I refuse to concoct plans for people’s lives. I refuse to concoct a plan for the life of my church. I realize I’m going against the flow, like a salmon swimming up an impossible gush of watery onslaughts. But I just won’t do it. So fire me!
I used to do it. I used to pray and wait and then articulate the vision and set out a one, three and five year plan with great gusto and with leadership and congregational support and fanfare. But I have stopped because I believe it destroys, in a violently sinister way, the lives of people and the life of a community. It’s presumptuous and cruel and inhumane. I have been on the receiving end of this visionary kind of pogrom and I will no longer have any part of it. I realize how tantalizing, how dizzyingly intoxicating, visionary thinking and purpose-driven living can be. It tastes good, but it’s poison.
There are many misconceptions out there. I recently met with a friend who is also a pastor who spoke about getting his people with the program in order to move the church forward. I told him that I didn’t use that language or care for the community in that same way anymore. He saw the importance, he admitted, of just “being”, but there has to be the “doing” too. I felt my temperature rise a little because I get this all the time. The presumption is that if you don’t have a vision or a goal, then you just “be” and don’t do anything. Or as someone else told me, “You just sit and wait by the phone for God to call.” Of course he never does.
I have to clarify that this is erroneous thinking. Like my daughter, I have no plans for her life. I do father her in such a way that she may have the wherewithal to be a healthy, wise and confident woman. THAT will be her contribution to the world! Take care of the roots and the tree will bear fruit. And it will bear fruit in accordance with its unique kind. I pastor a community that I try to keep free of vision, goal-setting and agendas. That’s my work for the most part. Many people now have grown an acute distaste for agendas on their lives. One such woman visited me earlier today and says that she can smell someone’s plan for her life way down the road and avoids it like the plague because she sees it as soul-destroying. I think that is radically rebellious but radically healthy. Another salmon.
Contributions to nakedpastor are greatly appreciated.
David Hayward is an artist trapped in a pastor's body, stripping to the essential.
“…..she can smell someone’s plan for her life way down the road and avoids it like the plague because she sees it as soul-destroying.”
Oh yeah! ‘Tis definately that alright.
you’re the man.
Salmon are so amazing to watch as they fight their way upriver! The struggle creates some pretty lean, mean, kick-ass creatures. However, said journey also brings around lots of fishermen with their carefully chosen rods, reels, hooks, and lures ready to stop the salmon before they get “home.”
Interestingly enough, usually the salmon at the river stage do not take the bait because of hunger but from a defensive mindset. They want to take out whatever is in the way so that they can get back to the starting point–the place whose call is literally wired into the salmon’s being.
Lots of interesting parallels to be drawn between free-thinking believers and salmon. Great post!!
God has given the salmon a goal. And it will try and overcome great barriers to reach it.
fishon
David
A perfect post to remind me what I like about your brain. Now if I could only swim better then maybe I could be a salmon too.
fishon
I think David finally figured out the barriers. Dont worry you’ll get there too. Hope life is well.
I stopped making long range plans for my own life a while ago. I know God has something in mind, but he has chosen to reveal it one step at a time, so I try to not get worried about the future.
David, great post. I recently left the church I had been associate pastor at for the last five years over this exact same issue. I am also done with making plans and visions. It’s been a long hard road to understand it, but I am feeling more and more at peace with God in my own life now I am on the other side of that dogmatic way of looking at things. Those long range goals never intended to quench the Holy Spirit in the life of a church, but it seems to happen all too frequently.
Yes.
mind if I change the topic a tad?
OK so tell me I have been had. I came across The Boars Head Tavern through your blog and spent a little time nosing around. Looks like a fun bunch. I had a question and thought I would email Michael Spencer about it. Only to find his email is not listed on the site anywhere I can find.
I assume then that the joke is on me.
Since I still have a question I decided to post it to you.
FAQ #14
14. Are you Calvinists or Reformed?
About half and half. We are not a “reformed†site. We are the most diverse community of Christians on the web, as far as we know. Most of us are “reformation†types of one kind or another.
I guess Im showing my lack of “formal†theological education here but I am confused by this. The truth is I have never grasped meaning or the nuances of these titles so I looked them up.
Doing so confused me even more as they seem to be the same.
Would you mind taking a moment to expound on this.
Title always mess me up. I know there are lots of useless “dividing†doctrines out there. Most of us poor slobs never actually know about them or understand them.
So please, What is Reformed? Reformed from????? Calvinist?? While we are at it, How many angles can either one balance on the head of a pin?
btw, to go back on topic, the normal “policy” of Building Churches and programs has little to nothing to do with Christianity. Sorry to be so bold but most, well lets refine that to “many” churches have lost their way and become self serving businesses.
I’m still looking for one that is still on track
please feel free to pass my question and a tip of my hat along to the boys at the Tavern.
Bill, that’s a huge question to ask. Here’s a thumbnail from my perspective. “Reformed” is more of a theological tradition, the roots of which are traced back to as early as Augustine, but which was brought into fruition through the Protestant reformation and especially Calvin. The Reformed theologians are those that attempt to articulate this theology. Diversity abounds, but such things as the sovereignty of God and his will, as well as the complete depravity of man, the totality of God’s grace, etc., etc., find prominence. The Reformed Tradition, mostly finding expression in teaching and ruling elders, church polity, etc., is how the church looks when it listens to and follows these theologians, or these doctors of the church. It is mistaken to equate Calvin with Reformed, although he was a reformation theologian. Many theologians after him have redefined, re-articulated, re-cast, refined, re re re, Calvin, such as Barth who disagreed with some of what Calvin taught. For instance, on predestination, which is a reformed doctrine, Barth disagreed with what Calvin wrote about it, although Barth redefined what he felt Calvin should have said or tried to say but didn’t. But this is in the spirit of the Reformation because the reformed tradition teaches that the church is reformed and always reforming.
Hope this helps. Probably not.
Get together. Pray. Let God lead you. Do what he’s telling you to do.
clap, clap, clap…….
I was told that would be dangerous….
Its def lowered my blood pressure…(so does street ministry)
Spankie
Bikers for Christ
I figured it would take years of reading to begin to grasp the concept. You actually did answer my question. In layman’s terms. Too much study and not enough Jesus. Academia vs. Spirit. Form vs. function. To use a butchered CS Lewis quote, It has about as much to do with God as masturbation has to do with marriage.
Exactly the reason I stopped my studies with an Associates in Practical Theology
Thanks
Bill
.
well, study’s not all bad if you keep things straight.
welcome spankie. i have a bike!!
That was an awesome post. Just awesome. I was thinking that that’s what my cartoon I sent you was about! The “growth engine” was my old pastor’s agenda. It was go all out to grow, grow, grow the numbers, but at a huge cost to many who bought in to the “cause.” Thanks for how you pastor, and for the great example that you are! Like I said, I wish you were OUR pastor!
More and more I wish you were my pastor! I struggle at work with individuals who are trying to squeeze me into a shape I don’t quite fit in order to meet the goals and agenda for our department and then I go to church and have the exact same thing. But yeah, grand visions and policy plans seem to just result in systems and institutions being more important than the individuals they are meant to serve, and if a few people get lost or crushed along the way it doesn’t really matter as long as the vision is still met.
Btw, I think you do have a vision, namely to see people free to live and love and be who they really are warts and all and to place relationships ahead of agendas. Maybe that really is visionary!
When I read this I was thinking of the vibrant way in Wich Willaim Young represented God in The Shack. On a website he states that he doesn’t have long term goals or visions anymore and take every day as it is. Maybe when it’s less about my visions, goals ect. it’s more about God, enabling us to know Him intimately and share Him with integrity!
I find you sometimes “acute” in your cartoons, but always “on target”. I view them with a smile while saying “ouch!” Your writing, however, for the most part speaks of a church I’d like to attend. Let me ask you something, David. I agree completely with what you say here about “vision”, but wonder: I have long felt that the ecclesiastical community has done the same with the Bible, the Book, itself, that they have done with the Institution, lifting up and exalting both objects higher than God. While I believe in Scripture as His written Word unto us, I also find that most have simply cut and pasted chapter and verse, creating God in our image rather than the other way around and then bow down before it rather than a Reality Who abides within.
Do you have any thought for me on that?…
i agree jim, as long as we recognize that we all do this. the number one commandment is to have no other gods before him because this is our number one transgression… idolatry. i do agree that we shape our own god(s) then explain it’s existence with our favorite scriptures or interpretations of them.
My pastor says the same thing. He refuses to tell us how to live out our lives. He will help someone, of course, one on one if the person wants some advice in a particular area or matter.
He says that it is not his job to tell us how to live. We are free to live out our Christian lives as we see fit in accordance with our vocations. His job, he says, is to shepherd us with respect to the gospel.
Otherwise, you can end up with a bunch of facist Christians who all walk alike, talk alikeand all carry around the same three foot long bibles. ‘Stepford Christians’. I don’t think that is healthy.
Great post, David — very thought provoking…
My one objection would be with your use of the word “vision” — I do not equate vision with policy, planning, or programming. Unfortunately, however, many have, and the resulting attempts at top down control, prodding, and manipulation are something for which both of us have a strong distaste…
I prefer Mancini’s definition of vision as a dynamic, living language, that anticipates and illustrates God’s better intermediate future. In more vivid terms, vision is not a detailed road map or a travel plan we can store in our back pocket, it’s an ever developing polaroid picture of a beautiful future destination that comes about as we each respond to the unique calling God has upon our lives.
This is more in line with Paul’s sentiments in Phil. 3:12-14:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Vision to me then is not something leaders can use to drive or control people, rather it’s something God uses to compel each of us, individually and collectively, to follow his lead…
I know you hate this term, so I won’t force it on you, but your description of the way you’re raising your daughter is to me a beautiful response to the vision cast in Proverbs 22:6 — training children to follow God’s lead, not live up to our own expectations for them…
Interested to hear other’s thoughts on this…thanks for letting me invade your space, dialogue, and learn…
Steve: I agree with your (Mancini’s) understanding of vision. But nobody sees it that way so I avoid the term. People automatically assume, when their’s a vision: “How do we get the people from here to there?” and that turns into coercion. Good thoughts.
Can I quote you at my blog????????
David,
Thanks for writing another very good post.
Too many pastor’s want to believe that they are the oracle of God’s plan for our lives – when most are confused about God’s plan for their own. Your willingness to be broken, vulnerable, transparent and real shocks the stuffing out of your confederates in “the ministry.” “But if they know how broken and confused I am, how will they ever follow me,” they suggest by their response or the lack thereof.
Bill, Michael is known as the Internet Monk. He has a blog of the same name. His email address is in the upper right corner. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.
sounds like you’re interested in staying focused on whats important and creating healthy conditions and – and then letting come what may, naturally, uh… emerge.
Wow,
I guess I should have read this before making my comments about vision in my response to your more recent post.
Not sure that I completely agree with you. For me vision is simply “where does God want to lead this congregation?”
I can understand that. Not many do.