Usually the vision will start with one person.
Vision means seeing something which is not yet here, visualizing something before it exists. If your church is to have a lay pastoral care ministry, there must be a person or group of persons who see the following:
- That every member needs pastoral care;
- That God mandates the pastoral care of his people;
- That the present system of pastoral care is not working;
- That laypeople can give effective pastoral care; and
- That the Lay Pastors Ministry will provide adequate pastoral care for every household.
In brief, this vision is (1) seeing the need for the pastoral care of the members of your church, (2) picturing in your mind the ability of laypeople to give pastoral care, and (3) envisioning the benefits of a lay pastoral care ministry.
If the vision comes from God, passion for bringing it to reality will burn like a fire. This insatiable conviction will compel the person or group to conclude; “God wants this ministry in our church and we’ll make it happen.” Prayer will fuel this fire, give God the opening he needs to guide the planning, and move the person or group to action.
Usually the vision will start with one person, This vision has to be shared with others. If the pastor has the vision, it must be shared with associates, the board, and/or other leaders. If the one with vision is a lay person, he or she needs to share it with one or more close member-friends, then with the pastor (or vice versa). If the vision is from God and the time is right, the person sharing the vision will be surprised to find that God has given the same idea to others.●
COMMENTS
in relation to VISION AND PRAYER
Pastor Tom Corbell, former President of Lay Pastors Ministry INC(USA), says:
The work of Ministry will always challenge us to be committed followers of Jesus Christ. That commitment will always lead us to be involved in other people’s lives.
The purpose is so that the Lordship of Christ Jesus might be shared and that lives can be changed to the Glory of God. Our beloved founder of Lay Pastors Ministry was Dr. Melvin J. Steinbron. The Lord gave him a vision for equipping the laity to provide consistent and biblically grounded pastoral care. Dr. Steinbron believed passionately in the hearts and minds of the laity to being Christ to the nations.
I believe that those who read these words join with Dr. Steinbron in the hope and ongoing ministry to train the laity so that the Message of Salvation can be shared with generations to come. I want to encourage each person to continue to study, pray and seek the Lord’s guidance,His gift of discernment and strong belief in the Lord who said:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)
In his foundational book Can The Pastor Do It Alone? Dr. Steinbron included a quote that I want to share with you.Thomas Gillespie wrote: Pastoring will be realized only if the non-clergy are willing to MOVE UP, the clergy are willing to MOVE OVER, and if all of God’s people are willing to MOVE OUT! (pg. 60, Can The Pastor Do It Alone?) I encourage each of you to continue to prepare for a ministry that will bring meaning, joy, challenges, and purpose to your life. In doing so you will bring honor and glory to Jesus our Lord and Savior!■
Byeong, Melvin University, says:
Think of vision which was what you want to, wish to complete in your life time, but don’t stay at there too long, move on to plan, then prepare.
In the other way, the vision is important. And mostly the vision starts with one person, but it’s done through an organization or Institution. However, depending on the culture of such an organization or institution, the vision may end easily, or be difficult, or even end without achieving it.
VISION is about goals, strategies, achievements, etc., but I think ‘CULTURE’ is about people. In other words, culture can be seen as something that people in the organization feel.
Then, the culture within the organization can be considered from the worst to the best. So let’s assume that the worst is -5 and the best is +5. The worst culture, -5, is a sign of ruin, the best culture, and I think it is hopeful that +5 is going well.
According to one study, there are five cultures in any organization: negatively [2%] are always against; [25%] are discouraged and victimized but have no power to change the mood; [50%] is stagnant, but can be improved by one’s own efforts; and positively, [22%] is productive, and finally, only [2%] impresses others, shares energy, and creatively solves seemingly impossible things.
So let’s talk of bad culture first. [Bad culture] is the current internally bad culture due to distrust, competition, and conflict, and it can be seen as the first two above.
The other is a culture that checks people coming in from outside and is difficult to accept. New employees, new members, are difficult from those who tend to be shown. “We already have our own culture, so you have to adjust here, or leave.” In other words, they do not want to break their own vested interests that already exist.
[Good culture] is seen as understanding, acceptance, and trust, which will be the second half of the above statistics. Acceptance is the recognition and acceptance of diversity. It’s as if the choir makes four different sounds, but they do it together to make harmony!
Anyway, the role of a leader is important in determining the culture within the organization, so we have to think of it a lot. This is serious because leaders often ruin culture. I remember reading the book, “Leaders Eat Last” a long time ago, and I think the title itself is meaningful. If a leader always tries to eat first at any time, the culture of the organization will have obvious consequences.
Culture is first felt in the mind, but when it begins to be expressed in words, a negative atmosphere is created, and eventually negative things come up to the surface, and the problem begins. In this case, the culture of the organization may eventually raise doubts about the vision it had in the first place, and further distrust of leadership. Only distrust, hurt, discouragement, and regret remain.
In the end, depending on what culture it is, it is determined whether it will be effective or destructive in the reality of the vision. Whatever ministry, financial support is a large part, but it is often seen that the culture of the members and their organizations who perform the ministry occupies a greater proportion than money, or money itself.
I found some reasons why pastors do same mistake even they knew there is some problems. First, their curriculum, and second they don’t know about what the motivation is enough. First, most churches have curriculum for three years-training course. Usually the curriculum are made by denominational headquarter, or prominent big church developed and introduced. So local church, pastor believe the big pastor’s or follow denominational policy is truth. So even the church knows it is not the best resources still they use that without other options. So, what I want to say here is that they put them into airplane shed too long until they are almost died. Today’s people have changed a lot. In the early years they didn’t know much about Bible and Ministry so they needed three years-study program, but now they are matured enough to do ministry. So they need only paradigm shift to jump into the ministry and in the other hand, today’s period of training is getter shorter. From three years to two years, then one year, then six months and then, even three months today. Only three months training course is good enough. So three years in the plane shed is really not wise. Even as you know PACE training take only 12 hours, and in my case I am training them only straight two days or two nights. Why? Because they are almost ready to fly. The Only thing is open the door, and push them to fly in the air which takes only two days.
Of course there is another reason to do three years. This is not proper reason but it still works. The church want to keep them in their church, instead of letting them go to other churches. So, they say three-years is correct, also says Jesus trained three years, but this is not wise strategy. Laypeople are not anymore laity in the past ten years, or twenty years ago. They live today, right now and here. We pastors have to think of the real issue and reality.■
ADDITIONAL COMMENT
by BYEONG
Good personalities: Statistics show that 95% of people who subscribe to life insurance are moved by the personality of insurance agents rather than the insurance content itself.
Some people are good at sales, but many are not. In fact, such sales, or insurance. In addition, there are many cases of hesitation to buy things. I’d say I’m part of that kind.
When I was a seminary student, I had experience in sales as a part-time job. I’ve sold books and sold things. I wanted to earn my tuition. Furthermore, I had no experience in the field. In the end, I couldn’t sell any. I found it very difficult to sell something to a complete stranger.
I think it reminds us that “rapport” is important in words that we know well. It also means mutual understanding, trust and cooperation. Rev. Melvin, who motivated the establishment of Melvin University, also wrote about this in a letter to lay pastors. What he’s talking about is good rapport. It was said to be a tool to open each other’s hearts, but he expressed harmony, familiarity, and even similarity.
Personality that makes others feel bad, personality that doesn’t care about other people’s rights, personality that always disagrees, personality that always creates discord. It is said that there is an enough chance of failure in this nature. On the other hand, people who are good at negotiating with others and harmonize are more likely to succeed. In other words, it is very important to develop personality and character.
I’ve read Stephen Covey’s book a few times over again. His conclusion was about characters. To emphasize this, in many ways, I have heard many illustrations.
Can a good personality be developed? I think it’s possible. I think that personality and attitude can change, even if personality does not change. Furthermore, I think this is one of the reasons for studying and training. Usually, when you look at people with bad personalities, you find that they were not like that, but they are because of the situation and environment. Of course, it’s often used by students, but there’s a saying called Teachable! It is a concept used as a person who can be taught or as a person who accepts teaching well. When selecting staff from a team, they also use the initials FAT: Faithful, Available, and Teachable.
Then why is a good personality so important? First, it is very beneficial to yourself. There are times when you don’t, and you become very hurtful to yourself. Therefore, it naturally appears in relationships with others, causing double wounds. Furthermore, the number of people suffering from triple and quadruple work increases as they show distorted expressions and behavior in all relationships. How sad it is for us to live in harm’s way when we are supposed to help people!