Generations ago, the captain of an old merchant sailing ship made a statement that is still true today: “No wind blows in favor of a ship that has no direction.” The world still operates by that principle, whether you’re talking
about sailing vessels, or churches, or even individuals. People who accomplish significant deeds are usually driven by a direction to which they are totally committed.
Dr. Jonas Salk discovered the first vaccine against polio. Of that scientific effort he said, “Ideas came to me as they do to all of us. The difference is I took them seriously. I didn’t get discouraged that others didn’t see what I saw. I didn’t allow anyone to discourage me — and everyone tried. But life is not a popularity contest.”
I am convinced that vision drives churches. The most effective church leaders that I know permit nothing to stop the pursuit of their vision for ministry. Their confidence in Christ empowers their drive toward what might be. I’ve also learned that what one believes about ministry determines the way one practices it.
I’m excited about the Visioning Retreat our Leadership Team will have on Saturday, June 8. I expect they will be making some relevant, far-reaching 
and theologically sound recommendations on how we all can invest our lives in ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. The best definition of ministry is not that which happens to us, but what we make happen for others. Worship is not what we get out of it, but what we give God through it. And this may involve the greatest vision of all: that the church does not exist for me and my needs, but that I exist to bring glory to God and to serve in Christ’s name.
Henri Nouwen observed about the elder brother in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, “The hardest conversion is the conversion of the one who stayed home.” Yet that conversion must take place. We do not grow in Christ for our own sake alone, but for the sake of the cause. May that vision always be found in the heart of Imagine Church, and let it begin with me.
