A Leader’s Vision
What is leadership? How do you define it? Some boil it down to influence, while others equate it to vision. While I don’t think either words fully encapsulates leadership, I do think both influence and vision describe in a nutshell what leadership entails. Simply put – leaders yield both influence and vision.
Leaders guide people towards a preferred future they can see on the horizon. They use their vision to influence others and shape culture. Some use their influence and vision for good, but unfortunately, some use their influence for evil.
New churches are launched from vision – a vision that God births in the heart of a leader. Andy Stanley defines vision as, “A clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be.”
What vision are you moving people towards today? Is it clear to you? Is it clear to the people you have influence over? If it’s not, don’t be surprised if you end up at an undesired destination with few people in tow.
At Passion for Planting, we want to help leaders discern the vision God’s calling them towards. This month’s newsletter is packed with resources to help you see, share, and pursue God’s vision for your ministry. Enjoy!
–Dale Spaulding, Director
April 2018 – Contents
- Vision Critical
- Vision Clarity
- Launch Vision Template
- God Dreams
Vision Critical
Before leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God gave Moses a vision of the Promised Land – a land flowing with milk and honey. With that vision in mind, he led his people out of slavery and to the edge of Canaan. While Moses and his generation never experienced the fulfillment of that vision themselves, their children did. The reason being they were being carried along by a godly vision, not just a godly leader.
Having a godly leader at the helm is important, but equally important is having a godly vision that steers the church. Derek Hanna spells out why this is so in his recent blog post The Implications of Your Church Plant’s Vision. It’s short, to the point, and will highlight for you why it’s critical to understand and communicate the specific vision God’s calling your church to pursue.
Vision Clarity
Habakkuk 2:2 says, “And the Lord answered me, ‘Write the vision, make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.'” This verse emphasizes the importance of sharing God’s vision with others in a format that they can take, embody, and share with others. Like Habakkuk, you have a vision to share with God’s people. The question is do you have clearly defined language that helps you communicate this vision with them?
In the article Vision: The Indispensable Element Will Mancini shares why every church must discern their unique kingdom vision and develop language that helps their people run towards that vision together. As Will puts it, “Never forget that God is always doing something cosmically significant and locally specific in your church.” Don’t see it yet? Read the article to gain more clarity. Thanks for your insight Will!
Launch Vision Template
Working with church planters to establish local faith communities is an exciting endeavor. However, this passion may wane overtime, and will come to nothing if the church planter isn’t able to infect others with their vision.
That’s why we encourage all the church planters we serve to create a Launch Vision document to encapsulate their vision through stories, pictures and stats. With this document, planters can share their vision with potential donors, prayer partners, launch team members, and community leaders. This document makes a church planter’s vision contagious.
Don’t start from scratch developing a launch vision for your church or ministry. Use our Launch Vision Template to get you started. Also check out some Launch Vision samples on our Free downloads page.
God Dreams
Helen Keller once said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight and no vision.” What’s God’s preferred future for your ministry? Stated another way – what’s on the horizon for your church?
If you’re struggling to discern God’s vision for your church or church plant, we recommend you read God Dreams by Will Mancini to help you uncover what God wants to do in and through your faith community. The book will walk through several exercises you and your church’s leadership can complete in order to gain more clarity on vision and how to unite your church around it.