From My Vision to Our Vision - Christianity Today

Kent is no Moses, and he knows it.

Gifted as a pastor-teacher, he arrived at his mid-sized Midwestern church believing that God had called him to shepherd this congregation. The people were generally supportive. But Kent was staggering under “vision block.” The elders were pushing him to “be more of a leader,” “give us a vision,” and “take charge.”

Kent did not fit that model. He had a hard time generating visionary ideas. He had little difficulty, however, discerning whether visionary ideas others espoused were from God. He listened well to the leaders around him—particularly elders and staff—and was able to synthesize component pieces of God’s vision for the church as shared by key players. He then put the pieces together and clearly communicated, biblically and sensitively, what God was doing in the congregation.

“Couldn’t God speak through the body?” Kent asked.

But that wasn’t the leadership model the elders assumed every church needed. And they told him so.

If only I were a Moses

Most of today’s leadership literature focuses on the “visionary leader,” the one who determines his church’s calling and then communicates that vision to the church. The model is Moses’ receiving the Ten Commandments: he went up the mountain, heard from God, and came back down the mountain to communicate the vision and challenge people to follow. It’s the “Moses as CEO” model.

Americans value the Moses-style leader. This approach is rooted in the rugged individualism that is so much a part of our culture. The frontier spirit has surely spurred growth and creativity, but in our culture, often at the expense of community. Throughout American history—whether homesteaders who left the cities for a new life in the wilderness, or the Internet culture that asks “Where do you want to go today?”—”we” thinking is usually trumped by the “I” motivations.

While Generation X supposedly lauds community, it will be a long road back. Marketers persist in promoting self-centeredness, entitlement, and dissatisfaction, emphasizing “my needs” rather than “what’s important for us.” Personal freedoms still overshadow group values. It’s easier for individuals to relate to a single leader than to a process-oriented leadership team.

For me, it took extensive training in four other cultures to bring home this reality. And now, after eight years of work with more than 500 teams from 35 denominations and 20 mission agencies in North America, I have found less than 5 percent to have healthy leadership teams. Only now are Americans beginning to realize the limitations of “the Moses model,” particularly regarding vision.

Moses’ descent with God’s plan in hand is truly a great model for about 30 percent of the 2,000 pastors with whom I have worked. These specially gifted leaders have a clear sense of vision from the Lord and can mobilize the congregation to fulfill that vision.

But the other 70 percent struggle to varying degrees with discovering their unique vision on their own. When most pastors go up the mountain, the only tablets they come back with are aspirin!

Because so many stumble trying singlehanded to discover God’s intent for their congregation, does this mean God made a mistake in designing less than one-third of church leaders with the gift of visionary leadership?

No.

Moses isn’t the only model

Through a pastors’ group we were in, Kent came to the realization that he could never be the kind of leader his elders expected. He wept over it. But Kent believed God had designed him to lead his church just as he is.

Kent, like so many not-Moses pastors, is an equipper, a role that receives considerable treatment in the New Testament. In fact, I find little emphasis there on the strong visionary leader concept. There is more emphasis on those who are fully prepared by God to train the saints for the work of ministry.

In Acts 6, when the church faced a defining moment, no single leader appears to have envisioned what to do. The apostles asked that leaders be prayerfully chosen to serve. No one leader stated God’s vision; no one leader made those selections. Leadership was a shared function through which the Spirit worked.

Ephesians 4:11-16 focuses on variously gifted believers’ abilities to equip others, and on the unity and maturity of the group, rather than the individual. The only mention of the individual is that “each plays his part” (4:16). Maybe there’s a reason.

Perhaps God intends some churches to discover their calling through a body life process rather than an individual. Over the long haul, a leader’s ability to effectively equip and release a team may be the more significant ministry.

How is vision a group experience?

After his tearful reckoning with the way God constructed him, Kent went to his board.

“I cannot be the visionary leader you want me to be,” he told them. “If who I am is not sufficient for your purposes, then I will resign today. But if you believe that God has called me to be your pastor, then we need to make some changes around here.”

The elders unanimously affirmed that he was their leader. Together they set out to establish a job description that would free Kent to lead through his primary gifts of pastoring, teaching, and discernment. The new model incorporated several gifted leaders to assist in specific leadership functions.

The results were astonishing. The church has more than doubled in attendance since that event three years ago, and the reasons relate directly to the change of heart in Kent and the elders. No longer does Kent try to fulfill all the functions of a visionary leader, and no longer do the elders expect him to.

While his pastoral authority has not changed, he shares the leadership functions, and he continues to discern vision through and with the other key players.

This is “body-life vision.” It’s a liberating approach for hundreds of pastors I’ve seen who suddenly realize they don’t have to be the sole originator of church vision.

Esteem the team

If, as Bruce Bugbee says, God has brought “the right people to the right place at the right time for the right reasons,” then understanding who WE are becomes key to discovering God’s vision for our ministry.

The place to start is to define your leadership team that together will seek the vision. In some churches, it’s the pastor and staff. In others, it’s the pastor and deacons, elders, or trustees. It may include program directors. However you define your team, it must include those who set the course for ministry, who must share the vision, and who will play key roles in fulfilling that vision in their areas of ministry.

Before leading into the vision segment of the team building process, I introduce the “body life design team” concept. For a leadership team to discover why and for what purposes God has called them together, three building blocks must be firmly in place.

First is the concept of “body life” itself. As members of the body of Christ, each member of the team is vitally important. Jesus’ death on the cross has settled any and all issues of significance.

Once team members understand that their individual significance has been settled at the cross, they then can begin finding their function alongside others on the team. If they don’t settle their issues of significance in Christ, they’ll seek significance in their position, their influence, or other unhealthy ways. The team will become the battleground on which they seek individual significance.

Second is “design.” Each member of the team has been designed by God. In Christ, each of us is truly unique. Each us has a spiritual blueprint that determines how we function most powerfully in ministry. Most people don’t know what that is.

Clarify who each player is in Christ. Many assessment tools are available. I developed one called Discovering Your Ministry Identity. Identifying each person’s spiritual gifts, ministry burden or passion, team style, personal values, and “principle priorities” (which key leadership functions are strongest in you?) helps with both team building and visioning.

A team of individuals must re-learn that “who I am affects who we are.” This re-learning is a process, not an event. Thus team building is stage one, the foundation of that new vision.

In the mid-1990s I trained ministry teams to go into the former Soviet Union. Their task: to prepare Russian schoolteachers to teach Christian ethics in Russian public schools. One of our team leaders, who had been to Russia previously, reported the comment of a newly converted Russian Christian who had observed Americans on an earlier trip: “Why doesn’t your team go home until they like each other, and then come back and share the gospel?”

Ouch! And that was not an uncommon observation. Russians in nearly every city were stunned by the relational struggles on the American teams.

That brings us to the third building block: team.

“Team” means that each player actively works for unity. Unity is never an accident. It is a choice and a process. It comes from esteeming “we” (the church) above “I” (the individual believer). Without this kind of community, vision is nearly impossible. With it, nothing is impossible.

Seeing with new ears

How do you discover the vision within the group—what God has planted in the hearts of your key players?

Ask them!

The problem is that we seldom ask. A top-down leadership model assumes the leader shares the vision and everyone else figures out how they fit into it. There is no opportunity for others to share how God is nudging them.

Yet I have discovered that most Christians, whether in leadership or not, have something or someone on their hearts for which they will invest their very lives. But rarely do we ask what it is.

In determining God’s vision for a congregation, the secret is the order of the sharing. Usually leaders talk first. The result? Others feel constrained to relate their burden to what the leader has shared. Yet the real value of this exercise is to hear people before the leader shares, because God may speak clearly about the church’s overall vision through these unprompted heart callings.

After each player shares his or her ministry burden or passion, then the leader shares.

God does indeed give some level of vision to pastors, but he also communicates the vision, or components of it, through the hearts of all the players. Seldom does a leader have all the details worked out. If that leader listens well, he or she will discover specifics he hadn’t thought of—or even strategic pieces of the big picture that previously were fuzzy. Are you listening?

I will never forget the Sunday evening we did this at a church in the Southwest. After sharing about Paul’s burden for the Gentiles in Romans 15, I asked people to share what was on each of their hearts. With no preparation time, each of the 42 people present shared something.

As each one spoke, excitement rose. Even the quieter people were sharing freely! And they weren’t sharing things “the church ought to do.” They were describing people and activities in which they wanted to invest their very lives.

Last to speak was the pastor. I had asked him in advance to prepare something specific about his vision for the church.

After listening to the heart of each team member, he had tears in his eyes. “I have nothing to share,” he said. “You all have just shared every significant piece of the burden God has put on my heart!”

What if you treated your leadership team as players already prepared by God to lead your church? Wouldn’t you look for opportunities to listen? Sometimes God will be speaking.

We call it “the body of Christ.” You can trust it, even with something as important as vision.

Paul Ford is a teambuilding specialist with Church Resource Ministries, 1704 California NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110. He can be reached at PaulRFord@compuserve.com.

At a Glance: Visioneering as a Group

Vision can be a group process, especially for those who value team ministry. Here’s a quick overview of the steps.

Build your vision team. The team will include “official leaders” but sometimes should include other key people, even if they don’t hold an office or head a ministry. In a society that assumes everyone is an individual, people need lessons on how to function as a team. Team unity is essential. Sign a pact, if necessary. Agree to agree.
Discover who YOU are. The body is functional when every part knows its function and does it. Help team members discover their uniqueness in Christ.
Build on weakness/need. Real unity comes when leaders share weaknesses as well as strengths. A person’s admitted neediness is where the team becomes vital.
Discover who WE are. God has brought your team together for a purpose. Discover their God-given ambitions, and you’ll discover your calling in what God is already doing.

Teambuilding Questions

As your team develops, ask three key questions.

1. Where is God powerful in you? Spiritual gifts reveal more than what we are “good at”—they identify where God is powerful in us. While in Kazakstan last year, I discovered the Kazaks have 20 words for sheep but no comparable words for “spiritual gift.” So I told the Kazaks that spiritual gifts are where God’s power is revealed in our lives. Kazak or American, explore where God has shown his power in you.

2. Where are you weak? When deeper, confidential sharing of weaknesses takes place, unity can begin. Without it, your team is unlikely to move beyond functional relationships that merely complete tasks. Real Christian community surfaces at the point of shared vulnerability, usually modeled first by the leader.

When Bill, a senior pastor I met with, freely admitted his weaknesses to his team of 12, team members stopped hiding behind their strengths and honestly admitted their neediness. Community happened that day for that powerful team (as seen by others) who had never before felt free to acknowledge how they needed each other. They were hired for their ministry expertise and had learned to play the “impressing game” well. When the walls came down, real unity occurred.

Confidentiality, of course, is essential here. No one wants his confessions discussed around the coffee machine. Honoring each other in our weakness means protecting one another.

3. Who do you need? We tend to ask, “What am I good at? Where am I weak, and to which seminar can I go to improve in my weak areas?” As individuals we tend to think about fixing our own weaknesses. We seldom think in terms of how God designed us to need others. But team members need each other. As we identify specific ways we need others, the team grows stronger.