Vision is a “seeing” word or idea.  When people talk about their vision, they refer to what they see in their minds eye.  I read an author who said, “vision is a “what if” look at a preferred future”.  Well, what we see as a preferred future for our church is our vision.  Our church’s vision is:   “A fully devoted follower of Jesus, not living for their self, but daily as a missionary for God’s Kingdom”.  

I find in my own leadership that much of my frustration is a result of a lack of production of the vision.  Well, I found this article today and thought it was a good learning to share on how vision gets done.  I think you will find it enjoyable and thoughtful.  I especially liked the quote at the end so much that I wrote it on my white board in my office.  I am encouraged to always think about the next step in fulfilling our vision as a result of this article….”what’s the plan”, “yes, but how”?

Enjoy…. (you can read below or just click here)

What Kills VISION?

Posted on Sep 24, 2011

For the better part of the past 2 decades (maybe longer), the term “VISION” has been a popular buzz word in business and our churches.  It is not uncommon to pick up a book, blog, seminary outline, magazine and so on and see phrases like:

• – What is your vision?
• – Align your vision
• – Visionary Leader(ship)
• – Cast your vision
• – With out vision, people will perish
• -No vision, no leadership

I did a quick search on Amazon for “Books on Vision”…it reported almost 61,000…and I have read and learned a lot from many of these.

I then did a Google search for “Visionary Leadership”…it returned 166,000,000 results…that is right, MILLION

One last search was for “Quotes about Vision”…and it returned 260,000,000.  WOW.  Can imagine how many twitter posts I could get from all of these websites.

As we would all agree, there is absolutely no shortage of resources and opinions on vision and how important it is.  And I agree that vision is critical to not only our organizations, but in our personal lives as well.  I believe that without vision, leadership is handcuffed….and that without vision, people roam aimlessly throughout life.

So what “kills” vision?  What impedes vision?  What derails it?

The answer is actually very simple – THE LACK OF EXECUTION, ACTION AND IMPLEMENTATION

During my search of “vision” on the internet, I found a great quote that drives this home:

“Vision animates, inspires, transforms purpose into action.” – Warren Bennis

Have you ever been in a high level brainstorming session when the “vision” is so thick you could cut it with a knife?   The emotions are running high.. the excitement is palpable…questions like “Can you imagine if…” are being thrown around…the whiteboard is covered with 10 different colors and there are Post-it Notes spewed all over the walls.  You know what I am talking about….you have been there.

Vision is cast. Vision is set.  The Vision has been communicated. The troops are rallied.

So…what happened? Why did our vision not become reality?  Why do we have unfulfilled expectations? We could sit and develop a list of the “reasons” why (like money, time, etc), but the short answer is that the vision was not implemented.

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of “implement” as a verb is:

• 1. to fulfill; perform; carry out:
• 2. to put into effect according to or by means of a definite plan or procedure.

So…when a Vision fails, it boils down to the required actions were not completed.  The action items were not fulfilled.  There was not a plan to follow.  People did not take responsibility.  There was not a system or procedures to follow to accomplish the tasks.

For those of you who know me well, you know I love to brainstorm and have vision casting meetings.  I thrive on asking “What Box” and not just trying to think outside someone else’s box.  But…I am also an anal retentive, process drive fool.  I am always trying to put means/methods/structure around the vision and the goals because I have been privy to far too many great visions that never went anywhere.  They did not take flight and soar due to a lack of vision or a lack of excitement…but rather of a lack of implementation.

My point?

Vision casting and vision thinking is great…we need as much of it as we can muster.  But…if the vision is to become reality, you must have a plan to implement it.  “Vision” is the feel good part…”Implementation” is the Git ‘R Done part.

Both are necessary.

“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” – Japanese Proverb

I was blessed yesterday to attend the Take Out Conference at Northstar Church.  It was a great day!  We had the privilege to learn from some really sharp leaders, like Mike Lynch, Pastor of Northstar, Jeff Henderson, pastor of Buckhead Church, Joe Sangle, financial guru from Newspring church, and many others.  And one of the coolest parts was they did the conference for free!!  Awesome!!  Some of our volunteer leaders were planning to attend and I went along with them, it was great to learn alongside them, be encouraged, develop our relationships more, and gain knowledge and wisdom for the road ahead for leading our church to take the Gospel out to the community through community ministry.

There we several things that I learned and I wanted to post them today for other’s learning pleasure:

Vision

is more of a team sport than a person sport!  when vision is 1 persons job then you put a lid on the movement

“vision casters are vision carriers and vision carriers are vision casters”

ask this question everyday, “what did I do today  to cast vision for our church”

“start where you are, do what you can, use what you have”

“dont inform me, inspire me”

Outreach

“do not assume people will show up, you “go” to them, a religious system says, “ya’ll come to us”, a Jesus system says, “we’ll go to you”

“under promise, over deliver”

“serve to be heard”

“what would it be like if our church wasn’t there in our community?”  “saddens my heart to even think such a thing” (quoted by a principal of an elementary school)

“be inspiring, encouraging, giving, and provide opportunities”

Leadership

an uncommon ministry has:  uncommon leadership, vision, God dependence, heart, & committment

an uncommon resolve comes from confidence in God’s reality, God’s reliability, God’s resources, & God’s representatives

uncommon commitment asks, “what will it take” instead of “what do I have left”

Leading a church to be generous requires being defiant with vision, leadership and confidence, it also requires a laser focus, a call to action and clear instructions

Funding

“I want to see the book of Acts come to life in my lifetime”

-our church “will” fund our vision

-God’s economy is not experiencing recession

-we must provide relevant ways to give!

-we must teach giving in some way, every week, month, and year!!

Well, I hope you got something from those, i encourage you to check out the conference page and get the mp3’s.

MK

I went to a Pastor’s Conference years ago and heard the presenter say we could use any of the material he was giving us in any way we liked and then followed that with this statement, “b/c there are no copyrights in heaven”!

I thought that was great and went back home to process my learnings from the conference.   I soon found myself with an opportunity to share some of those learnings and began organizing my thoughts on paper from my notes from the conference.  During that process I was compelled to call the speaker at the church he served and speak with him about the notes and my opportunity.  Needless to say I was excited!!  However, in a few short moments my excitement was squelched.  I quickly learned that he was backing up on his comment that “there are no copyrights in heaven” b/c of a pending book deal on the material.

Now, I understand businesses have to protect their proprietary’s and a publisher especially.  But, in the spirit of ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, C’MON MAN!

Now let me bring this present tense!  As a pastor/church planter, and a young one at that (not that I am young but our church plant is), I am always reading other pastor’s blogs, listening to podcasts of other sermons and leadership stuff, reading articles and going to conferences if I can when dollars are available, and several other ways to “get” info by which to grow in my own leadership and pastoring.  One of the things I have started to like is “free” webinars and teleconferences b/c I can stay at home or my office and gain insights from other journeymen.

But sometimes, even with all that intake there is still a need for one on one Q & A, feedback and exchange through coaching.  But there is one problem – IT’S NOT FREE!!  I have heard and even agree with the statement, “everyone needs a coach”, but too many other pastors, especially those who the “church world” would deem as successful and could offer much to help younger church planters like myself and many others, want to charge for their coaching, sharing of ideas and learnings.  I think it is like they must think, “hey God helped me learn how to be effective and successful, so, I think I will charge others for what heaven gave me for free”!!  C’MON MAN!!

Honestly, idk what they think and I really don’t want to judge their heart…but I get frustrated!!  There are so many other pastors that could help so many other pastors but for whatever reason they want to charge for their knowledge.  whatever happened to the older teaching the younger Paul taught in the pastoral epistles?  Whatever happened to Solomon’s wisdom that there are no new learning’s under the sun?  if that’s the case why do we charge for ideas that are as old as time?

I would love to sit at the feet of some of these “successful and effective” Gamaliel’s and learn from them and apply those learnings to see God’s Kingdom ADVANCE.  I am willing to even pay but the economy has hit our church hard and spending is not happening now or anytime in the near seeable future.  Maybe I am just whining and just need to man up, but why do we charge for God’s eternally free truth?  why?

my resolve is to offer whatever learnings I have to anyone who cares to listen (or read) for free!!  It’s a Kingdom Thing!!  All for the kingdom, say aye!!  c’mon man.

mk