“Where there is no vision, the people perish”    Proverbs 29:18

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

Isaiah 43:19

Jimminy Cricket, that loveable Disney character, sang a song in which he said, “When you wish upon a star all your wishes come true!”  I do not believe that is true but it is a nice thought. I do have a wish! I wish that we, the people of Tyner United Methodist Church, would have a vision of what God wants to do in this place.

Proverbs reminds us that if we have no vision then we die. What future do you see for our church? What is her ministry both to those who attend and those in the community? Do we have a central focus on which all ministries work together to make it happen?  What things do we need to let go of and what new thing do we need to allow God to do in us and our church?

I know by now you might be saying why is he asking all of these questions? The reason for the questions is to get us started in thinking about the future ministry of our church and God’s calling upon us. There is an old saying, “If you keep doing the same old things you have always done, you will get the same old results.”

I feel like God is desiring to do a new thing in this place and it is about to spring forth! I do not know about you but I want to be part of God’s new thing here in our church.

One way we might find out what God’s new thing is, is to have a visioning weekend in which we look at where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. This I hope can happen in the next six months. My friend, Rev. Jack Edwards, taught me when I was his associate at Wesley Memorial in Cleveland that no great thing ever happens in the church that is not undergirded in prayer.

I hope that we will start praying now for God to open our eyes, minds, hearts, and ears to hear from Him in prayer about the “New Thing” He has planned for us! Please pray for the right person to come to lead us in the visioning time.