Clearing Your Vision
Joel C. Hunter
The most compelling reason I have for going away to pray is to find what God is saying to our congregation in the context of the larger church.
—Joel C. Hunter When I first came to my present pastorate, I wanted a vision à la Proverbs 29:18 ("Where there is no vision, the people perish," KJV). I wondered, What does God have in mind for our church? For several months, though, I concentrated on building relationships, establishing credibility, and hearing the leaders' ideas about the church. Before long my days were spent in disjointed attempts to repair programs or solve people-problems. I became bogged down in routine. My hope of finding a vision, a long-term goal for the church, never materialized. I looked to the elders for leadership, but they spent all their time, like me, solving problems instead of providing vision. In the midst of my frustration, however, I had two hit-yourself-in-the-head realizations. First, in twenty years of ministry I had never seen a committee receive a vision. Committees had offered wonderful methods to accomplish a vision or reach a goal. They had confirmed and refined an individual's insights. But I had never seen vision originate in group process—not in the Bible, not in the church. Second, the problem was not my inability to discover and articulate a vision. My problem was more basic: interruptions and distractions hindered me from seeing where God was leading. These distractions were good and necessary elements of ministry—daily devotions, sermon research, pastoral care, and administration. But they hindered me from discovering God's larger purpose for this church. Like most pastors, I enjoy being accessible. It makes me feel useful, almost indispensable. And after years of experience, I'm pretty ...
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