How to tell when your vision stinks

So what do we do in a culture that demands that we NOT commit to anything? I have been involved with my wife in young adult ministry in our time in service and I can tell you that none are less willing to commit to anything than today’s young adult. It seems that they just aren’t sure what they are going to be doing on any given night. They seem to be afraid of making solid plans out of fear that a “better plan” may come along. “I can’t commit to going to a small group because someone might want to hang out.” “I guess we can go to our young adult group since we don’t have anything else to do.” Of course, this doesn’t describe ALL young adults, but it certainly does seem to be a pervading attitude. Also, it doesn’t just describe young adults. It is bleeding into adult attitudes, as well. However, have you noticed that once today's young adult population DOES commit to something, they are ALL IN? Not just partially supportive, but ALL IN! How do we build into people a commitment to the word of God? Is that even my responsibility? How do we take folks who are marginal or even nominal followers and help them to develop a real hunger for deep things? I think it’s about planting a compelling vision in the hearts and minds of believers. I am a firm believer that people don’t give their time, money, or talents to other people or organizations. They give all of those things to a compelling vision. A vision compels when it’s going somewhere. It compels when we can see progress. We don’t have to be winning necessarily. The vision just can’t be a stagnant pool of non-moving garbage! Maybe most importantly, vision is compelling when it is participatory. I don’t think most people, and I am particularly speaking of young adults here, want to just give their money to an organization and watch the work happen. I think people want to give themselves away to a cause and be USED in the effort! Maybe this is where church is going wrong today. Maybe we aren’t about EQUIPPING people enough. Maybe we are just communicating, “We don’t really want YOU. We just want your MONEY so that WE can do good things for Christ. You just sit over there and clap when we sing, okay? We the, ‘professionals’, will take care of the sick and hurting.” This is exactly the attitude that stagnates a church. It stops people from NEEDING to develop faith. Stagnant people means stagnant vision. After all, if I’m the only one who is going to do ministry in my church and the average congregant never has an opportunity to share faith, why is there any need to DEVELOP faith! There is no vision for that person to MOVE in faith, so he or she just sits still in worship and wonders why he or she is even there. People become stagnant when there is no expectation to do anything with what they are taught about faith. So what do they do? They wait for something else to come along that will speak to them. If we aren’t careful, the world will plant vision in our congregation. They will begin to fall away from the vision that God set forth in Scripture and begin to chase after meaning elsewhere. Today’s young adult was not built to be stagnant. They were built to keep moving and growing. Maybe we need to stop complaining about a lack of commitment and start really re-evaluating whether or not our vision is worth following?