I’ve been thinking a lot about perspective lately. What got my wheels turning was a meeting staff members had with Bill O’Brien, former director of the Global Center at the Beeson Divinity School(at Sanford University, Birmingham). Bill introduced us to a planning method he calls “horizon visioning.” Rather than projecting forward from where you are to where you want to go, in horizon visioning you leap forward, say, 25 years, define a radically new “horizon,” and then work your way backward to the present, identifying the obstacles you had to overcome and the advancements you had to achieve along the way.
Bill learned this methodology from a NASA scientist who helped accelerate (literally!) the Voyager project so that a space vehicle could reach Jupiter much more quickly than had ever been imagined. When the project began, existing technology made it a 36-month journey from Earth. But Bill’s NASA friend set a new “horizon” of reaching Jupiter in one month! When the team said it was impossible, this scientist laid down new ground rules: The objective had already been accomplished, which meant that all their conversation had to be in the past tense as they identified how they had achieved that goal. There was to be no looking forward, only looking backward from the unbelievable new horizon.
When it was all over, this NASA team of scientists reduced the trip to Jupiter from 36 to two months.
Future past
Okay, back to my own wheels turning. I started thinking about how God’s perspective and ours are so different. We look forward to the future by extrapolating what we know and understand into the future. But God looks “backward” to what we call “future” from what we call “eternity.” Think of it like this: Pretend you are with Abraham and Isaac as they make their way to the mountain where Abraham has been commanded by God to sacrifice his only son. Isaac asks where the sacrificial animal is. Abraham responds, “God will provide a lamb.” Even though he doesn’t know it, Abraham is prophesying what Jesus will do 2,000 years later. Now let’s pretend that Abraham can see forward all the way to the cross. Jesus as the “Lamb of God” is 2,000 years in Abraham’s future. But not when seen from God’s perspective. Revelation 13:8 refers to Jesus as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. (NIV)” So while Abraham is “looking forward” to the cross, God is “looking backward” at that same moment in history.
“Interesting,” you say (at least I hope you do), “but what does that have to do with Unfinished, The Mission Society, and God’s mission in the world?” Everything! You see, while we look forward, trying to ascertain where and how to engage unreached people with the Good News of Jesus, God is looking back from a “horizon” that John described this way in Revelation 7:9-10: “…and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. … And they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” We see an unfinished task. God looks back from the vantage point of “mission accomplished.” What we see as “guidance” is actually God’s “back casting” from the future.
Back from 2033 A.D.
Today, The Mission Society is in its 25th year. During this pivotal season we’ve initiated a “horizon visioning” planning process with our field workers. We’re prayerfully seeking to get our hearts and minds around a “new horizon” for The Mission Society in 2033 A.D. (That will be our 50th year, if Jesus tarries.) And we’re trying to look backward all the way to 2008 to identify the obstacles and advancements that marked the journey.
Stay tuned. It will be an exciting ride!
The Rev. Dick McClain is The Mission Society’s vice president of ministry operations and church ministry and has served as a staff member of The Mission Society for 23 years. He is an elder in the North Georgia Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Mission Society President Phil Granger, whose writing is usually found here, is recovering from major surgery. Thank you for your prayers for him.
