Vision
When Sir Walter Scott was a boy he was not considered very bright. As a result, most folks ignored him. When he was twelve, he went to a social gathering where a number of literary figures were present. Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet, was admiring a painting under which was written a couplet of poetry. He asked about the author but nobody knew who had written the lines. That was when Scott very shyly quoted the rest of the poem and gave the author’s name. Burns placed his hand on the young boy’s head and said, “Son, you will be a great man in Scotland someday.” Years later, Scott remembered Burns’ encouraging words as the turning point in his life.
Source unknown
Resources
• How To Talk So People Will Listen, Steve Brown, Baker, 1993, p. 53
• Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, Charles H. Dyer & Roy B. Zuck, editors, (Baker Books; Grand Rapids, MI, 1994), pp. 332ff
Alice in Wonderland
We easily suffer from the myopia of Alice in Alice in Wonderland: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the cat.
“So long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an afterthought.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the cat, “if only you walk long enough.”
Leadership is not about “getting somewhere”; it is about getting to the desired destination. It is about helping those we lead—our congregation, our family, our Sunday school class—become all God designed them to be and grow into the influence God wants them to exercise.
Rev. William J. Hamel, “Getting There,” Beacon (EFCA Today), Vol. 71, No. 5, April, 1998, pp. 32, 3
A Vision Statement Must Be…
1. Concise. It takes work to get a vision statement that can be stated in a sentence or two. But this also forces a group to choose very specific words to define the vision. Long, drawn-out vision statements are hard to remember and difficult to communicate.
2. Clear. Make sure your vision has clarity and is easily understood. For example, in the vision statement above, it is clear that the group wants to grow personally and in numbers as a group.
3. Consistent. Is the vision consistent with the overall mission of the church? Your vision statement for your group should somehow relate directly to the purpose of the church.
4. Compelling. Is your vision statement something you can sink your teeth into? Is it something worth rallying around? Does it reflect the passion of the group?
5. Easily communicated. Can the members of your group communicate the vision? The vision should be worded in such a way that the phrases or words are easily spoken and remembered. The vision statement above is organized around the concepts of spiritual growth, interpersonal growth, emotional growth and maturity, and numerical growth.
6. Collaborative. Was the vision statement developed in collaboration with the group? It is key that you work with your group members (or at least the regular attenders in some ministries) to develop a vision statement that reflects the values of the group as a whole. The more that people own the vision, the more they will make a commitment to it. Remember, the Scripture says, “Without vision, the people will perish.” Without a vision, the people in your group will wander aimlessly and sense a lack of purpose.
Bill Donahue, Leading Life-Changing Small Groups, (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996), pp. 79-80
A Prayer for the Future
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.
Sir Frances Drake Quoted in OC Missionary Prayer Letter of Jeanie Curryer, September, 1997
What Would It Be Like…
H. Luccock asks this stimulating question: “What would it be like to see life as Jesus saw it?” He goes on to say, “Suppose after almost a lifetime of low vision and dull perception, we were given the gift of His vision. Wouldn’t it be something like what happens when a person who is nearly blind, has sight restored? This has happened to people with only 10% vision or less through low-vision rehabilitation clinics.”
He continues, “One day a 35 year-old insurance salesman came to the Vision Rehabilitation Clinic in Providence, Rhode Island. He had only 1% vision since age ten. He had gone through life in a gray shadow. When a pair of magnifier glasses was slipped into place, his jaw dropped in amazement. Then he exploded, ‘Oh praise God, look at what I can see!” After all these years, it’s a miracle, the greatest thing that ever happened!’ Minutes later he phoned his wife and said, ‘Honey, I’m coming home to see what you really look like!”
Morning Glory, Sept.-Oct. 1997, p. 25
Principles of
1. A reality of conditions that do not now exist
2. Always entails change
3. Is always God given, not man-centered
4. Focuses on what others think is impossible
5. Always involves risk; invites criticism
6. Always makes room for God’s known will
7. Should not get derailed by fads, trends, methods
8. Never acquiesces to the status quo
9. Must never be side-stepped by human tradition over biblical truth
10. Details of vision must never be set in concrete.
Bob Moorhead
Quotes
• I’m looking for a lot of men with an infinite capacity for not knowing what can’t be done. – Henry Ford
• Worse than being blind would be to be able to see but not have any vision. – Helen Keller
• Soon after the completion of Disney World, someone said, “Isn’t it too bad that Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” Mike Vance, creative director of Disney Studios, replied, “He did see it—that’s why it’s here.” – Haddon W. Robinson, Hamilton, Massachusetts, Leadership, Spring, 1993, p. 48.
• When asked what he thought about when he struck out, Babe Ruth said, “I think about hitting home runs.” – Bits & Pieces, Vol. T/No. 16, p.
I Was Watching the Referee
One time when Michigan State was playing UCLA in football, the score was tied at 14 with only seconds to play. Duffy Daugherty, Michigan State’s coach, sent in placekicker Dave Kaiser who booted a field goal that won the game.
When the kicker returned to the bench, Daugherty said, “nice going, but you didn’t watch the ball after you kicked it.”
“That’s right, Coach,” Kaiser replied. “I was watching the referee instead to see how he’d signal it. I forgot my contact lenses, and I couldn’t see the goal posts.”
Bits & Pieces, September 15, 1994, pp. 7-8
Vision Is…
• The capacity to create a compelling picture of the desired; state of affairs that inspires people to respond; that which is desirable, which could be, should be; that which is attainable.
• A godly vision is right for the times, right for the church, and right for the people. A godly vision promotes faith rather than fear. A godly vision motivates people to action. A godly vision requires risk-taking. A godly vision glorifies God, not people.
Bob Logan
Never Satisfied With the Status Quo
Vision is the ability to understand the history, the present condition, and the potential of the church, and to conceive a plan for action that will maximize the ministry potential. More often than not, vision is a result of having spent much time absorbing the facts about the community, knowing the resources upon which the church can call (people, funding, facilities, equipment, etc.), and devising sound but creative strategies for moving forward. Vision always entails progress: it is never satisfied with the status quo.
How to Find Your Church, George Barna, p. 104
All Men Dream But Not Equally
T. E. Lawrence once said, “All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to the day to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for the many act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible…”
Source unknown
A Road 5 Miles Into the Wilderness
About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.
With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.
Lynn Anderson
I’m Going to Walk On The Moon
It started like so many evenings. Mom and Dad at home and Jimmy playing after dinner. Mom and Dad were absorbed with jobs and did not notice the time. It was a full moon and some of the light seeped through the windows. Then Mom glanced at the clock. “Jimmy, it’s time to go to bed. Go up now and I’ll come and settle you later.” Unlike usual, Jimmy went straight upstairs to his room. An hour or so later his mother came up to check if all was well, and to her astonishment found that her son was staring quietly out of his window at the moonlit scenery. “What are you doing, Jimmy?” “I’m looking at the moon, Mommy.” “Well, it’s time to go to bed now.” As one reluctant boy settled down, he said, “Mommy, you know one day I’m going to walk on the moon.”
Who could have known that the boy in whom the dream was planted that night would survive a near fatal motorbike crash which broke almost every bone in his body, and would bring to fruition this dream 32 years later when James Irwin stepped on the moon’s surface, just one of the 12 representatives of the human race to have done so?
Who You Are When No One’s Looking, Bill Hybels, IVP, 1987, p. 35