Vision casting is a crucial aspect of AIM training, often incorporated in the first 1/3 of a session. We often get asked how we encourage multiplication or why people are not achieving multiplication. The answer is usually simple. There is one facet that we can directly affect that can change the dynamics of an entire network more than anything else and that is giving them Vision. Let them see through Christ’s eyes, let them feel through the Father’s heart. Normally in the DMM/CPM world, we always say to cast the biggest vision that you can. Never reduce the vision to the manageable. As a rule of thumb, this is true, especially for people who have already been believers for years. Where there is no vision the people let go/neglect… (Proverbs 29:18 HMT-W4)
We once did the vision casting only in the first 1/3rd of a session and it was usually stories like the “apple tree”. Now we encourage vision casting a little differently. We have a two or three-tiered approach.
The first tier is at the “coal face” or the first encounters. This is right on the gospel bridge at the first encounter and or just after the gospel acceptance. We encourage people to share immediately with someone they care deeply about what has just happened to them. We use this encouragement to “set the DNA” for a lifetime of discipleship. A lifetime of disciple-making (multiplication). We encourage them to follow Christ's commandment by giving them a strong vision. During this first encounter, we do not usually use the “apple tree” type stories to encourage them to share with their loved ones. They are a bit too abstract or theoretical for most people to grasp deeply and embrace. We encourage vision casting that is deeply personal, relevant and tangible. Not abstract or theoretical at all but visions that involve the person directly and affect the person directly 1. Keep this immediate vision confined to something they can visualise and pull on their heartstrings.
The second tier is where you enter into an older house group or network after it has exhausted its immediate natural Oikos (their low-hanging fruit). It may be getting a bit stale and losing momentum. It might have to do some cold witnessing to find a new seed or “wart” to grow from. As well as helping them with some basic evangelism skills you have to pump in a good amount of vision casting too. Vision casting is more important than practical skills and it must come first. The Holy Spirit can fill in any gaps in skills but without the love for the lost and seeing the need to help them then the game is over. Since you are now talking about people they may not actually know personally, you might have to use more abstract visions. This is where the mainstay apple tree stories come back in. Don’t be afraid to share these stories around with each other and other groups. To get a start if you are stuck you can check out some of these examples. Keep these visions as large as you can. Do not shrink these down to something humans could manage.
The third tier is where you are training the existing body in the Disciple Making Movements DMM and Church Planting Movement CPM techniques. Once again you are probably talking about a target group of people that they do not know personally yet and they are probably more used to applying scriptural principles than a new believer. In this case, once again the apple tree stories come into play. After all, T4T and Ying Kia started with this group so it is no surprise that this is the method of vision casting that might work best. Keep these visions as large as you can. Never shrink these down to something humans could manage. Keep them "God Sized".
On a side note though… It has been a personal experience that greater and easier multiplication has always occurred through a fresh start of non-believers (clean skins) than with a group of existing believers. Multiplication always seems a bit forced when existing believers are involved. They seem to be fighting their nature of ‘gathering’ instead of ‘going’. Vision may also be the only weapon against this tendency. Get personal if you have to. Show them the Father’s heart and a world without it.
Further explanations on Narrative and Social Stories if you are unfamiliar with them:
Narrative Therapy (Modified)
Get them to “rewrite” (imagine) their life story for a future that reflects who they are, what they are capable of, and what their purpose is, separate from their problems. Get them to imagine what their family and friends might be like if they too followed Christ. It helps them to gain a different perspective. You can give them a God perspective!
It should be:
1. Respectful
2. Non-blaming
3. Views the person as the expert of their own life and experiences. Only they know their own life intimately. Don’t tell them what they need or feel, let them tell you.
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Narrative Therapy is a “post-modern humanistic approach” that has some very obvious flaws from our perspective. However, the mechanics can still work for us if we dump the evolutionary atheistic faith behind it and just sift the nugget of gold out. A Christian counsellor can still use the mechanics quite effectively, you can also be in Vision Casting!
For example here are the five basic steps in Narrative Therapy and how you can tweak it for vision casting.
1. Get them to tell you “their story”. Their original “narrative”. (Include family and friends and the way everyone interacts with each other)
2. Get them to externalise their problems as if it was happening/happened to someone else. (Less traumatic if they have been hurt in the past.)
3. Get them to deconstruct the problems. (Get them to focus not on their anxiety or fear for example but to break it down into what makes them anxious or fearful. Instead of “I hate my life” to “I hate that my husband comes home drunk most nights and hits me”, “I hate it when my friends steal off me for a fix”, “I hate always feeling alone in the world”, etc…)
4. Get them to come up with “What If... Scenarios” or “What would it look like if... Scenarios” where Christ is now the centre of their family and friends. Ask them to rewrite their story with a different outcome – an outcome where Christ is in charge. If they can’t think of any then you can ask them “If God could do a miracle in your life what would that look like?”. (See, fancy titles and theories to make people seem important but you have probably been doing this all the time and not knowing it!)
5. You tell a story of how God might change them, their circumstances, their friends and their family. (This is where Narrative Techniques differ greatly from Christianity. Usually, they rely on “Existentialism” where there are no real truths, no real meaning, no great plan, no real absolutes and we are masters of our own destinies. Where we believe in the exact opposite! God is the same yesterday, today and forever. There are absolutes. If you let him, he can be the master of your destiny. There is a greater plan and you can be a part of it. He can change the lives of those around you. He can, if he wishes, even change your circumstances at the time. He will provide you with an internal {Holy Spirit} and external {the Body of Christ} strength and peace of mind.)
This is where you deviate from the generic “apple tree” stories and get very specific about their life. Focus on their family and their close friends and what it would look like if they all followed Christ and shared with their connections. Make the vision personal, very personal. If you are dealing with an “honour/shame people group” person (like an African or Indian for example) casting a vision about their family will have a very profound effect!
Social Stories:
Another method of vision casting on the coal face is “Social Stories”. Today social stories are used by teachers and counsellors of ASD children to help them integrate with society. It is another human behaviourist, atheistic psychology tool. But why let them keep it? What are some of the Old and New Testament stories that tell of people, their circumstances and the morals behind their actions if not “Social Stories” to help us modify our behaviour better today?
If someone is so isolated that they do not have anyone immediately to witness to upon their conversion, and I have had a few, then the narrative story may not work. Instead it may be better if you tell them of other case studies you have been a part of in similar circumstances where local communities of like minded people have been witnessed to and changed their lives as well as those around them. If they are so removed from even those stories or you do not have any experience yet in these areas then you can fall back on the many examples in the bible where God chose the most unlikely person to be a voice for him. After all, the weaker we are the greater He is glorified.
I hope this article has given you something to think about and maybe try.
Bye for now and God bless you. May he keep you safe and make you bold.
Macka and the MGAH team.
Footnotes:
- You don’t need to know what they are based on, but for your curiosity, they are more like counselling “Narrative Therapy” or “Social Stories Therapy” methods than the ones usually listed on this website like the "apple tree". (Remember there is nothing new under the sun, just because some person has coined a name and technique it doesn’t mean that much, as it was most likely based on something much older. A lot of things that hold true if you look hard enough can have some biblical base of truth that is no longer palatable to the general professionals today. We have to make it our business to take back things that have been taken away or distorted. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! These methods will be discussed greater at the end of the article.)
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