God Dreams: 12 Vision Templates for Finding and Focusing Your Church's Future by Will Mancini & Warren Bird

Author:Will Mancini & Warren Bird [Mancini, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Church/Leadership
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2015-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

To empower these spiritual outcomes, Hope uses a “5 percent time strategy” for how to build a relationship with God. All relationships require time, so Hope’s ministry is designed around four kinds of time, including daily individual “God time” (fifteen minutes a day is 1 percent of your life’s time) and “Go time” which is the investment of time with people in cross-cultural settings (one week of your year is 2 percent of your time). The other two times are “Gather time” (a weekly worship service) and “Group time” (a home-based small group setting with other believers) that each make up an additional 1 percent.

Not only is God’s daily presence and emphasis individual, but it is an important part of sharing the church’s history. Every significant event in the church’s life can be directly attributed to God’s intervention and leadership. For example, the unlikely idea that a pastor like Vance from the deep South should uproot his family and go to a city like Las Vegas. Or the unexpected dynamic of God’s leading Hope to become a multiethnic church or rescuing them from a financial crisis that should have closed their doors. Hope does a lot as a church, but its primary template is based on God’s speaking and showing up first.

Bible Reflections

The Israelites’ wilderness journey contains many pictures of the Christian’s walk with God today. The pillar of fire taught that when God moves, we move. When God does not move, we stay put as well (Exod. 40:36–38). The children of Israel would respond with awe and worship as God met with Moses: “When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door” (Exod. 33:10).

Likewise the New Testament, especially in the book of Revelation, forecasts the worship of heaven as a continual experience of God’s presence before His throne. People in heaven don’t even need the sun to shine “for the glory of God gives it light” (21:23; cf. 22:5) as God dwells among His people: “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (21:3).

Starting Point Metaphors

Figure 9.4 shows a big circle coming down upon smaller circles, representing God’s coming down from heaven onto His people, descending on various people in church or other holy gatherings.

Another image that depicts manifest presence might be smoke rising from a fire, marked by power, vitality, uniqueness, and mystery. These qualities could symbolize God’s pervasive presence in a church.

Still other images that convey this idea are Damascus road (Luke 24:32), worshippers with arms lifted, a crowd watching a countdown clock, raindrops beginning to fall, or a waterfall washing trees and rocks as it cascades.

Historical Examples

The book A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir4 recounts the fascinating details of world-changing revivals, beginning with biblical events and continuing through awakenings and revivals of recent centuries. It also explores what these revivals have in common and how people prepare for them.

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