'Vision 100' wants to promote a church-planting movement in Tasmania. You can't build a movement, you have to promote it, foster it, nurture it. For a long time Vision 100 has been many things: An office, an idea, a label placed over the top of existing church plants, a bunch of conferences.
But how do we really foster a movement? Here are some of my thoughts:
- Begin with preaching and prayer: The starting of three prayer days each year, with short sermons at the beginning and end of the prayer has been a big step forward. They are the embodiment of the movement.
- Define clearly who the partners of the movement are, and what partnership in the movement involves. Movements are so foggy. Some people assume they're in when they're not. Others are unsure if they're in. Some kind of formal 'movement partners' list helps solidify the movement's self-identity and its communication.
- Begin with locals not guests. A movement needs to be indigenous, autocthonous, organic. Guest speakers won't be able to speak to the specific movement. We need to lift up those who have a prophetic voice within the movement and call on them to define the movement's values and to serve as figureheads for the movement.
- Begin with those who are on board, before trying to win others on board. Again, the existing movement partners need to forge strong relationships before there even is a movement for others to join.
- Provide many opportunities for mutual learning, encouragement and discussion. This seems to me to be the very heart of what a movement is about.
- Raise funds by targeting specific projects, not by asking people to give to the 'movement'.
- Select focal places. Just jumping from one church to the other, one venue to the other so as to 'include everybody' means that the movement doesn't develop a 'sense of place'. Find good central places to run events over a period of time.
