Vision Month

This Sunday will begin what we are calling VISION MONTH here at Grace Church. This is not just a focus that we will be taking on Sunday mornings. This will be a ministry-wide focus which will also be including our children’s ministry and our educational ministries of Lititz Christian School and Morningstar Daycare.

But what is vision? God told Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:1-2 to record the vision and inscribe it on tablets so that the one who reads it may run. That sounds extremely significant. The best definition I have ever heard of vision came from Bill Hybels who said that “vision is a picture of the future that produces a passion.” Helen Keller was once asked, “What would be worse than being born blind?” Her answer was astounding. She replied, “To have sight with no vision.”

Unfortunately that describes a lot of Christians and a lot of churches today. They have sight…they know the truth of God’s Word, but they have no vision. They seem to be lacking any passion at all to do anything big for God.

What is it that limits our vision? In John 6, a great multitude of people (Luke's Gospel says 5,000 men which could mean up to 25,000 in total with women and children) were on a mountain in a very desolate place listening to Jesus teach. It was getting late and they were all hungry. Testing Philip, Jesus asked him where they could get enough food to feed such a crowd. I’m sure the answer Jesus wanted to hear was, “Why, you can do that Jesus…You’re God!” Instead, Philip replied that 6 months worth of wages would not be enough money to buy enough food for such a crowd. Philip could not look past the reality of his situation. Neither can many churches resulting in sight but no vision.

Andrew was asked to go through the crowd and see if there was any food available. All he could find was one boy’s lunch consisting of 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish. He brings it to Jesus and pessimistically says, “What are these among so many?” Andrew could not look past his resources. Neither can many churches and vision is squelched.

How much vision should we have? Well, that depends. How big is our God? According to Ephesians 3:20, He is a God who is able to do super abundantly beyond anything we could ever ask for and anything we could ever imagine. Now based on that fact about God, how much vision do you think we should have? No wonder D.L. Moody once said, “If God be your partner make your plans large!”

Because vision is so important, we will be taking the month of February throughout our entire ministry to refocus our vision. What is Grace Church, Morningstar Daycare and Lititz Christian School all about? Why do we exist? What big things do we believe that God has called us to do? How can we become even more effective at meeting people where they are both geographically and spiritually as well as being used by God to help move people to where God wants them to be?