Vision in a church...

One of the things that I think is so incredibly important in the life of a church is the need to continuously put a vision in front of people about what the church is called to do and to be. It is admittedly one of the harder jobs that I think pastors have. How much is too much? How far do you push your people? Where is the healthy balance between loving the people in your care but being driven to reach those outside your church? Tough questions all.

But one of the big things that I think helps is having people share their stories. The more we can draw the lines between people being broken and wounded and their finding help through God's work in the church, the easier vision casting becomes. So, when I stumbled into a website recently, I was amazed to see what a Granger Community Church in Indiana was doing.

Now, I am not sure that GCC got their idea from here or not, but I think they may have. A popular blog on the internet (which has since become at least one book) is a site called PostSecret.com. The site is designed that people write their secrets on to postcards and send them to a PO Box and then some of the cards get put on-line on Sundays. I will say, at times it is a heart breaking site to read, as it is full of pain caused by some of the most evil that there is in the world. It is raw, graphic and sincere. (And not safe for work most weeks.) So when I do check it, it has always been a source of prayer for the people who write in but even more so for the people who are going through the same things but not writing in.

So, in the midst of trying to cast vision, GCC took the same kind of idea and wanted to flip it. People can pick up cards at their church and share what life has been before they came to the church and after. And out of it have been some amazing, powerful, creative expressions of the truth of God using their church to build his kingdom in the lives of people. It is really amazing and you should check it out.