(Written many years ago)
One of the most effective tools of our enemy is the subtle redefinition of terms, especially those with biblical significance. Within this pattern we see a word from scripture infused into our cultural vernacular, where it can take on all sorts of new connotations (i.e. it is secularized). As such a term gains new relevance, there is often a renewed emphasis on its use within the church; but many times the word is not restored to its original context. An example of such a term is, “vision”.
Like many words, “vision” can have different meanings based upon its context. It can simply mean how well we see (i.e. our visual acuity); or it can refer to a dreamlike state where images permeate our conscious mind; or it can refer to our long term goals and the strategies we have for achieving them. I believe that this final context is the most popular, and that its attractiveness can largely be traced to the business world.
It is our human tendency to make successful people and/or entities into icons; and increasingly entrepreneurs have reached celebrity status within our society. They are often hailed as visionaries based solely on their perceived success, and often in spite of their character. These czars of popular culture rarely resist the urge to share their “vision” and often find a crowd willing to fall in line behind them.
Unfortunately the church is amongst the leaders in this trend; as church growth experts study the successes of corporate entities in hopes of replicating their success within the church. Though on a purely practical level this would seem to be a reasonable strategy, spiritually it is fraught with pitfalls.
While many might rationalize that there is nothing wrong with the church employing successful methodologies from the world; such a belief ignores that at the foundation of every methodology is a philosophy or ideology; and that embracing the method in the natural generally equates to embracing the corresponding philosophy in the spiritual (i.e. in essence we put our faith in it).
The other problem is the aim of these strategies. Corporate entities in the world are looking to attract consumers, to grow their businesses and to appeal to the masses. Churches who’ve successfully deployed such methods have often achieved those same ends; producing consumers instead of disciples.
In the corporate world, the leaders (or visionaries) come together and cast the vision for the organization. This is the exercise of visualizing where they want to go, what they want to achieve and then developing a strategy for getting there. Once again this seems to be a very sensible approach for any corporate entity, including the church; but it ignores many principles of scripture.
God clearly states that our ways are not His ways; that the wisdom of men is foolishness to Him and He warns us not to be taken captive through “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ”. He tells us not to be focused on what is seen (i.e. in the natural), but to be focused on what is unseen (i.e. the spiritual). He tells us that not only is our struggle in the spiritual realm, but also that our tools, weapons and authority are in that sphere as well. Sadly, when the church chooses to study and deploy worldly strategies to gain influence in the natural realm, we unwittingly lay down our weapons and forfeit our authority in the spiritual realm.
The scripture I’ve most often heard quoted in regard to the word “vision” is from Proverbs 29 (KJV), where it says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. I’ve heard many leaders use this scripture in the context of talking about long term goals and strategies, but that doesn’t seem to be an appropriate application. The Hebrew word translated as “vision” in the King James actually speaks of a revelation from God; and other translations actually use the word “revelation”.
If our long term goals and strategies were established through revelation from God, it could be argued that these meanings are synonymous; but in terms of teaching the scripture, there is a large difference between the idea that people perish because they don’t have long term goals and strategies, and that people perish because they don’t get revelation from God. The Lord has not entrusted the leadership and guidance of His children to anyone apart from Himself and thus the vision for our lives and His church must come directly from Him.
Just as the term vision has taken on a new context, so has the term “visionary”; whereas there was once a very spiritual connotation to the term, it now seems that anyone who has an active imagination or the ability to “visualize” their ideas can be viewed as a “visionary”. The problem with such visionaries is that they can tap into any number of sources for their vision.
Visions that are not birthed from the Spirit of God, but are instead derived from our minds, emotions, observations, experiences, imaginations… could more accurately be called goals, plans, wishes, dreams or fantasies. Surprisingly, Proverbs 28 (NIV) addresses the idea of fantasies when it says, “one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty”. In light of these two scriptures (i.e. Prov. 28 & 29), it would seem vital that we discern the origin of our “vision”; because apart from divine inspiration, a visionary will inevitably build a monument to themselves.
It is very much within our nature to want detailed information about the future; as such detailed plans for the future can seem very appealing. But God’s interest in developing our faith makes such detail counterproductive. He told Abraham to leave his home, but He did not tell him where he was going; He gave Joseph a dream of the future, but no road map or time table for getting there; When Paul had the desire to go preach in Asia, the Spirit would not let him, instead he was given a dream of a man in Macedonia and nothing more… over and over we see God give His servants a vision and then expect them to rely on Him to guide them to that vision. Even Jesus said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see the Father do first.
While God can and does give us a vision for the future, we must understand that our view of it is partial at best (i.e. we know in part, we prophesy in part, we see as through a glass dimly). While the world casts a vision and then stays focused on it, we as children of God must remain focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If we become too locked into our vision, we can easily become task driven instead of driven by the Holy Spirit; goal oriented instead of people oriented and so focused on our long term goals that we miss what God is doing today.
If we find ourselves stepping over, around, or through, people to bring about our vision, I’d suggest that we’ve lost our eternal perspective. I do believe the Lord has a vision for our lives and His church, but that the biggest obstacle to His plan is our plan. Without His guidance, the best we can achieve is a bigger and busier church. Yet with His guidance, we can change the world. Unless the house is built using the Lords plan, we labor in vain.
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Bjcorbin's Blog 
Blurred Vision
Posted in Commentaries, tagged church growth, corporate, dream, goal oriented, goals, strategies, vision, visionary on February 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
(Written many years ago)
One of the most effective tools of our enemy is the subtle redefinition of terms, especially those with biblical significance. Within this pattern we see a word from scripture infused into our cultural vernacular, where it can take on all sorts of new connotations (i.e. it is secularized). As such a term gains new relevance, there is often a renewed emphasis on its use within the church; but many times the word is not restored to its original context. An example of such a term is, “vision”.
Like many words, “vision” can have different meanings based upon its context. It can simply mean how well we see (i.e. our visual acuity); or it can refer to a dreamlike state where images permeate our conscious mind; or it can refer to our long term goals and the strategies we have for achieving them. I believe that this final context is the most popular, and that its attractiveness can largely be traced to the business world.
It is our human tendency to make successful people and/or entities into icons; and increasingly entrepreneurs have reached celebrity status within our society. They are often hailed as visionaries based solely on their perceived success, and often in spite of their character. These czars of popular culture rarely resist the urge to share their “vision” and often find a crowd willing to fall in line behind them.
Unfortunately the church is amongst the leaders in this trend; as church growth experts study the successes of corporate entities in hopes of replicating their success within the church. Though on a purely practical level this would seem to be a reasonable strategy, spiritually it is fraught with pitfalls.
While many might rationalize that there is nothing wrong with the church employing successful methodologies from the world; such a belief ignores that at the foundation of every methodology is a philosophy or ideology; and that embracing the method in the natural generally equates to embracing the corresponding philosophy in the spiritual (i.e. in essence we put our faith in it).
The other problem is the aim of these strategies. Corporate entities in the world are looking to attract consumers, to grow their businesses and to appeal to the masses. Churches who’ve successfully deployed such methods have often achieved those same ends; producing consumers instead of disciples.
In the corporate world, the leaders (or visionaries) come together and cast the vision for the organization. This is the exercise of visualizing where they want to go, what they want to achieve and then developing a strategy for getting there. Once again this seems to be a very sensible approach for any corporate entity, including the church; but it ignores many principles of scripture.
God clearly states that our ways are not His ways; that the wisdom of men is foolishness to Him and He warns us not to be taken captive through “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ”. He tells us not to be focused on what is seen (i.e. in the natural), but to be focused on what is unseen (i.e. the spiritual). He tells us that not only is our struggle in the spiritual realm, but also that our tools, weapons and authority are in that sphere as well. Sadly, when the church chooses to study and deploy worldly strategies to gain influence in the natural realm, we unwittingly lay down our weapons and forfeit our authority in the spiritual realm.
The scripture I’ve most often heard quoted in regard to the word “vision” is from Proverbs 29 (KJV), where it says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. I’ve heard many leaders use this scripture in the context of talking about long term goals and strategies, but that doesn’t seem to be an appropriate application. The Hebrew word translated as “vision” in the King James actually speaks of a revelation from God; and other translations actually use the word “revelation”.
If our long term goals and strategies were established through revelation from God, it could be argued that these meanings are synonymous; but in terms of teaching the scripture, there is a large difference between the idea that people perish because they don’t have long term goals and strategies, and that people perish because they don’t get revelation from God. The Lord has not entrusted the leadership and guidance of His children to anyone apart from Himself and thus the vision for our lives and His church must come directly from Him.
Just as the term vision has taken on a new context, so has the term “visionary”; whereas there was once a very spiritual connotation to the term, it now seems that anyone who has an active imagination or the ability to “visualize” their ideas can be viewed as a “visionary”. The problem with such visionaries is that they can tap into any number of sources for their vision.
Visions that are not birthed from the Spirit of God, but are instead derived from our minds, emotions, observations, experiences, imaginations… could more accurately be called goals, plans, wishes, dreams or fantasies. Surprisingly, Proverbs 28 (NIV) addresses the idea of fantasies when it says, “one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty”. In light of these two scriptures (i.e. Prov. 28 & 29), it would seem vital that we discern the origin of our “vision”; because apart from divine inspiration, a visionary will inevitably build a monument to themselves.
It is very much within our nature to want detailed information about the future; as such detailed plans for the future can seem very appealing. But God’s interest in developing our faith makes such detail counterproductive. He told Abraham to leave his home, but He did not tell him where he was going; He gave Joseph a dream of the future, but no road map or time table for getting there; When Paul had the desire to go preach in Asia, the Spirit would not let him, instead he was given a dream of a man in Macedonia and nothing more… over and over we see God give His servants a vision and then expect them to rely on Him to guide them to that vision. Even Jesus said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see the Father do first.
While God can and does give us a vision for the future, we must understand that our view of it is partial at best (i.e. we know in part, we prophesy in part, we see as through a glass dimly). While the world casts a vision and then stays focused on it, we as children of God must remain focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If we become too locked into our vision, we can easily become task driven instead of driven by the Holy Spirit; goal oriented instead of people oriented and so focused on our long term goals that we miss what God is doing today.
If we find ourselves stepping over, around, or through, people to bring about our vision, I’d suggest that we’ve lost our eternal perspective. I do believe the Lord has a vision for our lives and His church, but that the biggest obstacle to His plan is our plan. Without His guidance, the best we can achieve is a bigger and busier church. Yet with His guidance, we can change the world. Unless the house is built using the Lords plan, we labor in vain.
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