If you’ve spent time in the workforce, educational spaces, and churches, you’ve probably heard “mission” and “vision.” While they’re related to each other, they are distinct. Depending on your context, the words can also mean different things to different people. That said, here’s what it sounds like and means here in our ministry context. Mission defines our church’s identity. And while our identity makes us unique from other churches, it also unifies us as one under our true Lead Pastor, Jesus Christ. Because our unity is made and found in Jesus alone, His mission becomes ours. In this sense, churches may use different words to say the same thing. And it’s Jesus’ mission that unites 1000 excellent ways of following Him into a single “true north”: making disciples of all peoples (nations). Disciple-making is not just what we do; it’s who we are created to be. That’s why our mission is to make disciples who love God, love people, and live like Jesus. This is who we are in Jesus. So, let’s explore our mission a little more, and then I’ll share some thoughts about the vision. A decade ago, we worked hard as a congregation to make Jesus’ mission easy to remember and put into practice. (Some of you remember those conversations and processes!). It was so important that it made it into our Constitution - which organizationally is like etching it in stone. It’s truly a gift (thanks, God!). Here’s some biblical background on our mission. The gospel writer Luke quotes Jesus spelling out His God-given mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). The gospel writer Matthew quotes Jesus not only saving the lost (Matthew 18:11) but also the least (Matthew 25:40) and the last and lonely (Matthew 20:16). It’s humbling (and overwhelming) that Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), commissions His disciples (including you and me!) to join Him on His mission of seeking and saving the lost, the least, and the lonely. Jesus says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20a) Because it is Jesus’ mission, He promises to be with us until the very end (Matthew 28:20b). With that said, what is vision? One way to think of ministry vision is “where God is leading us next.” Typically, vision is an articulation of broad-scale, long-term, transformational change. Let’s go a little deeper. You may have read or heard the Proverb: Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18) Suppose you dig deeper into the Hebrew and the context of this passage. We discover that vision is defined as revelation. Another way of understanding perishing is that the people have no boundaries; they run wild (apart from God’s way). That doesn’t sound like a good time for God’s people. Other ways to think about vision include:
So, vision is a plan… a picture… and living language that describes where God is leading us. When I arrived at Our Savior, our vision between 2014 and 2020 had been to send disciples who take an unchanging God into a changing world. In that time, we experienced significant staff transitions in 2015, a major arson fire in 2016, a multi-million dollar rebuilding project in 2017, and a Senior Pastor Transition in 2018-2019. That’s a lot, isn’t it? Let’s pull back the curtain a little bit more. When I arrived in Fall 2019, we began laying some groundwork for a re-visioning process. In Spring 2020, we started our COVID journey together. Throughout those years, our informal vision was to prioritize relationships. Internally, we’ve coined the phrase “Relationships are king” (though we know that Jesus is king!). And it worked! While far from perfect, our ministry team and leaders have received feedback that the relationships make Our Savior unique and special. What began as a priority has become part of who we are, today. That’s the power of a unified vision. When we began to see a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, I started praying Psalm 25:4-5: Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God, my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. In other words, Lord, show us your vision… how you would have us put your mission into practice. Since then, hundreds of you have participated in providing feedback. We have gathered both real time and projected data, conducted environmental studies, hosted town hall information-gathering meetings, and contracted with BCRA to host focus groups. We completed a master campus plan and are ready to begin a phasing process to move forward. We re-launched healthy and growing core ministries, and we are currently considering what it might mean to become one church in multiple contexts or locations. Over the last year, we’ve worked hard to clarify our vision - where God is leading us next… and we are ready to share it with you. Ready for it? We see people transformed by the gospel by prioritizing disciplining all generations where they live, work, learn, and play. Vision is always caught more than taught, so I’d love to engage with and listen to what excites you about what “people transformed by the gospel” looks like for you. Please email me at [email protected], or let’s connect over coffee or tea. Next week, we will explore what it means to prioritize discipling all generations by creating belonging everywhere.
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Pastor Tim Meet Pastor TimTim Bayer has served as Our Savior's Lead Pastor since September 2019. He also serves as an Adjunct Instructor at Concordia University - Irvine, a National Leadership Facilitator and Resource, and with the Northwest District of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Archives
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4519 112th St E, Tacoma, WA 98446 Office Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30-3:00 Sunday Services: 9:00 & 10:30am |