I still remember my first sermon as a pastor. In a fit of homiletical hubris that every seminarian will recognize, I decided to impress my new congregation by unlocking the mysteries of the Minor Prophets. I began with a message from Hosea on the holiness of God. As I prepared that week, I became convinced that this could well be the most important sermon I would ever preach. If we were to grasp the holiness of God, it would surely transform our lives, and our church would never be the same. I preached that message with passion and expectancy. But when I looked out over the congregation the next Sunday, we were pretty much the same crowd we were the week before.

There isn't a preacher alive who isn't at once both energized and dismayed by the sermon's potential to effect change. Why aren't people more deeply transformed by their weekly encounters with God's Word? The deficiency can't be with the Scripture, obviously. And most of us, even on our worst days, manage to communicate biblical truth with a measure of clarity, relevance, and conviction. So why don't we see more real, lasting change?

In his book Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard unpacks the dynamics of personal transformation. He begins by informing us that "we live from our heart." The heart, according to Scripture, is the control center of human personality. It's the deep, inner place where the mind, emotions, and will intersect, where decisions are made. Our hearts have been malformed by our fallen world and need to be re-formed by the Spirit of God. That renovation of the heart, according to Willard, follows a predictable pattern involving vision, intention, and means. VIM for short.

In the vision phase, we come to believe that a particular change is both possible and preferable. But desire alone isn't enough to produce that change. If it were, we'd all be fit, punctual, and debt-free! At some point we have to decide—intend—actually to get in shape, be on time, or live within our means. But now, having desired and decided to change, we need tools and practices—means—that will get us to that new place, like a diet-and-exercise plan, or an alarm clock that works. Any attempt to effect change that ignores these three phases will fail to form, or transform, the heart.

A year of transformation

A few years ago, we sensed the need to lead our congregation to a deeper understanding and experience of spiritual formation. In light of Willard's insights, and the depth of change we were seeking, we decided to devote an entire ministry year to the effort, and to apply the vision-intention-means template to our preaching and program calendar.

1. Vision. We began in September with a vision series from the Beatitudes entitled Change of Heart: 8 Qualities of Christ-like Character. The series was designed to paint a portrait of the kind of people we were capable of becoming in Christ, a picture so compelling that people wouldn't just "get it," they would "want it." Week by week we worked our way through the Beatitudes, offering a simple description of each quality, seeing how it was displayed in the life of Christ, and imagining what it might look like in our lives.

For instance, we said that to be poor in spirit is to be desperate for God—to need him and know it. We discovered the many ways Jesus expressed and demonstrated his complete dependence on his heavenly Father. We began to envision how God-filled and attractive our lives would become if we were to embrace such dependence and humility.

In order to increase the visionary impact of the series, each week we invited an artist in the congregation to paint a picture that captured the essence of that quality. We unveiled each one at an appropriate moment in the message and then displayed them on the walls of the sanctuary during the series. By the end of the eight weeks, we wanted to be like the people in the paintings; we wanted to be like Christ.

2. Intention. But wanting it wasn't enough. We needed to lead the congregation to a decision; to declare their intention of becoming such a person. We followed up the vision-casting series with a "Commitment Sunday," unpacking the call to transformation in Romans 12:1-2. Toward the conclusion of the service, we provided people with a simple spiritual assessment tool. We provided some time to reflect on the eight qualities in the Beatitudes and to respond privately to whatever change they sensed God wanted to work in their lives that year. Following the service, we invited them to mark the moment by visiting one of several large paper hearts we had hung on the lobby walls and to put in writing their prayers for the year: "Lord, give me a heart that …." Those hearts hung there for a few weeks to remind us of our intention to become more like Christ in some specific area of life.

3. Means. After a break for Advent preaching, we picked up the theme of transformation in January. Having embraced a vision for becoming more like Christ and declaring our intention to do so with God's help, people needed to know the means by which they could experience real change. We launched an 8-week series on the spiritual disciplines entitled Interior Re-Design: Making Space for God. We allowed the popular home design shows to serve as a metaphor for re-ordering the interior of our lives. We taught people to create space in their souls by practicing simplicity, silence, solitude, and stillness, and then to invited them to fill that space through prayer, Scripture, reflection, and God's Spirit.

To support the series, we created some "Sacred Spaces" in our facility, in which people could practice some of the disciplines we'd been studying. We also made available to our congregation customized Grace Chapel versions of Scripture Union's devotional guide Encounter with God to support their daily time with God.

By this time, a palpable change had come over our congregation, and many of us were experiencing a fresh work of God in our lives. We changed the pace a bit during the Lenten season, but then picked up the transformation theme again in the spring with an Old Testament series entitled David in Real Life: Cultivating a Heart for God. Our purpose in this series was to review and apply all that we'd learned by tracing the real-life journey of the man after God's own heart. We closed out the year in June with a "Celebration Sunday" that included transformation stories and a message on glorification from Romans 8, reminding ourselves that one day we will, in fact, be "conformed to the image of his Son." As I listened to the stories and looked out over the congregation, it struck me that we were not the same crowd that had gathered back in September.

The preaching journey

That year was so formational for us, we have continued to apply the vision-intention-means template to our preaching and program calendar. In the fall, we cast vision for whatever it is we sense God wanting to do in our congregation that year. At the conclusion of that series we call people to response, inviting them to declare their intention to pursue that vision with God's help. In the winter months we provide people with practical teaching, tools, and opportunities that will become the means by which they will be formed spiritually. In the spring, we focus on applying all that we've learned to the realities of everyday life, relationships, and mission. As we craft the preaching journey, we build in some supporting initiatives or opportunities to enhance the journey. Last year we focused on One Another: Becoming the Body of Christ, and this year, Doing Good: Becoming the Hands and Feet of Jesus.

In his book Strategic Preaching, William Hull makes a strong case for a year-by-year approach to spiritual and congregational formation. He calls for "incremental preaching," believing that lasting change is more often the result of many sermons rather than a few. (Have you ever responded to a congregational problem or need by saying, "But I just preached on that!?") He encourages preachers to view each sermon as part of a larger, "concerted effort to guide the congregation in achieving its God-given destiny one year at a time."

Recently I was interviewing a couple at the conclusion of a message. As the man shared, he referred to "our year of transformation" as a pivotal season in his spiritual journey. When he mentioned the Change of Heart series in particular, there was an audible affirmation from the congregation, as if they all remembered it, too, from three years ago! I was instantly glad we'd taken the better part of a year to go after a theme and grateful to be reminded that our congregation's destiny doesn't hang on one Sunday's sermon.

Bryan Wilkerson is pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts.