I’m in the middle of preparing a short series on ‘Vision’. It’s one of those ideas that is frequently used as a hammer to bash church leaders with – ‘I don’t think we’ve got a clear vision of what God wants of us…’ And it always sounds presumptuous to reply ‘Well, actually we have.’ So I’m trying to explore vision, and what it might mean for us. And I’m discovering that it’s a lot more general than many people suspect.

Brian Stanley, in his recent ‘George Beasley-Murray lecture’ got things started. He made the point that our strategy for mission needs to be shaped by our understanding of the Trinity – that God as Father, Son and Spirit are the foundation on which mission rests. And so that’s where the whole ‘God-shaped Church’ comes from. (It has a double meaning – did you catch that?)

Over the next few weeks I’m going to break that down to see the effect that considering each person of the Trinity has on our understanding of what the Church must be – our vision for the Church. But this week is the ‘Big Picture’

Where we start is that the Father loves people. The missional directive comes from the Father.Then the work of Christ is to heal, restore and redeem. And the activity of the Spirit is to mediate that truth to the world. I’ve expressed this as ‘The heart of the Father; the hands of the Son, and the breath of the Spirit.’

Here’s a part of the chart that (over time) will grow to illustrate the whole thing:

(Created using the free bubbl.us mindmapping tool – well worth checking out)

Over the next few days I’ll expand on this, and unpack where a vision for the Church will come from. Come back and see more!