Burden Gives Birth to Vision

After twelve years of ministry in the same church I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the process of renewal and the ongoing work of building a vibrant church.  The journey has been filled with some overwhelming challenges that taught me to lean deeply into my Creator for wisdom, strength, and assurance.  It has also been filled with amazing times of joy and fulfillment as we have watched God transform many lives and the church he chose to partner with in that transformation.  It has been an incredible journey thus far.

I recently had the opportunity to spend a few days with a sister church in a neighboring community to share with them a few of the lessons we have learned on this journey of renewal.  Over the next few weeks I want to share with you some of the principles I have found in God's word about renewal that I believe have proven themselves time and time again along our journey and in many other places that have experienced vibrant renewal.

Principle #1: Burden Gives Birth to Vision

One of the books I return to often when teaching and preaching on vibrant church renewal is the book of Nehemiah.  There are so many ways that the process God took his people through mirrors what we have experienced, and as we read in Nehemiah 1:4, it all begins with a burden for the city of Jerusalem and the people living there.  When Nehemiah heard that the walls of Jerusalem lay in ruins it says, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."  Nehemiah is overwhelmed with a heavy burden for all of Jerusalem.

One of the things I find so interesting about Nehemiah is that at this point he had never been to Jerusalem.  Nehemiah was born in captivity following the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar around 587 B.C. He had grown up in Babylon and it begs the question, if Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem then why would he be so burdened for the city and those who lived there?  

Assume for just a moment that Nehemiah grew up under the teachings of parents who were devout Jews.  In that case, he likely grew up on bedtime stories that retold the history and adventures of his Jewish culture.  Stories of heroes, like Moses, Joshua, King David & his mighty men.  Many of those stories included stories of Jerusalem…like when David killed Goliath, cut off his head and carried it through the streets of Jerusalem!  Those stories have a way of sticking in the minds of young boys, and even though he had never been there, Nehemiah had developed a passion for the city of Jerusalem…the city of his people…the city of God.

And so when some of the Jews had been given permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city…Nehemiah had high hopes of a new day for the people of God and the city of God.  I’m sure somewhere in the back of his mind he hoped to visit there someday and to see the city in all of it’s splendor in a way that would glorify God.  So, when Nehemiah gets word from Hanani, who is traveling from Jerusalem, that the city he loves is in poor condition he is heartbroken; he is overwhelmed with an enormous burden.

Before we move on to how this enormous burden gives birth to a God-sized vision for the city, lets not be so quick to move on from the place of overwhelming pain for the condition of the city of Jerusalem.  We love to talk about vision, but how many of us are willing to spend some time in a season of brokenness in order for that vision to truly be rooted in a passion to see God transform our cities?

Our American culture does not deal well with seasons of pain and brokenness.  We do everything we can to ignore it, deaden it, self-medicate it, or prescribe it away.  Christians and church leaders are just as guilty as anyone.  We run from pain and as a result we miss what it means to wrestle with God through the pain and to hear His voice gently leading us out of that place of darkness and into the future that He desires for us.

It was during such a season of pain that God would begin to speak to me about the steps to take that would lead to the renewal of Springfield First Church of the Nazarene (now One Life Church of the Nazarene).  I had been the pastor for a little over three years and while we had experienced marginal growth we had just gone through a staff transition that was painful to me personally and had caused several young couples to leave the church.

It was in the midst of this painful season that I found myself crying out to God.  I was heartbroken over the current condition of the church.  I was grief-stricken about our inability to make a significant difference in our city and our inefficiency to reach it for Christ.  I had a choice to make.  Would I run from it and move on to another church?  Would I ignore the pain, try to deaden it?  Or would I remain in it until God used it to give birth to a vision that would renew and restore.  I chose to remain in it and for the next several months I brought that burden before God and listened to his voice. 

Nehemiah didn't run from the pain of the burden he had for Jerusalem.  In fact, before Nehemiah ever did anything; before he ever cast a vision or made a request of anyone for support he spent 5-6 months fasting and praying, wrestling with God.  It was out of that season of pain that a vision, a dream for the future of the city of Jerusalem was born.

Here is the lesson for us today.  We will never accomplish anything of significance where God has placed us until we are first willing to be overwhelmed with a burden.  Let me ask you a question.  If Nehemiah was burdened for a city he had never been to, how can you and I not be burdened by the decay of the cities, schools, and neighborhoods that we are surrounded by each and every day?  It is out of this deep pain that God-sized visions are born.


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