Teaching 1: Vision: What is the vision or purpose of the church?
For the teacher: The goal of this teaching is to help the participants to think about the vision or purpose of their church, not just what they do, but why they do it. Do not tell them what the vision should be, but let them find their own answers.
Translator: we need to decide if we should talk about “vision” or “purpose” or use both words. Which concept will help them to see the big picture of what they are involved in, and not just act out of habit or tradition? In Cambodia, we have decided to use “purpose”.
What is the vision or purpose of your church?
When we tell someone about our church, we usually tell them what we do:
We arrange church services. We worship, pray and read the Bible. We have activities for children, youth and adults. We evangelize and do good works.
It is easy to describe what we do. But it is important to know why we do it.
Our vision will tell us why we do the things we do.
The vision tells us the heart of the church.