PCC Away Days – Time to take the long view

Author: The Ven Keith James

Published on: 13 June 2019

John F Kennedy, visiting the NASA space centre, needed a comfort break – and then got lost.

As he was wandering the corridors he came across a cleaner who was finishing his shift. JFK asked for the way to the bathroom – and then asked him what he was doing at the centre. The cleaner replied: “I am helping to send a man to the moon.”

NASA had a mission – a vision – and it was one that all its employees knew and bought into… They were there to send a man to the moon.

Ask Jesus what he was doing in Nazareth or Capernaum or anywhere else and he would point to Isaiah, where the prophet declares ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18-19)

Of course, it’s not a detailed plan. It’s a dream – vision – it’s a rule of thumb – but it shapes Jesus’ time, action and words.

It’s his version of sending a man to the moon. It asks a question of us and about what vision shapes our life – personally and as a community of faith.

It is easy to get absorbed and even lost in the details of life and church life. And details matter, but it is useful from time to time, to stand back, and take the long view.

And that’s what happens on a PCC Away Day or Vision Day (other names are available); through spending time on Scripture, noticing the gifts God has given us, and exploring what God’s dream for us might be – we begin to discern what the next year or more could look like – and what steps we need to take to get there.

The sage of Proverbs tells us that ‘Without vision, the people perish’ (29:18)

PCC Away Days are a way through which, we allow God’s vision for our patch of God’s Kingdom, to become clearer and to direct our details, decisions and life together.

The author...

The Ven Keith James

Archdeacon of Norwich

01603 882339 nepuqrnpba.abejvpu@qvbprfrbsabejvpu.bet

This article is from...

Issue 15

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