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Prayer for Visionhttp://www.teal.org.uk/ep/prayvis.htm

Prayer is powerful. Vision is energising. Combining the two enables the church to undergo aspiritual pilgrimage into the future that God is calling. Yet for many churches even prayingchurches with vision the two are not combined.

Consider the elements of prayer and vision.

!irstly vision. "ithout a clearly stated and well communicated vision the church will stand stillen#oying the present or even the past$ % vision seeks to identify the corporate and specificvocation of the church. Corporate in that it is a community calling and specific in that eachchurch is called to focus on different things at different times.

&econd strategic intercession.&trategic can mean a range of things ' or nothing at all ' itseems to be the latest bu(( word to add in front of every act that we do to make us feel we areworking on something important. )n this conte*t ) mean prayer that is informed by the thoughtsand desires of the church yet open to the +ord,s prompting. &trategic intercession allows thechurch to pray corporately it,s #ourney of faith whether or not people are in the same building atthe same time.

-iscerning and moving into vision is a cyclical process. illustrated right )t needs both prayerand action at each stage. "hilst it is a process many churches and organisations can be in allfour phasesat once as they pursue different but hopefully complementary$ visions fordifferent elements of the church,s mission and ministry.

0hefirst phasere1uires two that the vision is developed in prayer and supported by prayer.+eaders cannot seek a vision for the future without themselves spending much time in prayerboth individually and together as a team.

&ince we seek God,s vision for the church encouraging members to pray for the vision process

increases the number of listening ears. &ee our resources on vision forming.

Phase twocreates the plans to achieve the vision ' the pro#ects changes in organisation andactivities that will be needed. 0he amount of action re1uired increases as plans and strategiesare drawn up but this stage also re1uires careful prayer ' the plans need to be the right ones$&ee our resources on strategic planning.

0he third phasesees the implementation of the changes and pro#ects re1uired to achieve thevision. 0hose who are action oriented can get on with the multiple tasks re1uired but the

http://www.teal.org.uk/ep/prayvis.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/vl/vl4proc.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/sv/overview.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/vl/vl4proc.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/sv/overview.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/ep/prayvis.htm

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prayers also need to be fully involved. Prayer supports the implementation of change. %ny visionre1uires change as the church moves into a different state. %ny change brings challenge andconflict. Prayer can help this by minimising the conflict and by directing pastoral care into thesituations where it is needed. 0his phase of prayer may need to be carefully channelled to aspecific group of trusted intercessors rather than to the general church community. &ee ourresources on introducing change and handling conflict.

Finally a period of reflection enables a church to pray through the action it has #ust taken. -oesit need amending2 %re there further steps re1uired2 0his reflection is likely to develop intoseeking the ne*t part of the vision and leads back into the first phase of the process. 0hisreflection should seek human views and feelings but also through prayer seek God,s viewpoint$

Pause for Thought : 0ake some time to reflect on the vision for your church or organisation."hich stage of the process do you think you are at2 )t,s possible to be at different stages ofthe process for different ministries within a church.

3ow can prayer best support the process of developing and moving into vision for your churchor organisation2

http://www.teal.org.uk/ic/change.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/conflict/conflict1.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/ic/change.htmhttp://www.teal.org.uk/conflict/conflict1.htm