goal." (http://units.sla.org/division/dbio/inside/governance/Visionstate.pdf). Basically, this tells us we need to take what we have now, imagine what we can do with it, and picture ourselves doing it. Vision statements are used in a variety of applications for business, government, organizations, churches, and personal. Here are some examples:
- Caterpillar - Be the global leader in customer value
- Ford early 1900's - Democratize the automobile
- (whatever that means, but see, vision statements have been around for a while)
- Ford current - To become the world's leading consumer company for automotive products and services
- The United States Air Force will be a trusted and reliable joint partner with our sister services known for integrity in all of our activities, including supporting the joint mission first and foremost. We will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach, and Power for the nation. (OK - as an AF retiree and current Civil Servant, I had to throw that one in there)
- The State Library of Louisiana is a strategic leader in bringing information resources to the people of Louisiana through cooperation with government entities, partnership with other libraries, technology, and superior customer service.
- Stanford University - 1940's: Become the Harvard of the West
- The vision for the Church of Christ in Xxxxxx is to become one family anointed by God to honor Him in holy worship and in holy service.
- The Xxxxxx Xxxxxx church of Christ is a church family being changed by the spirit of God into the likeness of Christ as we worship God, study His word, and serve the church, our community, and the world.
- To impact the lives of others through godliness in mine
- My amiable vision is to become one of the most recognized economists and researchers, a world bank consultant
One other thought here. As I've developed this introduction, I've realized that I may not be using "Vision" in the way most accepted sense. What I've thought of may be more of a mission statement or more likely a "Value" statement. If you want to read a find out more about that, the link above has a good bit of information or a simple web search will give you plenty. But, I've decided it's my class (and my blog) and I'll call it what I want.
Please understand also, that I'm not saying our church, or any church for that matter, should or should not have vision statements. If a church under the oversight of its Elders decides that a vision statement will be useful for it in carrying out the work they see put before them in accordance with God's will, then that is what they should do.What I'm trying to do is point out at least some elements of the true and perfect vision we've been given.
Why "...as revealed by the Apostle Paul"?
Next, let's look at why I chose to focus on vision "as revealed by the Apostle Paul." Note that I'm skipping over "for the Church" right now but will come back to it, He was the writer of 13 (Romans through Philemon) and possibly 14 (Hebrews) of the NT books. In a simple count of verses, Paul's writing is only exceeded by Luke (Gospel of Luke and Acts) unless Hebrews is attributed to Paul. John, with his Gospel account, three letters, and the Revelation is the nearest, but not close, rival along with Matthew and his one Gospel account. The other writers altogether provide slightly over an eighth of the NT. I'm not trying to say the other writings are insignificant. After all it is God's word they've written. It's just not as much as Paul, Luke, John, and Matthew. A couple of charts shows this rather dramatically:
I got the data for these charts from http://www.deafmissions.com/tally/bkchptrvrs.html, or you can count them for yourself in your own Bible or on a website like BibleGateway.com. I can assure you, though, this is rather tedious even using a spreadsheet like I did prior to finding the linked site.
Why "...for the Church"?
What's also significant about Paul's writing is who he wrote to. Six of his letters are addressed specifically to churches. The others that aren't to specific individuals mentions saints and/or believers that implies a specific called out group. Also, in writing to Timothy and Titus, he was counseling them on how to deal with the churches in which they were working. Even in the letter addressed to Philemon, one of the most personal letters in the collection of scripture, the church that met in Philemon's house is mentioned in the greeting.
One thing we have to remember, though, is that Paul was the "writer", but not the "author". Paul was revealing God's will, not creating it. That's why it is so significant to us. We as people have difficulty seeing ourselves one, two, five or even 2,000 years in the future. But the all powerful, all knowing, all seeing God already knew it then. God knows what it is He wants His church to be, and all we have to do is choose to be a part of it.
Class Format
So, we'll use Paul's writing to examine some of his inspiring, energizing statements about the Lord's church. Some of these spread across a number of his letters, and I'll try to reference them all. I'll even look at compares to Jesus' teaching and the writers of other NT letters. That should give is a clear mental picture of God's vision for the church. We don't want to let that vision just be a dream, though. We have to put some action with it. However, with a clear mental picture we can better see how to apply the instructions in His word.
I've gleaned a number of the inspiring, energizing statements from Paul's writings. I'm not as far along as I wanted to be with that before starting the class, but I should soon, hopefully this week, have a list that I'll use as the class topics.
Again, sorry for this being so long. It's my first attempt at blogging, and I'm sure I'll get more succinct as the weeks go on. Looking forward to your comments.
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