Taking the Long View

Building the Kingdom of God and meeting the needs of those around you requires patience and it often helps to take the Long View.

The famous ‘Romero Prayer’, originally drafted by Bishop Ken Untener, captures this thought beautifully:

“It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view…We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work…We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest…”

By taking the Long View, we can see how our present day to day work fits into the larger picture and helps us to achieve our long-term vision.

When churches think about planning a new building project, they are taking the Long View, where time and resources invested today will realise their vision for both present and future generations.

In Matthew 13 Jesus spoke about the Long View, where “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Many churches we are working with around the country today are taking the Long View and building for the future.