A vision is a preferred mental picture of a desirable future. Nehemiah had a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Solomon had a vision to build a temple, and Paul had a vision to reach Gentiles. Having a vision with no action is only a dream. Having a lot of action with no vision is busy work. Having a vision with an action plan is a powerful tool.

Three humorous quips to keep in mind concerning vision.

• When you aim at nothing, you hit nothing every time.
• When you aim at everything, you hit nothing most of the time.
• When you try to reach everyone, you reach no one most of the time.

At Grace, we have a huge vision because we have a powerful God.

We envision a church that values people. It is our desire to communicate God’s message of love to the thousands of people that live in Lane County. Even though many people are turned off by church or indifferent to Jesus, we hope to help them come to see God for who He really is and to know Him in a personal way. We envision a church with conversion growth.

We envision a church where no one stands alone. We want to be a church of small groups and not a church that has small groups. God designed people to be in relationships. We dream of a church that promotes biblical community through smaller groups. In the next ten years, we picture 75% of our church family belonging to a community group.

We envision a church that maximizes the property we currently own. God has placed our church in a strategic location to become a regional church. The facilities will be contemporary, comfortable and attractive, yet not opulent. We want to use God’s financial resources wisely and construct facilities that help us expand the Kingdom of God in Lane County. Our current location can be developed to accommodate 2000 people in attendance.

We envision a church with that has an exciting children’s ministry and dynamic, student ministry. We believe that a significant focus must be made to reach the younger generations. Our desire is to have ministries that lead hundreds of kids to Christ, helping them mature in their faith and impacting the next generation.

We envision a church that serves people beyond this culture. We long to see people in other places hear the gospel for the sake of the Christ. We envision 250 adults and 250 students participating in short term missions during the next ten years.

We envision a church that develops spiritually mature disciples. We dream of a Ministry Training Center that develops future leaders and Biblically grounded disciples. We dream of developing future leaders that will influence the next generation of believers. Our dream includes a powerful mentoring model that assists believers in spiritual growth and life development.

It is the dream of a church that creates a contagious atmosphere in corporate worship. We long to be a church that utilizes contemporary music along with other current, creative and effective means of communication to support the spoken word, all in an effort to connect with modern day people.

It is our dream to create one new target ministry per year. As our church grows and develops, it is imperative that new ministries be created to reach new people and to meet new needs. We will make financial resources available to create new ministries that can make a difference.