A Lutheran In Senegal

Vision Quest--part two (see the first part below)

"Without a vision, the people are without brakes.” That’s the more or less literal translation of what the most popular French version of the bible (Louis Segond, 1910) has for proverbs 29:18. I like it a lot—mostly because we tend to talk about vision as being the locomotive—the accelerator, even—of an organization like the church. It’s what pushes us in a certain direction, what drives us, what guides us. But according to Louis Segond’s reading of scripture, a vision (especially a prophetic vision from God) is more like a set of brakes. Without it, we just can’t stop. We go every-which-way. We are out of control, never pausing, never stopping. You don’t get far without a gas pedal, that’s true, but try driving without brakes… that’s what it’s like when the people of God don’t have (or don’t trust, or don’t follow) a collective and divine vision. It changes how I look at the whole visioning exercise we did today and yesterday.

By the way, the church council leaders came up with a Vision Statement for the Lutheran Church of Senegal or ELS: “Life in its Abundance, Salvation for All.”

And flowing from that vision is this statement of mission by the ELS at this time: “The Lutheran Church of Senegal participates in God’s Mission

• by making God and God’s son, Jesus-Christ known;
• by making disciples of all nations, beginning with Senegal;
• by witnessing to faith in Christ in actions and in words; and
• by carrying out social and development work for the well-being of the [Senegalese] population.”

(For biblical references for each of the four phrases above, check out Hebrews 1:1-2, Matthew 28:19, Acts 2: 43-47, and James 2: 14-17, respectively.)

Still be my vision, o ruler of all.

Peter

 

Be Thou My Vision (Vision Quest, part one)

It’s hard enough for a group of church leaders to try to elaborate a vision statement, a mission statement and a handful of strategic objectives or priorities. But it’s harder still when only 4 of the 10 elected members of the Church Council show up for the meeting at all. I tried to mask my own disappointment, or at least to not make the mistake of so many teachers, pastors or group facilitators—myself included—who’ve been known to say in a scolding manner to those who DID show up “Where are all the rest? Why are they not here?” Still those who were there didn’t seem to be too worried about those who were not—or at least they didn’t let the ones who were not there stop them from sharing their ideas. This was, after all the third and final meeting for envisioning the mission of the Lutheran Church of Senegal, and setting in motion a strategic planning process with priorities for ministry in the next several years.

“Les absent ont toujours tort” says a popular saying in Francophone Africa : The absent are always wrong. A little harsh, maybe, but what I think it means in practice is that the decisions are always necessarily made by those who show up. And so the four got right to work. They came with learning and tools from our last sessions—and ideas of their own after having reflected on how to put the two into practice. They participated openly and deeply in bible study and reflection, in brainstorming and prioritizing, and finally in developing both a vision statement and a mission statement that seem to reflect where the church is now and might be headed in the future.  Tomorrow, we get on to the strategic priorities and objectives—putting some meat on the skeleton we assembled today, as it were.

Jamm ak Jamm

Peter