A word from heaven.

<$BlogDateHeaderDate$>

Vision

Leaders! i said it before and i'll say it again. You owe it to your people to give them a God compelling and Christ honouring vision.

Bill hybels said this before that without a vision people perish. Not literally but spiritually. People will start dragging their feet to church events. Their shoulders sag, their sparkle in the eyes are gone, the excitement is no longer there. Without a God compelling vision, people simply stop taking church seriously.

I've been involved in quite a few vision talks recently and want to share with you people the 6 essentials about a vision.

1) The vision should be easy to remember.

This point is abit more practical. If i ask any one from the group, the vision should be at the tip of their fingers. Those 10 points visions and a vision statement that is one paragraph long should go. Have something that the group can identify with easily and they won't have such a hard time remembering the vision.

It is not so much of coming up with a vision but instead asking God for His vision for the group. We must make every effort to follow and stick to the vision.

2) The vision must be reflected in the "policies"

The vision should not just be something which is there for the sake of having a vision. They should be carried out. The systems and structures should be in place or at least working towards it so that the vision can materialise. this point also prevent leaders from going into empty talk.

If you have a vision for 70, your group must be able to contain 70. The people must be trained to rise up to contain 70. If your vision include disciplining strong people. Your "policies" must include things like a proper mentoring system or Sunday school etc. My point here is, we do not want to cast an empty vision.

As leaders, we must do everything within our means to give the vision the best possible chance of coming to past.

3) A good vision is cast over a long time

It is not about having one vision night. It is about consistently talking about the vision in your gatherings. It is about living out the vision, working on the vision. and crossing the finishing line together. There is no point in whipping up the anticipation and the zeal during one vision talk but do nothing and talk nothing about it for the rest of the year.

It should be talked about at all levels of the ministry. Don't just leave it to the top guy to talk about vision. The rest need to talk about it, be it at caregroup, unit or district level.

4) The vision is deeply associated with the vision bearer.

The vision bearer may be just an individual- the leader. From the individual, the leadership team must embrace the vision to become co vision bearers. Beyond that, the corporate body takes up the mantle to be vision owners.

The vision without the vision bearer is like fish without water, a bullet without the gun or a LCD screen without the computer. It just cannot survive. Once the vision bearer decides to give anything less than the vision demands of him or her, the vision is as good as dead.

Everyone is a vision bearer. The issue here is, are you carrying the vision on your back or are you putting it down and leaving the vision to die on its own?

5) Protect the vision from harm

The vision for God is one most important thing that will make Christians powerful. And the devil knows it. He will do everything and anything to distract you or tempt you from the vision. After you go high and respond to God in the church, many a times when we go back to our daily life or the reality, things are just not so rosy anymore. If it is so easy to achieve, then it would not called the vision of God.

Nurture the vision, fan the flames, feed the burden, improve the skills even as we go back to our daily lives.

6) The process of the vision is as important as the realisation of the vision.

Don't be too quick to look to the realisation of the vision until we miss the point totally. That is to grow through the process, to love God more, to serve God more and to know more about Him. Don't look so far that you don't see the present and just appreciate and thank God for what is happening at the current moment.

that's all i have for you today! I'll talk more about vision in the next few days.

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Leadership

The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

0 Comments

Sunday, September 14, 2008