Awareness & Vision

So today Ryan and I went to this Church Planting meeting somewhere in Kansas City(ish). There were two sessions today. The first one was about Stratgey....well, kinda. The second one was about GTD, aka Getting Things Done, which is a systematic way to organize and prioritize. I would like to focus on the first session today for this blog. Not because the second one wasn't good, it's just that....well, let's just say the first one was more applicable to me at this point in my life.

This guy named Kevin Something (not really his last name; we'll pretend that I am protecting the innocent) talked about strategy. Actually he didn't really talk about strategy. I have no idea what he was supposed to talk about, but he talked about awareness, vision, strategy, courage.

What I really loved about what he said is that planting a church is SOOOOO not all about your children's program, youth program or small groups. It is SOOOOO not about strategy. Before you can plant a church, you have to be aware and have a vision. You might be asking yourself....um, why is this important to me? My response? Cause this should be how everyone walks into any kind of ministry anywhere, regardless of if you are planting a church or not.

Being aware is about seeing your community and the area in which you are ministering through God's eyes. It is all about seeing the community for what it is and seeing things the way they are. Too often people walk into a community full of ideas of what they are going to change and do with an existing church or with their new church plant, and they never stop to figure out who these people are or what their needs are.

After you have figured out what the needs are in the community, your job is to figure out what direction you think the community needs to go. This is called vision. It is not strategy, mind you! It is not figuring out what method to use to make sure that all the young people in your community show up on Sundays. It's not about what day of the week to do your small groups or how many people should come to those small groups before you duplicate. It's about seeing the future in a sense. Vision is about seeing where you and your community need to go.

Awareness comes from spending time in your community and talking to people. It comes from opening your eyes and looking through God's glasses to see what is happening. Your vision comes from realizing what is going on in your community and dreaming about where you think it should be. Only after these two things have been worked through can you even begin to strategize.

I know that this sounds like, "Duh!" But to me, this was huge. I just quit my full-time job, left my family and closest friends, moved to Olathe, and am looking for a part-time job to help pay the bills, and I am not sure that I have any idea what this community needs or where it needs to go. Now, granted, I trust Ryan to figure this out and know where it needs to go (eventually), but it really put within me a desire to get to know this community. I am not sure what this means, but I know that it will take some work and take some time.

Awareness. Vision. Hmmm. Something to think about.