On a fast track to nowhere
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Some we develop, and some seem more ingrained. I feel like I’ve always had a decent sense of direction, but sometimes even that can’t be trusted. One time I was with a friend in an unfamiliar place. We were trying to locate another friend’s house. I was consulting the map (this was before cell phones), and the stress was building, because we were running behind. As I consulted the map, he kept speeding up, to help us arrive on time. Finally I got my bearings and realized we were making great time, moving very quickly now, but in the opposite direction of where we needed to be going.
It doesn’t really help to be going fast if you’re pointed in the wrong direction. Sometimes in life you have to pause and make sure you are headed in the right direction. That’s why we take time every year or so to pause as a church for our Vision Banquet. It’s a time to make sure, as a church, we’re headed in the same direction. Our hope is to be listening to what God is saying to our church, to really hear from Him and understand what He wants as our focus for the coming year.
Vision Banquet
This year our Vision Banquet will be hosted on Friday, September 20th. If you’re a regular part of our church, you won’t want to miss this (sign up here). The words and themes we present will help guide everything we do for the coming year. Helen Keller said, “the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” We want to make sure our church has a clear purpose and direction in all we do. The first half of Proverbs 29:18 says in the ESV, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint.” The key word here is “prophetic” vision, meaning the vision we cast as a church has to be connected to a clear purpose in Scripture, it has to be more about honoring Christ than making us feel good (which, if we are honoring Him, we will feel a deep sense of purpose and joy!). That’s why the second half of the verse says “but blessed is he who keeps the law.”
Last Sunday we looked at how we can become who God intends us to be. This week we’ll study I Peter 1:17-21, so read and study ahead. Our prayer is that Valley View would be a church aligned in our vision and purpose and in all that we do, that our sense of unity would give us a greatly multiplied effectiveness for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Valley Station, PRP, and all of the South End of Louisville!
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio