Vision See-ers

Spiritual leaders are people with vision.  If such is true, then there are not as many spiritual leaders around as one might have thought.  Now, there are certainly a lot of preachers and spiritual leaders who allow the mantle of visionary to be placed upon their shoulders.  Perhaps, it some cases it is appropriate, but for most it may be a real stretch.  For many of our day a person with vision is one who can put together an exciting picture of how the institutional church in front of them could grow into something much bigger and much better than it is in its present moment.  Such visions are often driven more by human ego than divine guidance. 

 

The truth is visions do not usually unfold as quickly as a three year financial campaign.  The real visions which drive the church and its people forward are not those announced, promoted, planned and greased by gimmicks, but those which point to a plan of God that has begun and has some unfolding to do before it can be fully seen or realized.  Today's church is often too impatient to wait.  Today's spiritual leaders want to see it done this week, or maybe in a few years before some call to greener pastures comes.  Instant gratification and the unfolding vision of God are two diametrically opposite things.

 

So, the spiritual leaders who have seen the vision of God and embraced it are going to be out-of-step with the church that is listening primarily to the voices of the culture around it.  It is not easy being a person who carries with him or her a burning vision of God.  They are not likely to suffer from being too popular and neither are their shoulders going to be sore from back slapping. Carrying God's vision is a heavy load.  Just ask old Jeremiah.