\u201cWhat\u2019s your vision?\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a new pastor, chances are you\u2019ve heard some form of that question countless times.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u2019s been posed by existing members of your new church, anxiously wanting to know the direction you plan on taking them. Maybe it\u2019s from potential members who\u2019ve shown interest in joining the work with you but need to know the blueprint before signing on.<\/p>\n
It could be the inquiry of partnering churches or parachurch organizations, promising money and manpower to help,\u00a0if\u00a0<\/em>you answer the question correctly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s your vision?\u201d<\/p>\n I can\u2019t recall all the ways I\u2019ve replied, but looking back after my first year of pastoral ministry, I\u2019m certain many of my responses were inadequate. Why? Because they were far too short-sighted. While I may have communicated my hope for a long, faithful ministry at the same place with the same people, my vision still wasn\u2019t cast far enough into the future. I should have set my sights on something more distant and more essential: heaven.<\/p>\n Brothers, at the beginning of our ministries, we need a grand vision for where it all ends. We need a vision of heaven.<\/p>\n Let me offer three reasons why focusing on heaven is indispensable if<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On your worst day, or during your worst week, or after what may feel like the worst possible start to ministry you can imagine, there\u2019s reason to rejoice, reason to hold out hope. Your name is written in heaven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":388,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[793],"tags":[322],"class_list":["post-28684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","tag-preaching-theology","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/388"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28684"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28686,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28684\/revisions\/28686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}