Grace San Diego

How fragile is our church vision? 

My mother has eyesight that is closing into darkness seemingly everyday due to macular degeneration.  She is unable to see most things now.  She is legally blind and yet has a pretty good attitude about it.  People that have been blind all or most of their lives have and advantage of years of experience of compensating for their blindness.  Their lack of vision has less an impact than for someone like my mom who lived the first 80 plus years with great eyesight.  My mother becomes disoriented with the blindness of her years of dependency on sight.  It impacts almost all aspects of her life.

A ministry with a changing vision is difficult to communicate, because those of us in the ministry who know things one way will feel disoriented by the new methods.  What is “vision” to one person may be disorienting blindness to another.  How do we help everyone to see the vision? How do we love and honor people who are disoriented by the new direction?  The stronger the vision is promoted the greater the disorientation by some and the enthusiasm of others.

There is a difference between “method” and “message.” Method is based on the cultural framework of the community in which minister, whereas, message is based on truth.  Method should be flexible and changing to accommodate the needs of the ever-changing culture.  (If we send missionaries around the world to another culture we would expect no less from them.)  However, if we adapt the message to the culture we have lost our mission and our message.   The method of ministry at Grace San Diego is changing to reach a Southern California culture with the truth-based message.  We will not compromise our message in the process. 

Do you feel disoriented by the changes?  Do you have an excitement in the anticipation of effective impact? Does the saying “the blind leading the blind come to mind? “  How’s your vision?