Vision (Part 1) - The Problem

Vision is a must for the church. Everyone knows (or hopefully knows) that the Bible says without vision the people perish. As humans we need to know, where we are going? What we are working towards? Vision gives us direction, purpose, meaning, and guidance. As a leader, it is my job to ensure that people understand, embrace, and work towards the vision God has given to His Church and, more specifically, what is the vision God has given to me as a leader. In the book, Making Vision Stick, Andy Stanley helped me to refine, verbalize, and add to my vision for Austin and the church plant. So over the next few days I am going to spell out the vision for Austin and the church we will be planting. Let me know what you think because this is a vision in progress.

Vision (Part 1) - The Problem
Entering into college was a unique time in my life. For the first time, I was "on my own." I didn't have anyone telling me I have to do this or that. The authority I thought I had was me. Naturally, with this type of thinking I began to drift away from the church and from God. The extent of my church involvement was going with my parents to a church service when I was in town, which was about one to two weekends a month. Slowly I began to drift further and further away from my faith. Life was a party and a study. The party was on the weekends and the study took place during the week. I did both intensely.

Looking back this time in my life is very insight to me now. As I gaze into the past, two things really began to stick out to me. First, I had no friends, acquantices, or peers that were living missional lives for Jesus. No one I knew even attended a church service on a regular basis. No one talked about God, Jesus, or the church. College seemed like such a disconnect from the environment I grew up in where the church played an important role in life. Second, no churches, except for one I became involved in late my Senior year, reached out or had an impact on the college life. We were being left out on our own. From my view, the church was almost in a life-less state during my years at college.

But in reality my story isn't all that unique. Millions of people in my generation in the U.S. have no involvement in the church. In fact, the largest segment of the population that is missing in the church is between 18-35ish. Unlike me, most of these people didn't have a "Christian up-bringing." They have NEVER been connected to a church! They have never fully heard Gospel or seen it fleshed out before! The church has done a terrible job of representing Christ and reaching the younger generations.

Here are a couple of major issues with the church:
-The church, as a whole, has done a terrible job of representing Christ
-It’s lost Christ’s love for people (inside and outside the church).
-It’s lost the servanthood mindset.
-It’s lost its’ passion for the mission of Christ.
-The church has become this inward-focused country club.
-The church has traded its' children for its' traditions. (Ed Stetzer)

There are huge implications of this. As these generations grow older, they become the leaders and the parents of our world. Yet, they will not be intimately connected with Jesus. America will then find itself in the same position that Europe and Canada are in now. They are spiritually anemic places. Jesus and the church have been literally removed from their culture.

Ultimately, the gen-X'ers and the younger generations want nothing to do with Christ or the church. Heaven, we have a serious problem!