20/20 Vision

As a young church leader the articulating and casting of the vision for our church is a daunting task. Yes, I do believe that God gives the vision to the leader. There are some that would say God gives it to a team of leaders, or a board of leaders, or an elder body of leaders… but I believe throughout the pages of Scripture you find God tapping one person on the shoulder and saying, “Here, this is something I want done in the world.” Now, don’t get me wrong. I also believe that God puts the burden on the hearts of a group of people, but ultimately the vision is vertical from God and then for the leader to cast horizontally. So, back to my daunting task. The vision that God gave me for the Suncoast is clear. But, it is an art to articulate and cast that vision to others, that I feel, is learned over time and through much practice. As I have stood before hundreds of people over the past 6 months this has became a little easier each time. And to be honest with you there have been points where I say to myself, “These people have to be tired of hearing this again.” But, as many like Rick Warren and Andy Stanley have pointed out people forget the vision in no time flat! This past Saturday night we held a vision meeting for our fledgling church and it was amazing. Sure I went over our purpose statement and our strategy and our values, but then we told stories. For 15 minutes we just told stories of all things that had happened to let us know we were succeeding in our purpose of helping people take their next steps with God. Stories are a great way to re-cast that vision in new and fresh ways. Another thing that I stole from Andy Stanley was putting together an organizational chart for our church, but for our church at twice its current size! Of course my name headed up a lot of the jobs, but it was great for people to see because for one thing it showed how much I do and need to hand off. But, it also showed them a glimpse of the future. It was a visual for what our church will need to do and look like when we hit that mark. I would encourage you to do this with your church or business. Even in the home. Make an org chart and then tell everyone their job is to work themselves out of that job, and the next, and the next. As Ed Young says about the vision, “We have to say it, spray it, wheel it, deal it, and make them FEEL it.” Amen!!!