My wife and I finished watching all twelve hours of the Lonesome Dove series last night and as we sat there, watching the credits roll, my wife looked at me and asked, “How much is vision worth?” I knew exactly what she was asking because I was thinking the same thing.

Turning Vision into Reality

In the Lonesome Dove movies, there is a big emphasis on the vision of Captain Woodrow Call, and how he turns his vision into reality.

In Part 1, he starts a cattle ranch in Montana. In Part 2, he brings a herd of wild mustangs to Montana. But in the process, he loses almost all of his friends. At the end, when he finally tells Newt that he is his father, Newt basically says “Too late, Dad. I’m leaving.”

As my wife and I sat there, I thought about my vision for church and theology, and wondered, “What is it worth?”

What is Vision Worth?

I have read and heard some visionaries talk about how you can know what you are meant to do by asking yourself the question, “If money were no object, and failure was impossible, what would you do?” The problem with this is, how do you define failure?

In my opinion, Captain Call successfully accomplished his vision, but failed miserably. He said at the beginning of Part 2, while commiserating about the death of his best friend Captain McCrae, that “A man ought to leave something more behind than a sorry piece of dirt and a sign.”

Captain Call left a lot more behind, and as it turned out, a lot less.

Worthless Vision

Here is where I am at right now: No vision is worth losing my family. I would rather be digging holes in the desert and have my family intact than help reform the church but lose my wife and girls.

Some would say I have made an idol of my wife and girls, and if I really want God to use me, I have to put them up there on the altar just like Abram did with Isaac.

I have seen many pastors do this very thing, and almost without fail, they end up divorced and with a bunch of kids who hate them, hate church, and hate Christ. I do not call this success, and based on what I read in the New Testament, I don’t think God does either.

I feel that my wife and kids are my first “church.” If I cannot “plant” and “pastor” them, I have no business trying to plant or pastor churches elsewhere.

So I don’t know if I will ever be going into formal “church planting” but one thing I do know…this year, I am going to continue planting a church in my own home. And that is a Christ-honoring, God-glorifying vision!  If I can leave behind a godly heritage in my family, I am a success. And if God allows me to leave behind more than that, all the more glory for Him!

The trick, of course, is how to bring this vision to reality in my family. Any of you husband and father experts have practical suggestions on pastoring your own family?