Through the process of driving change, you’ll experience your share of push-back. But there is one solid element that will carry you through the process.
Vision.
Bill Hybels puts it this way:
“At the core of leadership sits the power of vision, in my estimation the most potent offensive weapon in the leader’s arsenal. Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion in people. Whatever the picture, if it produces powerful amounts of passion in those who hear it, it is already en route to being achieved.”
If you’ve been in church leadership very long, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the word “vision” more times than you can count. You might hate the fact that I’m writing on this topic, because you’ve heard it before. It might seem redundant or annoying, but I would contend that there’s a good chance most of our people are not as close to getting the vision as you think they are.
Andy Stanley would tell you that no one gets the vision like the leader. No one thinks about the vision and mission more than the leader. Because of this fact, vision leaks. You have to continually keep the vision out in front of your people.
Andy has outlined a strategic plan for casting vision; so rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, I’ll share his plan for vision casting. It’s been super helpful to our local church context.
1. State the vision simply. Hint: 5-sentence vision statements are not simple, nor are they memorable. If you want people to remember the vision (which should be your goal), you have to state it simply.
2. Cast vision convincingly. In order to do this, you need to define the problem and offer a solution. Your vision is a solution to a problem. If It’s not, it’s probably not much of a vision. So what is the problem your vision is designed to solve? In other words, what would go undone if your organization ceased to exist?
3. Re-state the vision creatively. So many of our leaders verbally state their vision once a year in January. Here are the problems with that.
a. Once a year isn’t frequent enough.
b. Verbal communication is only one avenue of communication (and one that doesn’t connect clearly to a large percent of our people).
c. If your lead pastor isn’t a great communicator, the vision gets muddy.
We need to find creative ways to re-state the vision, because we can’t afford to let the vision leak! Maybe the most strategic thing you could do is to pay attention to the way people are affected by outside stimuli. What makes people tick? What motivates people? Go after those avenues.
4. Celebrate the vision regularly. Simply put, what’s rewarded is repeated. Most likely, your people don’t actually know what the win is. In order to keep it clear, make sure that you celebrate the vision regularly. One way this can be done is to create an entire service – just to celebrate. You might consider this a waste of time, but when you see the results of that celebration, I promise you’ll want to start planning these types of services ahead of time.
5. Embrace the vision personally. That’s so easy to say out loud, but your people need a living, breathing example of the win. Think about it this way: How many times in school did you or a friend lean over to someone after directions were given to ask, “OK, what are we supposed to do again?” You, as the leader, are the example that your people will follow. If you want them to follow a life of apathy, then be apathetic. If you want them to live a life of passion, be passionate. If you want them to live a life of discipline, then be disciplined. Living the vision means not taking comfort breaks when you feel like it.
“Where there is no vision, the people go unrestrained.”
Proverbs 29:18