Article to be Submitted to Rev! Magazine

I'm submitting the following article to Rev! magazine. Hopefully they publish it.

What Are You Aiming For?
Making Sense of Vision, Core Values, and Ministry

I did something different at a staff meeting not long ago. Instead of the usual meeting in the Team Room, we got out of the church and went bowling. Among the many great truths of life, one of them is that no matter who you are, whether you’ve done it before or not…everyone always has a great time bowling. There was a reason behind this outing. First, we just love to have fun together. Second, I wanted to illustrate the vision, core values, and ministries of our church in a practical way. After a couple of games and a hot dog, we sat down and talked about it.
What we do in church and how we structure it is a lot like bowling. There is a clearly defined vision—I want to knock down all the pins. There are guiding core values to help you accomplish that vision—don’t look at the pins, look at the arrows on the lane. And there is a vehicle (ministry) to get it done—a carefully selected bowling ball. I would imagine that most of us know all about the necessity of a clearly defined vision. What is it that God wants you to accomplish? Why are you doing what you’re doing? But many are not able to articulate that vision in an understandable way to a person on the street.
At our church the vision is quick and simple—Enjoying Life, Loving People. John 10:10 says that the whole point of Jesus coming to earth was to “give life in all its fullness.” That’s a life we can enjoy. According to John 3:16, his motivation for coming was his amazing love for us. We apply that practically to our own lives as we grow and discover this enjoyable life, and as Christ’s love overflows through us in service toward others. Therefore, our goal is to help people become growing, serving disciples of Christ. If we could effectively do that we feel like we would be bowling strikes.
But how do you get this done? It takes a lot of know-how and serious practice to be able to throw strikes on a regular basis. What sets the pros apart from the amateurs like me? For the longest time I would grab a ball that fit my fingers and lob it down the lane hoping to hit some pins. I got fairly good at it, but I was never consistent until I learned a little secret. Don’t look at the pins; look at the arrows on the lane. To me this defies logic. If I want to hit the pins, I should probably look at them. Right? Nevertheless, if you hit the arrows just right, you’ll get a strike every time. The reason is that it’s easier to hit an intermediate target.
We have a vision and we go for it. We know what we want to accomplish so let’s throw everything we have at it. But what happens is that we end up throwing a lot of gutter balls and wind up with a low score. I don’t know about you, but I hate gutter balls. It’s as if I wasted an entire frame and the energy it took to walk up there. I would rather spend my time and resources doing something that is more likely to get results. Core values are the intermediate target we strive to accomplish in a person’s life. They are the little arrows on the lane that help us reach our goal. If we pay attention to them, they will get us from A to B—from our point of conversion to our goal of Heaven.
We have three core values at our church. The first one is Building Relationships with God and others. The second is Transforming Lives to be more like Jesus. The third one is Pursuing Ministry. If you are not serving, you are not growing. Everything we do, every ministry we design, has to fit into at least one of those core values. If our people could develop these values into their lives, they will become the kind of growing, serving disciple that will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:11) If what we do does not help us accomplish our vision, it’s a gutter ball—and I hate gutter balls! If we do something that does not reflect our core values, it is a waste of precious time and resources. I want to know that when I send a ball down the lane I’ve given it the best chance possible of doing what its intended purpose is.
That’s some pretty good sounding stuff! You and I both have gone to conferences and heard some pretty good sounding stuff that seems to be working well for whoever is teaching it. We get it; we understand it. Then we come back to our churches very excited about it and teach it to our staffs and volunteers. Soon, our understanding leads to frustration because we don’t see it actually happening in our church. It’s as if we’ve read the rule book for the game of bowling. We know the mechanics. We know how to do it. But the next step, implementation, is up to us. We have to pick out just the right ball. Now, I’ve seen all sorts of things (including people) thrown down a bowling lane when I was a youth pastor, but it never ended well. If you don’t want to get thrown out of the establishment, you use a ball. Not just any ball mind you, but one that you have carefully selected after trying out dozens of other balls. Once you found the ball that fits your hand and fingers, one that is just the right weight, it becomes your ball.
Your ball is ministry. The tool you use to aim at your core values and accomplish your vision. Ministry is where the ball meets the lane. They are designed according to your specific core values. For us, we want to design ministries that promote relationship building, develop deeper disciples, and provide opportunities for service, or any combination of the three. It seems like I had always promoted certain ministries just because we were supposed to have those ministries. Not necessarily because they were helping to accomplish our goal. So we had to get rid of a few sacred cows. But with God’s help, we were able to teach these principles to our congregation in such a way that the people were very supportive and understanding.
Bowling is all about finding your groove. It may take some adjustments along they way to find your sweet spot. But through practice and consistency, you’ll find yourself throwing less gutter balls and receiving more high fives from your teammates.