Being who God really made us to be. We have discovered that since 1961 to this day, people say Concordia “feels like home.” It’s hard work discovering or uncovering who God truly made us to be. Good work Concordia! Now how do we effectively live out that unique vision? Don’t miss this Sunday’s Mission Training Camp on strategy.
Uncage Your Vision
Leadership conversations these days are laced with a common thread: we are rethinking the “vision” word we use so often in ministry. Like a burr under a saddle, something is irritating the collective soul of church leadership. What is it? Look closely at the introduction of current leadership books and you will see it. Listen carefully to the passion of today’s emerging leaders, and you’ll hear it. The key word is “unique.”
From within the conferencing era of church equipping, leaders are diagnosing more and more the epidemic of photocopied vision and are repenting of unoriginal sin. Why? Unintentionally, leaders have traded out a lion for pussycat, by taming the unique call of God for their church by a preoccupation with what is working down the street.
In the opening of their 2008 book, The Intangible Kingdom , church planters Hugh Halter and Matt Smay tell the story of starting the Addulam community. What motivated them? ”We no longer could deny God’s unique work among us.”
Recently Anthony Coppedge, a church media consultant posted this comment on his blog: “There are more churches contacting me who have lost their own identity in the race to implement the Fellowbackgrangepoint Church model. What model is that, you say? Why it’s the mash-up of all of the best practices of each of those churches distilled into an un-reproducible, unauthentic version of their own church.”
At the first annual Whiteboard Sessions in May of 2008, Perry Noble told a humorous story of refusing to walk up a gigantic hill to get his mail as a kid. One day he decided to simply walk across the street and returned to his mom with the neighbor’s mail instead. It’s just mail right? Why not take the shorter path? That day Perry breathed fire when he passionately urged church leaders to take the harder path of getting their own mail from God, rather than reading another leader’s mail. Perry called us to find our unique vision.
You’ve seen this problem in many forms. If you want to experiment for yourself, randomly walk into a church in your town and see if you can tell which church conference the staff has been to in the last six months. I have found that it takes about five minutes. It may the Purpose Driven banners in the foyer, or cut-and-paste “Willowspeak” in the church mission statement, but you will see it somewhere.
What’s the cost of such practices? In the church leader’s version of keeping up with the Jones’ we render vision impotent. When we duplicate a model rather than incarnating our own, passion becomes derivative and conviction lives second hand. Vision is not simple, clear and powerful but simplistic. Remember Dolly, the first cloned sheep? She died at one-third life expectancy after developing arthritis and progressive lung disease.
The good news for the church leader is that God wants to do something cosmically significant and locally specific through you. I believe that Jesus wants to release a redemptive movement with your local church as an epicenter. When that happens, your vision will be original, organic, bold and extravagant. It will be unique. Since God never mass-produces snowflakes, sunsets or saints why would we believe that he is mass-producing churches?
It’s time for church leaders to uncage their vision.
So what does that look like and how do you start? Here are some ideas to get you rolling.
Uncaging vision begins with the vision of God. Finding your unique vision starts by worshipping and listening to the Chief Visionary. Remember that no “better future” than you can imagine was not already imagined in the heart of God. He started with perfection in Eden and he will end with perfection in New Jerusalem. But you have your part in the story in between—thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When was the last time you prayed to God as the ultimate source of vision?
Uncaging vision demands ruthless self-examination. One definition of genius is the ability to scrutinize the obvious. Most leaders are so close to their community both inside and outside of the church, that they miss the contextual and cultural cues that are essential to guide the vision discovery process. The win is to answer the question, “What can our church do better than ten thousand others?” I call this your Kingdom Concept. How does your church specifically glorify God and make disciples? One key practice for self-examination is to invite a strategic outsider who can bring objectivity and honesty to the process.
Uncaging vision requires robust team dialogue. Vision has been a lone-ranger sport for way too long. Missional leaders are opting for a higher standard of team leadership that is practiced in community. It’s only through brutally honest conversation and the blood, sweat and tears of God-honoring transparency that a team can forge a clear vision. As the leader are you allowing others to come to the vision table?
Uncaging vision involves meticulous articulation. Words create worlds. Every single word, metaphor or story that drives your vision must be carefully created if you want to have a stunning impact. Of course, having some statement on the wall is no end all. We all know that! But when I am around great leaders with unique, God-given vision, I am always amazed by their carefully tuned word choice. In my work with leaders we hold up a five-fold standard. Is every aspect of your vision clear, concise, compelling, catalytic, and contextual?
Uncaging vision extracts significant time commitment. The deathblow to discovering unique vision usually boils down to time. Most leaders are unwilling to practice the above points because they are running so fast on a ministry treadmill. The few who get off the treadmill, however, always run faster and further for the mission of Jesus in the world.
In the end, if you are trying to lead with someone else’s vision, who is going to fulfill yours? The American dream does not apply to the church: your church can’t be anything you want it to be. But it can be everything God wants it to be.
