** This week I continue my missions Top 10 of how to set yourself up for success while on the field. Obviously this is not comprehensive, but should serve as a good guideline to help every missionary thrive both personally and with their ministry.
Number 7 – Vision
It seems obvious that anyone who sets out to be on the mission field would have vision. In reality, maybe they do or maybe they don’t, but what they do probably have is a calling. I like to think of our calling as the starting line. As our relationship with the Lord deepens, many times our calling comes into form. Sometimes it happens quicker for some than others, and of course that calling can change as time goes on. I’m going to step out and assume for the sake of this article that you have a pretty good understanding of your calling. What I would like to hone in on is our vision.
I believe vision is something that is usually birthed as we embrace our calling and begin to seek the Lord in it. You might call it the next step in the process. We understand from the book of Proverbs (29:18) that vision is of utmost importance. It states that “where there is no vision, the people will perish”. I took a minute and looked up a few standard definitions of vision:
1. The ability to see (Websters)
2. A thought, concept, or object formed by the imagination (Websters)
My family feels that we have been called into ministry for this season of life and specifically missions. That is the major, macro level of viewing our life. When you begin to narrow things down, the next thing to look at would be what our vision is within the realm of missions (our calling). At the Slaton house we have two toddler boys so we like to keep things simple. Our family/ministry vision is: “To know the love of Jesus and share the love of Jesus wherever he takes us”. When my wife is homemaking and tending to the boys, it’s about knowing Jesus in that setting and living out Jesus in that setting. When I’m working for Modern Day, its about embracing Jesus and who he is in that setting and sharing the love/standards/principles of Jesus in that setting.
As you move away from the macro level and transition to the micro it seem imperative that you have a specific vision for your different major endeavors. Want a healthy marriage, you will need a healthy vision of how to accomplish that. Do you want to raise up Jesus loving kids, you will need a Jesus loving vision for those kids. If your desire is to raise a certain amount of money for your mission, you need a clear vision on how that will get done. If you want to see your neighborhood come to Jesus, you will need a vision to help you accomplish that desire.
Whatever you desire to accomplish, you have to be able to see how it can be accomplished. Therein lies vision… The ability to see how to accomplish something.
At Modern Day, we saw ourselves playing a part in sending thousands to the mission field. So our vision statement reflects what we saw, “Our Vision is to help thousands of people, young and old, pursue their dreams of reaching the world for Jesus; one person, one city and one nation at a time. Our desire is to form partnerships that pave the way for people to serve in another country for both short and long term periods.”
For clarity, your vision and your mission are quite different although they work together. Your vision will guide you to establish the framework for your mission. At Modern Day its as follows, “Modern Day exists to build bridges between those who are called to go into all the world and those who are called to send them. Our mission is to partner in the equipping of missionaries and to facilitate their needs as they prepare to go and as they serve out in the field.” For even more clarity between vision and mission you can check out this link about Coca-Cola.
When vision is not present, people tend to be aimless, idle and disgruntled. The end destination is perishing. I believe our life in many ways are like arrows that are meant to be aimed and launched towards certain targets. Arrows are not meant to stay in the quiver. The design and purpose is single focused. The focus is a bulls eye. I believe in each one of us, when we set out to accomplish something, we want to hit the bulls eye! Of course we won’t many times, but the outcome is not really the point nor is it fully in our control. There are bulls eye targets all around us. You know you are called to hit the bulls eye. If you can see the bulls eye, the you can have vision for the bulls eye… Pull back, aim and let it GO!!!!
Marvin Slaton – Modern Day Director
