Consultations: From Vision
 Statement to Prophetic Message

Consultations need to be organized so that friendships, networks, common goals and visions can be discovered.

Visionaries' Consultation

Prior to moving from the building blocks into active advance, there should be a  consultation with the "change agents" who have a desire to see the city transformed.  This should be by invitation but include the evangelizing evangelicals, the activists, the visionaries, the strategists,  leaders of networks targeting specific issues in the city, the church planters,  and leaders of movements.  As they look at the research of the church and the city,  and they consider where the church needs to be, as they swap stories of how they are planting churches, then a shared knowledge of processes emerges, particular to that city,  and a shared sense of a strategic plan begins to emerge.

Format for Consultations

These should be a story-telling context, with multiple inputs.  A workable plan is:

·        20-30 leaders meet over two days

·        each leader of a network or movement making a 10 minute presentation with 10 minutes for response and prayer from the others.

·        No-one is there to give hour long sermons, as this is a collective discerning of God's purposes. 

·        Each person prepare their presentation prior to the consultation in a two page format, stating name of their network, a vision statement, goals and milestones, and activities to accomplish these.

·        Introducing the concept, and summarizing the discussions, the leader or facilitator needs to be able to integrate the collective decision-making process.

 Pastors' Seminar

A simple broader-based pastors' gathering may occur at any time within the process to keep them informed and involved in the formulation of vision for the city. The pastors are an essential element in the whole process as they are the spiritual leaders of the city, but they are not always the first to be able to generate or accept change, so do not depend on this group as the movers of vision.  Pastoral ministry and training is generally reactive, problem-solving rather than pro-active goal accomplishing.

Building around those gifted as evangelists, in apostolic and prophetic roles leads to finding the keys to change.  Once they are motivated and have drafted out a plan, then pastors and other leaders and officials can be drawn in to broaden the process (and theology), without being threatened in their official roles of sustaining existing structures or overloaded in their pastoral roles.

 "Kingdom in the City" Consultation

The purpose of this "Kingdom in the  City" consultation is for the people to reflect on the theme, "What would the city look like if it was truly living under the Kingdom of God?", this looks at the broader issues of the impact of the church in the society and social structures of the city. Looking at the city goes beyond church planting to the issue of what are we discipling people for? This may involve that wing of the church that is less evangelical, but has grappled more deeply with social  political issues.

This is typical of what many urban ministry networks developed from the Chicago model and the SCUPE network on the East Coast of America have done. Ray Bakke, Laussanne Associate for Cities, has held seminars in many cities enabling Christians to get an academic look at the issues the city.

From Vision Statement to Mobilizing Slogans

By  the end of the Visionaries' and "Kingdom and City" consultations, a vision for the city should be emerging.  It may have a number of complex parts. 

·        A simple summary needs to be refined.

·        Ideally from each consultation will be a two page summary of the visions, goals and plans of each leader of a network or movement who is involved in making a presentation.

Out of it slogans and campaigns need to be generated for broad-scale mobilization.  Don't leave it as a nice theological or strategic document - let the marketers and mobilizers exercise their gifts.  Simple ideas mobilize.  Simple ideas multiply broadly and give linkages onto which multiple organizations can connect.

All of these processes lead towards an integrating Congress, where the vision becomes a prophetic call to the whole church of the city with mobilizing processes worked out and integrated.