But Is Envisioning Biblical?
Note: You’re reading Part 6 in an RPM Ministries’ blog mini-series on local church mission/vision. Read Part 1: Not Your Father’s Vision Process. Read Part 2: Capturing Your Biblical Calling. Read Part 3: Discover Your Unique Ministry Purpose. Read Part 4: 7 Wrong Influences on Church Decision-Making. Read Part 5: Should the Pastor Dictate the Vision?
I’ve developed this blog series from my book Equipping Counselors for Your Church.
But Is Envisioning Biblical?
After I shared with my elders the 7 factors that influence church direction (see Part 4), they all wholeheartedly agreed that the Bible must shape our purposes. However, some still wondered whether these mission, vision, passion, and commission ideas were biblical.
I explained that while we will do not find one specific passage that unites these four concepts, we do find systematic biblical support for the envisioning process. Because we were committed to building our ministry on the sufficiency of Scripture, we explored the following biblical theology of envisioning.
God’s Word and the Mission of the Church
First, we probed what the Bible says about planning and purposing. One elder read Jeremiah 29:11. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Pastor Steve Viars derives the following principle from this passage.
“We all know that God has a plan—a strategic plan that will be carried out to perfection and on time. God is the ultimate planner. His Word gives us the instruction, motivation, cautions, and consequences (both good and bad) for planning. In many places, His Word models strategic planning and accomplishing a God-given goal.”
Our elder board also examined in some detail the meaning of Proverbs 29:18. “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” In the context of wisdom literature, we interpreted that verse to mean that we have two choices when it comes to planning: to do what is right in God’s eyes as revealed in His Word, or to do what is right in our own eyes.
We applied that truth in conjunction with Proverbs 19:21. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” God wants us to plan—according to His plans. And, as we saw in 1 Timothy 3:14-15, we have God’s plan for His people outlined in His Word. One elder recapped our thoughts.
“A church without a theology of ministry is like a ship without a rudder or a hiker without a compass. Our mission, vision, passion, and commission study will provide the spiritual glasses so we do what is right in God’s sight.”
Building upon this study, it was easy for our elder ministry team to see that God wanted every church and every ministry team to understand its God-given mission. We quickly isolated several church-wide mission statements such as Matthew 22:34-40; Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 2:42-47; Ephesians 4:11-16; and the Pastoral Epistles. These became the foundation for leading our church in a joint development of our congregational mission statement.
God’s Word and the Vision of the Church
Exploring mission was easy. However, we started off with a little more debate regarding whether the Bible teaches that every person, every church, and every ministry team has a unique purpose, fingerprint, and DNA. Then, even without looking at the verses, one elder paraphrased Psalm 139:13-14, Jeremiah 1:4-10, and Ephesians 2:10. “We’re each fearfully and wonderfully made. God told Jeremiah that He uniquely formed him in the womb for a specific purpose that God clearly laid out from all eternity. And we know that we are each God’s workmanship—His poem—designed for a special purpose no one else can fill.”
We then looked at the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 (as chapter 2 noted). We observed how each of the seven churches had unique ministry emphases, strengths, and weaknesses.
One of our elders then mentioned how the Bible teaches that the Spirit sovereignly assembles the exact gift-mix of every congregation (1 Corinthians 12:1-31). Another chimed in with the message of 1 Peter 4:10. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
Another elder highlighted the Apostle Paul’s principles and practice. “Paul said that he became all things to all people so that by all means some might be saved,” he said, paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. Then we traced Paul’s very different ministry methods throughout Acts—all based upon Paul’s awareness of the uniqueness of the culture of each city he entered. Paul’s practice concurred with his specific calling, which Paul described as “the field God has assigned to us” (2 Corinthians 10:13).
God’s Word and the Passion of the Church
We were a bunch of skeptical elders, so it was easy to wonder out loud, “Passion statement? Where do we see anything like that in the Scriptures?” Then we started to brainstorm passages where the Bible captures the essences of individuals, churches, or ministries in succinct, captivating wording. We thought of Joshua 1:9. “Be strong and courageous.” That passionate theme encapsulates Joshua’s entire life.
We meditated upon Philippians 1:21. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” That scarlet thread runs throughout Paul’s whole ministry. Paul develops his passion further in Philippians 3:13-14. He specifically communicates “the one thing” he lives for, the one purpose he is willing to die for: pressing for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul succinctly expressed to the Ephesian elders the one race he wanted to finish: “testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24). Paul’s passion was laser focused: “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13).
Paul could abridge the passion of the saints at Thessalonica with the phrase: “your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Jesus shared His eternal passion, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
God’s Word and the Commission of the Church
We explored a number of commission statements, including the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). We detected not only the calling or mission, but the commission, the how to and the follow through: going, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching.
We noticed the same detail in what Paul described as “the commission God gave me” (Colossians 1:25). God called Paul to present to the Colossians “the Word of God in its fullness” through making known the glorious riches of Christ, proclaiming Christ, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, presenting everyone mature in Christ, and through laboring and struggling with all Christ’s energy (Colossians 1:25-29).
Our biblical study led to a systematic theology of mission, vision, passion, and commission. We weren’t tied to “MVP-C” as an inspired outline, but we were convinced that it condensed a powerful way to summarize a consistent concept woven throughout the Bible. We were now a united team equipped and motivated to champion the MVP-C process.
Commencement: God’s Plumb Line
Our first role is to trust that God desires us to know His universal calling and our unique exercise of that calling. God reveals His plans to His people (Amos 3:7) as a plumb line (Amos 7:7-8). God insists that we build our ministries true to plumb by developing a biblical theology for our specific ministry—what we are calling an MVP-C Statement.
You will recall that one of my elders initially sensed that the MVP-C process might smack of being “seeker-sensitive” and “man-centered.” That same elder, after working through our biblical study and working on an Elder MVP-C, a congregational MVP-C, and a LEAD biblical counseling MVP-C had a very different take.
“This biblical process has pointed us true north. Never again will I launch any ministry without first going to the Word as my compass. This has been the most Bible-focused and Christ-centered time I’ve ever spent as a church leader.”
The Rest of the Story
For additional biblical principles on how to catch and cast God’s MVP-C for your church as a whole and for a biblical counseling ministry in your church, read Equipping Counselors for Your Church. 
Join the Conversation
What biblical support do you see for mission, vision, passion, and commission?
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