Pioneering Questions #2

For this week I want to tackle some of the Pioneering Questions that emphasize both calling and vision.

The Vision questions include:

How do you create vison in a large team context?  How do you form a team around a vision?  If one has a  good idea, how do you find the funding to pursue the idea?  Does vision morph over time?  Is vision and passion the same?

To begin to answer some of these questions requires defining what is meant by a vision.  Usually in the Christian context, we use the word vision when we are initiating something and it is linked to God’s approval/ His Word/His Will.   Vision is not normally used to describe normal Christian behavior; rather vision is more applied to pioneering something, although it need not be an innovation.  I would not say that I have vision to care for the poor and the needy, since all Christian are admonished to somehow be involved with that specific activity.  However, I might say that the Lord has given me the vision to start a community garden to serve the poor and the needy in a specific community. There is a sort of continuum for vision that might take place along the following train of concepts:

General Obedience-An Idea- Good Idea -Crazy Idea-Nuanced Obedience-Confirmed Sense of God Guiding

All along this continuum we could attach the word vision, if there is enough sense that God is getting our attention and preparing us to act.  We often use in YWAM the sense of God nudging us to act, it is not a coerced influence.  Almost all visionaries have their will trained to act-often quite rapidly.  Scripture would call this process "walking in the Spirit" and it is a learned experience refined in community and discipleship. Visionaries are not more spiritual or greater than someone who serves someone else's vision.  In fact servant leadership as a Biblical model of Jesus style leadership is about serving others and makes room for vision to arise from any believer.  Being visionary is built on the nature and character of God and a confidence to act from this foundational revelation.

 So vision requires a Word from the Lord/Some serendipity that highlights it to our attention/ Grace (God’s nudge) to start obeying/ Debriefing with others as you begin to walk it out/ and a continual open stance towards the Lord to  learn, because it will be tested, it will morph, and it will often turn out differently than what was originally conceived.

Back to the questions:

Creating vision in a large team context requires creative experimentation with what the team senses God is saying.  Hold success very lightly and see failure as a chance to learn what not to do.  Often it is in the creativity of a team that something coalesces into a new direction.  Any large cluster of YWAMers will do well to tolerate new things happening at the margins of the team.  It is often in those margins  that new initiatives find a way to show us a new way to do things.

Teams often form around vision as practical steps are made to reach towards a vision.  Most visions require enough spiritual practices to fuel everyone’s faith, but mostly it is the pragmatic and strategic moving towards a future- being-created that attracts others.  People can readily see where to lend a hand, and make a positive contribution.  People are much more attracted to tangible realities than to overly spiritualized concepts.  So all are needed and none is more important than the other.

Regarding finances, there is nothing more spiritual than being able to pay your bills for anything you think is from the Lord.  So, to get the funding that is often needed to do most things in our society an immediate test looms large on the horizon.  Here is a case where learning the fundamentals of money management as unglamorous as it sounds, and the counter-cultural teachings of the kingdom are critical foundation stones for any ministry expression.  

Passion is not the same as vision, rather it is an aspect of personality and character that segues into the topic of calling.  I like the word “vocation”, which literally means calling, because we normally use this to describe one’s work.  And it is in that context calling is seen biblically as the work one is meant to perform for God.  It is when you are functioning in sync with God’s intent and desire. This implies God gifting us with His abilities (graces) to do what he means for us to do.  It also could be linked to our passions as we practice discernment in sorting out the source of our interests.  Following God’s passion in us, yielding my passions to the Lordship of Christ-I am crucified with Christ- becomes a lived reality.  With Jesus in me by Spirit’s presence I can become fully what he has gifted and called me to become.

Passions originating out of our natural humanity (what the Bible refers to as flesh) are unsustainable over time as a source of ministry inspiration.  The challenge of discernment is the sorting out of our passions to trust in the ones that are moved by God’s Spirit and to nurture them.    Passion from God tends to become more obvious over time.

In the sorting out of things like passion and vision occasionally a line get crossed where someone is convinced that God is ramping-up vision to a sense of calling and vocation.  In my experience this is something that happens more so, if you are already living an active life as a disciple.  Therefore, a calling is not necessary to be obedient to what the Word says or other normal Christian activities.  Most callings that actually result in a changed focus of service happens while you are already doing something to serve the Lord.  The adage that it is always easier to steer a moving car instead of a parked car is totally appropriate for locating the environment when/where/how calling takes place.

One of the results of the short-term missions’ movement has been to “de-regulate” missions out of the realm of the professional to the realm of the gifted-by-God individuals or teams.  YWAM has been at the center of this missions shift since our beginnings.   Whereas the traditional approach has been one of someone interested in missions and ministry to seek a calling prior to being trained, YWAM’s approach has been highly experiential and experimental.  Therefore, at the core of most short-term ministry is the hope that the experience of serving will result in a person being moved to pursue ministry.  Over time the further hope is that by mission outreach there emerges a long-term calling and skill-set learned and dedicated to God’s kingdom.  Thus in YWAM, we may emphasize going to some location that does not have a YWAM presence.  The going is based on general obedience to go into all-the-world.  However, having once gone, meeting the people, learning some of their customs, being exposed to their needs there is the possibility that a calling might emerge.   In a direct, first-hand missions environment calling might not happen, without the physical going first.  Vocation is as much founded in compassion as it is in a direct encounter with God speaking.  God always moves in mysterious way, His wonders to perform.