The Metro vision portrays a three dimensional picture of a LIGHTHOUSE, penetrating the darkness; a HOSPITAL, providing care and restoration; and a SPIRITUAL MOTHER, birthing ministries and nurturing believers.

We better be sure we know who we are and what we are about, if we hope to reach this world for Christ.  A statement of mission is philosophic.  It is a general statement of ministry objectives.  Vision is a part of our overall mission.  Vision is a specific, detailed statement of direction and uniqueness; it is strategic.

In those churches where a sense of God’s vision for ministry truly exists, the probability of growth and impact are high.  In churches where vision is absent, growth is thwarted by many roadblocks.  George Barna points out that mission and vision are not interchangeable terms.  They are not the same but they are incomplete without each other.  The mission statement is a definition of the key ministry objectives of the church.  The vision statement is a clarification of the specific direction and activities the church will pursue toward making a true ministry impact.

Metropolitan’s mission statement is very broad and really includes the specifics of their vision.  Usually your mission can be described in a sentence or two.  Sometimes you can use a slogan to capture its essence.  An example is “to reach the lost at any cost” or “to evangelize, exalt, edify, and equip.”

We must put feet on our mission philosophy for ministry.  We must discover practical and workable ways we can help hurting people.  When we really understand the mission God has for us and how we can begin to approach this challenge, we can then see our church as unique, special, and important to the Kingdom of God.  George Barna said that the purpose of vision is to create the future.  It is to make faith into reality.  All things are possible!  The future belongs to God and to those who follow and flow with what God is doing.

The mark of a great leader is the ability not only to capture the vision, but also to articulate it and to cause people to fully embrace it.  For our mission and vision to have an impact, it must be shared.  It must result in consensus.  If only the pastor is committed to the mission and can see and believe in the reality of the vision, all will be lost.  The pastor must communicate the mission and vision that God is orchestrating in a way that local church leaders can recognize in their spirits that this is of God.

Dr. Raymond F. Culpepper said, “True ministry is a spiritual phenomenon which supersedes systems, programs, formulas, and church growth tools.  True ministry is precipitated by spiritual incubation not unilateral human direction.”

If we are going to touch a hurting world through local church ministry, we must learn to walk through new doors of ministry as led by the Holy Spirit.  We must view the Word of God as central to discipleship and the accomplishment of ministry.  We must be committed to the personal work of the Holy Spirit as He directs our individual lives and ministries in supernatural ways.  Also, we must be possessed by a single, supreme passion.

Therefore, we must understand and be committed to the mission of effectively caring for our hurting world.  Concerning our personal commitment to the mission, we must remember that God will not trust long-term ministry to those who have short-term commitment.

Before God can establish a ministry to hurting people in your church, He must first grow the mission in you.  Jack Hayford said, “Church growth is . . . God growing something in me.”  Satan vehemently opposes true ministry, not just programs, because true ministry is an extension of the sovereign work of Christ.

We must resist temptations to follow fads and forms to achieve rapid growth.  We must patiently labor with God’s help and divine direction to build a spiritual foundation for ministry.

In order to capture God’s mission and vision for our ministry of care and counseling, we must not become distracted from a growing personal relationship with God.  We must reject resorting to human means rather than Holy Spirit vision casting.  The flow of the Holy Spirit in our ministry becomes blocked by negative power struggles, dead traditions, human manipulation, inept leadership, guilt-motivation, and a lack of relationship skills.

Seek God’s direction and mission. The Holy Spirit precipitates, participates, and proliferates ministry. Understanding your mission and seeing the unique vision requires trust, time, and tenacity.  Through faith and commitment, you will capture and experience God’s mission for your ministry and local church.

He had a quiet sense of confidence that grew from His relationship with His Father.  Irenaeus said, “He was made what we are that He might make us what He is Himself.”

Genuine leaders operate out of a sense of calling, not a sense of compulsion.

He had a great sense of purpose/mission.  Warren Bennis affirmed what was said earlier when he wrote, “Managers want to do things right — leaders want to do the right thing.”

Centered in any great leader’s soul is a sense of transcendent purpose.  A sense of divine mission coursed strongly through the arteries of Jesus’ forbearers.

• Abraham was called to go into the unknown and father a new nation.
• Joseph had a dream of greatness.
• Moses, at a burning bush, discovered his life’s purpose.
• Joshua led Israel into the promised land.
• David subdued a kingdom.
• Solomon built God’s temple.

All lived and died with a belief that through them God was working out a purpose greater than themselves.  Jesus had that same sense of destiny.  He often referred to the purposes for His coming “to call … sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32); “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).  Christ came to bring truth, a sword, fire, division … He saw Himself as the Son of Man, fulfilling history.  When Jesus gave His inaugural speech at the synagogue in Nazareth, He read from the prophecy of Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:1, 2).

Then He said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18-21).

Jesus’ saving role was a strategy of suffering and glory.  The cross was pivotal to Jesus’ strategy.  The suffering and the giving of His life, a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), would lead on to glory — the glory of His resurrection and His final return.

As we follow Jesus’ ministry, we see that He preaches, heals, forgives, and challenges religious systems.  Jesus touches the problems of people with the power of God.  Also, He is creating a band of followers.  The aim of Jesus was and is to extend the kingdom of God to all the nations, and to set people free from all that binds them.  Jesus had called a committed minority who would change the world, not by frontal assaults, by force, or by slogans, but by infiltrating every nook and cranny of this world with God’s salt and light and leaven.  Jesus returned to heaven and entrusted His work to committed people.  Committed people are known by their love for one another. They serve the poor and help the suffering.  They preach the good news everywhere and invite everyone to come to Christ.

We will prevail, not in our own strength, but in the power of the Holy Spirit.  When we have finished the work, Christ will return; then, we will enter into His joy, and our everlasting celebration will begin.

Jesus lived by the unseen.  He knew that “what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”

(2 Corinthians 4:18).  If only our vision were as Christ’s, a total and compelling vision of the largest and widest scope, with people always at the focus of His purpose.

If we are to follow the model of Jesus, we must learn to see as Jesus sees.

• We must observe carefully and prayerfully where people are hurting, suffering, and longing to see what God is doing in the world.  We must allow our hearts to be drawn to an area which may be God’s vision for us.
• We need to reflect on what we have observed, praying and reading, thinking and talking until our sense of call begins to emerge and we see what it is that God would have us do.
• Then we must begin to act on that vision, even if we begin in just small ways.

Jesus was gentle and compassionate; at times He was withdrawing, yet filled with power and authority.  Jesus was not passive; He was a “strong man.”  He was Christ the captain; Christ the victor; Christ the warrior; and was victorious even in death.

Jesus was not driven by His needs, but by His mission.  He was able to set priorities and timetables rather than reacting to pressure.  He did not permit others to set His agenda.  Jesus was not driven by compulsions for applause, recognition, or power.  He selected to do only those things He is called to do.

The admirable qualities of forcefulness and humility are rarely found in the same person.  But in Jesus, we see both at their finest and fullest.  A leader may appear strong in action and accomplishment, but the test comes when facing temptation and hardship.

From the beginning to the end of His life, Jesus was tempted to take the path of least resistance.  In the wilderness, at His trial, and at the cross, Jesus showed strength in the last battle with sin and evil.  Dying for truth and for the world’s sin, He showed where true greatness lies.

Gerald Hartis said, “Ministry is what we leave in our wake as we follow Jesus.”  Jesus knew the price of leadership and He was willing to give Himself.  No one ever had at their disposal greater power than Jesus.  Jesus turned the power scale of the world upside-down.

Nothing will destroy a movement faster than disunity among those who are at the center.  Being around greatness may corrupt us if we grasp for the glory and fail to understand the spirit of the leader.  Our attitudes to the unimportant person, the outsider, and the other followers show our grasp of our leader’s mission.

“Who is the greatest?” argued Christ’s disciples.  The one who acts like Jesus, comes the answer.  Jesus taught that greatness is measured by taking the last place, by a total commitment to welcome the “little ones,” by a passion for personal purity, and by toughness with ourselves, yet gentleness with others.

He aimed to reproduce Himself in them. Walter Lippman said, “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the convictions and the will to carry on.”

The theme of enabling others to be all that they can be is at the core of genuine leadership.  Warren Bennis said, “Leadership is not so much the exercise of power itself as the empowerment of others.”  The leadership of Jesus was empowering and transforming.  Shepherding people should be a means of empowering them.

Jesus said, “I have called you friends, for everything that I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jim Kennedy said, “Train a man and he will become only what you are.  Serve and develop a man who is caught up with vision and is dedicated to God and the sky is the limit.”

Jesus was the great mentor, the great role model for ministry.  If we are to build a local church ministry of care, we must empower people and free them to work for God.  People can only perform excellently when they fully comprehend what they are trying to do.

A large part of leadership lies in “vision casting.”  Generally, people are drawn not so much to programs as to leaders who inspire.

He could articulate His mission and vision.  Jesus was a model communicator.  He taught His disciples simply and directly, yet He mystified the multitudes with His parables.  Jesus spoke reality!  His person, vision, and mission were all integrated in what He said.

There are certain lessons we can learn about communication from Jesus.

1. Clarity of speech comes from clarity of purpose.  Know where you are heading!
2. Believability comes in direct proportion to a quiet sense of confidence.  Know your source and your identity!
3. Words live forever, therefore they must be handled with care.  Know the power of language!
4. How others hear is as important as what you say.  Know your audience!
5. Knowing when to speak is as important as knowing what to say.  Know that timing is everything!
6. Simplicity means to say one thing well.  Know your point!
7. Face your calling and task with the utmost seriousness, but do not be anxious about yourself.  Know where your responsibility begins and ends!

He was gracious, courageous, and wise. Warren Bennis said, “As weather shapes mountains, so problems make leaders.”  To lead is to struggle.  “Leadership always involves change, moving people from one point to another, from the old way of doing things to the new, from the security in the past to the insecurity in the future,” according to Leighton Ford.

Since leadership involves change, and change precipitates crisis, a leader must expect resistance.  A major theme in the life of Jesus is that of a deep ongoing struggle with evil.  Jesus handled conflict, but He was uniquely free of inner conflict.  If we as leaders/models want to transform conflict, then we must overcome our own inner wars.  We must recognize the power of satan to cause conflicts in people and churches.  We need to know that the battle is on a spiritual level and that the weapons to use are divine not carnal.

Evil is not to be feared, ignored, or shrunk from, but to be exposed, confronted, overcome and used for God’s glory.

He was committed to the future. David McKenna said, “By the very nature of their role, incarnate leaders must plan to make an exit.”  A transforming leader must not only be an initiator but also a finisher, and not only a finisher but also a sustainer.  Jesus provided not only a legacy, but also a way of sustaining and renewing momentum.  As models, we must meet the challenge of the future by preparing people for the future.

What can we learn from Jesus (our model) about letting go and leading into the future?

• He led the way for others to follow.
• He shaped His people — for without successors, there is no success.
• He symbolized His values — the cross and the empty tomb were His greatest symbols.

If we are going to be the leader in local church ministry of caring, we must follow the example of Christ and His model of leadership and ministry.

• “Tell them what to do.”
• “Tell them why.”
• “Show them how.”
• “Do it with them.”
• “Let them do it.”
• “Deploy them.”

• Make sure you have a plan.
• Explain your plan.
• Present a model of how you plan to work.

Someone else’s vision will not work for you.  You must follow a method of ministry that fits your situation.

In care and counseling, we must remember that we are dealing with broken people who don’t know how to get along in relationships.

• Involve many people in ministry of care.
• Plan to disciple new converts.
• Teach dysfunctional people.
• Develop character in people.
• Help people discover their gifts.
• Build a community of love and support.
• Allow a diversity of ministries and methods.

• Stage 1 – Listening and understanding
• Stage 2 – Helping people rethink the problem(s)
• Stage 3 – Formulating workable action plans
• Stage 4 – Supporting people as they implement the action plans for growth and recovery
• Stage 5 – Follow-up with continued love and support

Most effective counseling is not done by professionals but by ordinary people.  When people have problems, they turn to their friends and family.  Training for lay counselors is important.  They need to gain experience under the supervision of a professional.

Training courses are available to help guide you in methods for care and crisis intervention.  Also, Level 2 in Lay Leadership Development has a manual entitled “How to Establish a Counseling Ministry in the Local Church.”

When you seriously start helping people get free and on-track for God, you can expect satanic espionage and interference.  Your ministry will survive only by maintaining anointing and Christ-like leadership.  Do not panic or give up when the ministry struggles.

Motivate ministry leaders by giving them ownership, authority with responsibility, forgiveness, patience, and a willingness to share your own personal failures.

Establish concrete lines of communication with ministry leaders and workers where you teach them, model maturity, and really listen to their ideas.

Maintain a climate conducive to ministry in your church.  Teach your people to love and help hurting people.  The life of your ministry of care will require patience from everyone involved, anointing of the Holy Spirit, skills development, and consistent leadership.

• “In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.” Epictetus A.D. 50-120
• “We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.”  Max Dupree
• “Make everything you do count.”  Paul L. Walker
• “You don’t attract what you want, you attract what you are.”  Curtis Hutson
• “Great pastors don’t build great churches; great pastors build great people and great people build great churches.”  Jack Hyles
• “Let the wind of the Holy Spirit … catch your sail and lift you over the waves to fulfill God’s mission for your church.”  Peter Wagner