“Well, that didn’t turn out like I expected.” – every Christian worker ever, everywhere 

Ministry in any country rarely goes as planned. We had a picture in our head of what God wanted to do, and we moved in concert with that vision only to find out that our expectations were off. Frequently they were way off. Maybe that is because we didn’t have the right vision. Perhaps we were projecting our ideas on God’s call. Or maybe we just don’t understand how God works with limited creatures like ourselves.

Think back to when the gospel first went to Europe. Paul and his team were stuck in what today we call Turkey wanting to go North and the Spirit kept saying “no.” Paul was frustrated.  

That’s when Paul got the famous Macedonian call in Acts 16. He saw a man standing and begging “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” That sounded promising. So, Paul’s team crosses the Aegean Sea just north of Greece to follow the vision. However, when they get to Philippi, they don’t find that man. They find only a few Jewish women gathered by a river because there weren’t enough Jewish men to make up a synagogue. This is not what was in the vision. Yet, Paul works with what he finds and starts a house church of women. Then, when Paul tries to work with the Gentile population, he runs into a huge obstacle. An exploited, possessed woman being used by her slave master for her supposed ability to tell the future is harassing Paul. Frustrated again, Paul removes the demon, which gets him and Silas arrested, beaten, and thrown in prison where they are chained hand and foot.

So, Paul, how is the work in Europe going?

The story turns better when God sends an earthquake that jars open the prison gates and chains, and Paul ends up leading his jailer’s whole family to the Lord. The case against Paul and Silas gets dismissed the next day, but they still get deported.  None of that was in the vision. Yet, for all the hardship, and wounded flesh and pride, there were two new house groups of believers in Philippi that would later mature into a key partner church for Paul’s mission work. It just didn’t look like the vision that got Paul moving in a new direction.

Here is the challenging truth I’ve learned the hard way that I should have learned from Acts 16: the vision that gets you going is just that, a picture that gets you moving in the right direction. When you get where God is calling you, reality shifts and the vision has to take on a new form. God doesn’t give us full feature-long movie versions of ministry visions. He gives us brief trailers that inspire us to go see the movie. But the trailer isn’t the movie. The difference is often startling.

So, what does this mean? Among other things, it means we should not treat our ministry visions as promises from God. They can be turned into idols that get in the way of God’s fuller call.

God never surrenders his leadership of his mission. We are at best unworthy servants. We are field hands. We are apprentices of the master builder. We are not the architects of God’s kingdom. God leads us on a need-to-know basis, which is good for his mission and for our spiritual formation.

So, next time you are tempted to be angry that your ministry is not working out like the vision you just knew God gave you, take a step back and step down. God gave you that vision to get you moving to a new place. From that place, he can show you things you could not see from where you were before.

Write your ministry visions in pencil and stay humble. This story isn’t about you. You aren’t even a major character. But you matter and you need to play your role in this story as God is writing it. Just don’t expect to get the full script ahead of time.