Turning left, my friend Simon checked the map, took a bearing, and we headed off the path, towards our campsite. “Keep your eye on that big boulder,” he said. It was right in front of us. We walked in a straight line. I looked up, and the boulder had moved! I corrected my path. Looked up. The boulder moved again.
Humans cannot naturally walk in a straight line. We need something to help us stay on course. Something to take our bearings from.
As a community of Jesus followers, we need to keep on course. Following God’s way in life, shaped by the truth of who Jesus is and living through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us.
The Romans built long, straight roads using a series of beacons and a tool called a groam, a type of plumb line. As a church community, our vision statement and vision prayer, which we are currently revising, are there to help us remain focused on the bigger picture of where God is calling us. The beacon that we are aiming for. From September, we will be creating a vision action plan, a tool that we can use to outline the work and activities that we feel God is calling us to focus on. We aim to review our action plan every year, to check our progress, make needed course corrections and to see what is ahead.
To aid us as a church community, in October and November, we will be running a preaching series exploring our vision statement:
St John’s Church is a community where people come to, grow in, and live out faith in Jesus Christ within Grove and beyond.
This preaching series aims to help us understand the direction we are heading, while we develop our vision action plan, the tool to keep us on course. And yes, Simon and I did make it safely to our campsite. God bless, Alec
This article originally appeared in the St John’s Messenger. If you would like to discuss contributing a future article please contact news@valebenefice.org.uk.
