Vision update Why are we reviewing our vision now? It’s been sometime since we last looked at vision, since then we’ve seen Rod retire Mark step down from leadership and Nigel take over as senior leader. In addition to this we have a number of other people who have taken on leadership roles in several areas, and we’ve moved from a cell structure to having Lifegroups as our core midweek meeting. So it’s time to look at and share our vision afresh
How did we go about reviewing our vision? Firstly it’s important to understand what vision is: Our understanding is that it’s the big picture of what God wants us to work with Him on as a church. So as Elders we prayed over a number of months looked at scripture for the broadest outline, then at specific prophetic words given over BCF and finally we spoke to a number of leaders in Salt and Light to get an outside perspective on the process. You can find copies of the relevant prophetic words here: Prophecies
A Headline?
Long Term
If you press us to state our vision in as few words as possible, then we’d say its “Being and Bringing the Good News to Bury and Beyond”. Like any summary, it’s great as a thumb nail picture of what we are about, it’s handy as a quick aid to memory, but obviously it’s light on detail precisely because it’s a short summary.
Vision isn’t something we should chop and change (God doesn’t chop and change His plans !) We need to take seriously the things God tells us through scripture and prophetically (constantly weighing it against scripture). So we should not expect lots of changes when we review things though the vision will grow and develop over time.
What Vision Isn’t! When we present Vision it is not a detailed plan of action for each and every activity, team and individual, it isn’t even the big strategic plan for the next 5 years. Vision is best thought of a series of postcards showing where we are going and the direction of travel to get there. The finer details come later as we work as leaders, teams and individuals to develop specific plans to play our part in progressing towards our agreed destination. Some plans the Elders, Trustees and other leaders will work on, generally the ‘strategic’ bits of planning. (Strategic just means those bits all the church is affected by or involved in) Other bits team leaders (Lifegroup leaders or Ministry Team leaders for example) will plan, generally these are the ‘tactical’ bits. (Tactical just means initiatives or activities only involving those teams or specific individuals, separate from other teams or whole church.)
Uniquely yet in Common! The nature of church is that big parts of what we have in our vision will be exactly the same as other churches (It’s God’s BIG plan) but other parts will be specific to us. For example Katherine Ruonala brought a word about our “unique sound” and we’ve had numerous other words about worship being a key element (Some before we had the breadth and depth we have now in our worship teams.) Other bits will become unique to us based on the area we work in and the character, personality and gift mix of the people ministering in that area. Some aspects have lain ‘dormant’ within our vision for years, while other aspects will no doubt be added as we journey together with God.
Values As we began to pray and discuss how we would operate as an Eldership team it became clear that it would be helpful to identify and agree some key things that make up the culture of BCF. From these discussions we identified four things we call our values: Devotion: Our relationship with God in prayer, worship, scripture and service Family: Our relationships with one another, our biological families and the family of God Discipleship: We are a family with a purpose: to grow together to be like Jesus. Mission: We will be an inclusive family committed to growing in numbers as God adds to our family. As Elders these values are things we want to be held accountable against as we shape our church culture together.
Mission (Rhythm) We also agreed the mission rhythm we felt supported our values: Reaching UP to God in worship. Reaching IN supporting one another as family. Reaching OUT, with God’s love to those currently outside His family.
Prayer, Scripture and Prophecies Late in 2015 we Elders along with our wives, began the process of reviewing our vision. We read scripture to understand God’s BIG picture for the Church and then began prayerfully working our way through the notes and recordings of the range of prophetic words shared with us down the years to better understand the more specific nature of the things God was calling us into in Bury.
a church for the future. Space means we can’t go through all of the words in detail in this newsletter, but please do ask one of the Elders if you’d like copies of the prophecies in question—As ever we’ve only included things after we are confident that they align rightly with scripture in their tone and their direction. What follows is summary of the key points prophecies and promises from God and our response.
Isaiah 60 a key scripture It speaks of: * Glory & Light. * Restoration of family (Children coming back) * Rebuilding * Provision and favour * Compensatory restoration * Joy not sorrow God promises we will be a people of:
Themes, Directions, Promises
“Worship, Warfare and Thanksgiving”
Encouragingly many of these words spanning a good number of years overlapped or complimented one another, making it easy to draw out some key themes, wider promises and some specific details in terms of our shape as
We had words shared with us about the importance and key role of worship in BCF at a time when we did not have a fraction of the gifting we currently have in this area! Let’s remember that when we consider other prophetic/future
aspects that make up our vision—what we don’t yet have God can provide! (Today worship is an integral part of our DNA here in Bury, something we are thankful for) We will worship our King for who He is and anticipation of what is to come!
”Warfare” We are a people at war, not with one another but with principalities and powers. We wage war through prayer, worship, reading and applying scripture and through our service of the King. We will work together to see His Kingdom expand and captives set free!
“A Thankful People” Whatever we have we have from God (every good gift comes from Him) and so it’s important we remember that and let thankful lives show it not just in thanksgiving in our worship, but by being a generous people and remembering that the point of blessing is to share it with others who need it! We will bless those who need it as we have been and continue to be blessed!
Family We are all adopted into God’s great family and called to play our part in inviting others to join us. Families are God’s plan for mankind, today they are
under constant attack from all kind of forces. We want to model family life, with the heart of God at the centre. We will invite the lost, the lonely, the widows and orphans to join us in the family of our King.
Reaching out to the Disadvantaged, Poor, Hungry: We have had a number of words about reaching out in God’s love to people who are disadvantaged, out of work, sick, poor or hungry (both in physically hungry and spiritually hungry.) Through his life Jesus showed a special affinity for such people, we want to follow his example. We will reach out practically to those of all ages, who are disadvantaged, poor and hungry, with love, food, (both physical and spiritual ) healing, deliverance and practical support.
Youth Church/Street Kids Scripture provides a clear mandate for welcoming children into the Kingdom and God has spoken prophetically to us about this specifically. We’d love to see a youth church (in whatever form God shapes it) we want to see ‘kids’ from the street, radical in their worship of God. We will reach out to young people, inviting them into to God’s family encouraging them to be radical in their worship of the King.
Beyond Bury we will:
Next Steps?
* Impact, region & nation * Be a hot spot for revival * Send, ministries & seeds regionally/nationally/ overseas. * Be an apostolic center * Export a unique sound in worship.
We have shared the vision initially with our ministry stream leaders and then with the wider fellowship at the Family Forum. We will expand and explore more through ongoing teaching and preaching, including in Lifegroups and in your teams.
Locally BCF will: * Impact the town * Feed people * Be multi gifted/multi faceted * Light in a dark place * Have authority * Have favour and finance * Know a fresh move of the Holy Spirit * Have people come to us * Be fruitful * Be a jewel in the community * Be a jewel in His crown
Three Congregations God has promised that we will become three congregations we will be one church, with one name. There is a lot wrapped up in those few words, challenges to grow and equip people for the task. We need to identify where and when to plant, we need to ask God to clarify is the Youth Church a congregation, or is it in addition to them? Its an exciting promise, remember when we struggled with worship? We prayed and God blessed us with more musicians—time to pray again! We will work with God to become 3 congregations, 1 church, 1 name.
We will work on continually communicating all aspects of this this through web site, Facebook literature etc. As we meet with team leaders and others we will discuss whether there are things people believe they need to start or stop increase or decrease to help us make progress towards the various aspects of our vision.
Where do I fit in? Lots of people will no doubt be wondering “where do I fit in? It’s a good—indeed vital— question to ask, without you the vision wont succeed, because God in His infinite wisdom has chosen to work through His church, through people like us! We firmly believe that God wants to use each and every one of us in His great plan as revealed through His word— we can summarise it as follows:
God calls each one of us to be part of His great plan to redeem and restore His creation. Our vision is our part in this great plan, and within that there is a place for each of us to grow in Jesus, to use the gifts He gives us and serve as He leads. As leaders an important part of our role is to ensure that people find their place and are supported and equipped to fulfill their calling in God. There are three aspects to this:
Discipleship: The development of each individual person
Area of ministry: The identification of and support with the tasks/area of ministry the individual is best suited to
Functioning as a Body: The building, - development of - and maintenance, of the team/s we serve in.
Still not sure? If you are not sure yet where you fit in, please speak to one of the Elders or other leaders to discuss how they can support you and help you find your place and role in BCF.