Our Merri Creek Vision

 In the earliest days of Merri Creek (2013), before the weekly services had launched, our planting team gathered every Friday morning for breakfast at Andrea’s house to dream about what kind of church we wanted. We were developing a vision for the church. 

Most church vision statements, even those written with prayer and sincerity, end up borrowing from the corporate weasel-words playbook. They involve measurable outcomes, inspiring slogans, and forward-looking plans clothed in spiritual language. My problem is that it can set the church up to be an organisation to be managed rather than a community called to witness to God’s action. It risks turning the ministry into a human project. Instead of attending to what God is already doing in and around us, we start talking as though it’s our job to make the kingdom happen. The vision becomes something we must achieve, rather than a confession of what God is doing and where we are being invited to join in.

It would be better if churches replaced these business weasel-words with what Andrew Root from Luther Seminary calls “theological watchwords”—prayerful phrases that emerge from genuine experiences of God’s presence. Rather than imagining a future, describe how God is acting in the present so as to orient the church to remain attentive and responsive. It’s more like a spiritual compass than a business plan.

In a Secular Age, we swim in a cultural water that tells us that there is no God. As a result, without even thinking about it, churches create structures and systems intended to function without God. This is what is behind the corporate style church vision statement – the illusion of control – “we will grow to 1000 members by 2030” as if people can be managed like widgets, or marketing statements like, “a vibrant and growing church where everyone belongs,” or using hubristic appeals: “transforming the nation for Jesus.”

Theological watchwords are better because they prioritise faith in God over human-focused strategy (though the two need not be mutually exclusive). Root says our question should not be “What will we do next to grow?” but “Where has God met us? What is the Spirit doing? What is God calling us to?” We should be seeking to witness to God’s presence in the midst of our ordinary lives. Theological watchwords remind us that ministry is not our achievement, it’s our participation in the ongoing life of the living God.

Root hadn’t yet written about this back in 2013, but I was already thinking along these lines. I had seen so many uninspiring church vision statements that landed dead on arrival. So, to develop our alternative style church vision statement, our planting team went ahead with the question: Who is God calling us to be? From that prayerful discernment, we came up with: 

…Imagine a church community that cultivates an open and charitable dialogue about Jesus with the "no-religion" tribes of Melbourne's inner north. 

…Imagine a church community whose active and transformative presence is dispersed in the neighbourhood like yeast in dough.

…Imagine a church community that nourishes spiritual seekers and inspires creatives.

Cultivating Life In Our Neighbourhood

When we arrived at these "imagine statements", it resonated so powerfully with the team. It was a description of the kind of disciples we wanted to be and the kind of unique mission we believed God was calling us to. It was immediate and tangible: a shared vision for following Jesus together. With this, we had a common identity and purpose.

These statements come close to being a set of theological watchwords. They borrow from Colossians 4:5-6 “conversations…seasoned with salt”, Jesus’ parable of the yeast in dough in Matthew 13:33, Jesus’ offer of an endless “nourishing” stream of spiritual water to the woman at the well in John 4:13-14, and Paul’s description of the child of God as being like a beautiful artistic creation in Ephesians 2:10. Even the final statement “Cultivating life in our neighbourhood” comes from Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 2:42.

Over the next few weeks, I will delve into each of these "imagine statements," exploring how we have been living them out, what we have learned, and where God might be leading us next.