{"id":1603,"date":"2010-02-17T23:10:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T07:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2010\/02\/17\/the-vision-thing\/"},"modified":"2010-02-17T23:10:14","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T07:10:14","slug":"the-vision-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2010\/02\/17\/the-vision-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"the vision thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been involved in one of our interminable discussions of the state of fundamentalism on another blog<\/a>. The topic of conversation shifted from the original post somewhat and one comment from a pastor in California brought up the idea of \u2018vision\u2019.<\/p>\n

He suggests that it is easy to summarize in a few short words or a phrases the essential vision of various evangelical ministries, but questions whether that is true of fundamentalist ministries or institutions. I don\u2019t happen to think that he is right, but he seems to think that the \u2018visions\u2019 of the evangelicals are more compelling than the lack of vision of fundamentalists.<\/p>\n

Another complicating factor in making these comparisons is that the \u2018competing\u2019 ministries are represented by ministries strongly identified with a popular individual on the conservative evangelical side as opposed to more institutional or group oriented ministries\/organizations on the fundamentalist side. In some ways we aren\u2019t really comparing apples to apples here.<\/p>\n

Having said that, the idea of \u2018vision\u2019 (or \u2018mission statements\u2019) leaves me cold. Too much corporate psycho-babble for me.<\/p>\n

I wonder, however, if a few readers would like to chime in on the subject by giving us their brief \u2018vision statements\u2019 for the various ministries mentioned. Here is the list:<\/p>\n