This one's for leaders, vision casting and those of you who are responsible for setting the pace, atmosphere and spiritual temperature in your world.

Get a Bible a read Deuteronomy 4 v 12.

Here it is as well: 'The the Lord spoke to you from out of the fire. There was no form, only a voice.'

Moses is reminding the nation about the day God turned up and delivered the Ten Commandments - imagine that day! The greatest Vision Statement ever cast, save perhaps that within John 3:16.

With regard to vision, vision creating and vision casting, this verse can help us.

1. Vision starts with a voice, not a picture: God speaks the vision with his voice. So often as leaders we spend more time on wondering what the vision might look like, instead of listening to what the vision sounds like.

2. Watch the fire, not the future: Notice the order of things: Voice - Vision - View (future); the church can communicate the vision in terms of the culture, rather than looking to the culture to dictate the vision of the church.

3. Worship the Voice, not the vision: let God define your distinctives - what makes your church unique - rather than demoninational conformity, the church next door or the ministry that's been going for years and has lost it's edge.

4. Obey the Voice, not the vision: closely related to the above, if we listen to the Voice we are unfettered by our vision. In other words, if God says to go another direction, we are free to follow without having to pay 'generational homage' to a department, ministry team or even staff member that may or may not be working anymore.

5. Serve the Voice to fulfill the vision: Keep listening, keep stoking the fire and taking time to hear the Voice. With passion, power and purpose, God will fulfill the vision for your church through you and your team.

This verse has freed me from the temptation to look to culture to determine vision. The post modern world is constantly changing. It's impossible to define it, much less harness it's relevance. It's evolving pace almost renders it irrelevant. But we cannot ignore it.

My goal is to look into the fire with my eyes closed, hear his Voice, receive the vision and then discern the most culturally relevant method to deliver it for maximum impact.