6 Signs that You Are Coasting on Original Vision
I was recently dialoguing with a very successful pastor about the ten-year vision horizon of the large church he pastors.
He made a striking comment.
“I don’t want to coast on original vision.”
It made me wonder, how do you know if you might be coasting on a vision that “used to be?”
- You use adjectives that position the vision as historical: original, founding, previous, last season, former chapter, etc.
- You have increasing realization of how far you God has taken your ministry in the last five or ten years.
- You actually feel less excited about a the ideals, aspirations, or pictures of the future you used to have.
- People around you express ask more questions about the future and show increasing curiosity for things like clarity.
- You don’t hear younger generations say anything that resembles the vision as it was previously expressed.
- You have updated your campus or changed your key players once or twice without revisiting the vision.
The Missing Link to Delivering Your Ministry Vision
Before jumping into this third post on “Vehicles for Vision” I want to remind you that it’s useless to talk about vision delivery if you are a little foggy on vision. Don’t feel bad if you are- it takes attention, time and work, but the payoff is infinite. Here is the tool you may want to use to nail down the identity and direction of your ministry- we call it the Vision Frame.
Now…
Is it possible that there is one vehicle of vision that is literally a missing link? For practical purposes, yes.
The missing link is the leadership pipeline as the second vehicle for vision.
Why? The answer requires a bit of explanation.
Remember, because it’s easy for a pastor to rely on preaching alone to deliver vision, they can miss the more important vehicle of the church’s connecting environment. We dealt with this challenge in the first post.
Now, let’s say that you agree that vision should be delivered through small groups or whatever version of group life that your church serves up. The big question is then, “How do you lead through the volunteer leaders who facilitate and guide group life?” The question reveals why a leadership pipeline is the missing link. It’s impossible to conceive of using your connecting environment as a vehicle for vision if you don’t have a linkage or some mechanism to make your connecting environment leaders carriers of the vision. Strangely, this leadership development piece is missing in most churches.
The quick test of wether or not you have this in place is a few simple questions:
- When was the last time every leader in your church gathered for training and vision casting?
- What does your church do to build a leadership community identity among all leaders?
Again, when I ask these questions, I often receive a blank stare.
We miss this important ministry of leadership development for two primary reasons.
First, pastors are taught study scripture, preach, and maybe even lead small groups. But most pastors are NOT trained in how to develop leaders. As a result pastors can focus entirely on DOING the ministry rather than RAISING UP others to do them ministry. (The purpose of this post in not to argue for the basic, nuts and bolts Ephesians 4:11-14, but it may be worth revisiting the text.) Second, if your church has a few decades of history, you have existing structures and decision-making processes that simulate “leadership” but don’t function as a “leadership pipeline.” That is, increasing numbers of leaders are not multiplied and mentored through a process in which the vision and DNA of the church is transferred.
So here is a set of questions to get you thinking about what a leadership pipeline might look like:
If you had to rely on your small group leaders or class facilitators alone to deliver the vision…
- How often would you get this group together?
- How much time would you spend with them?
- How much time as a group vs. one-on-one?
- What kinds of things would you do together?
- How would you model the vision with them?
- How would you teach them to model the vision?
- How would you train them to communicate the vision?
- How would you pray for these people?
- How would you measure their progress?
- What tools and support would you provide?
- What ongoing questions would you ask them?
In the end, you will never multiply your ministry if there is no dedicated time and process for leaders sharing the vision with other leaders. And this is unfortunately a missing link in American evangelicalism.
If you would like more information on this subject, Aubrey Malphurs and I wrote a book called Building Leaders on how to build a leadership pipeline for your church.
The Six Vehicles for Church Vision: How Many Are You Using?
Every pastor wants to get people excited about God’s activity in the world through their local church. But not every pastor understands how to use the multiple vehicles at their disposal.
The idea of vehicle is easy to understand. If a community is in desperate need of medical supplies, what vehicles are you going to use? A wheelbarrow or a 18-Wheeler or a C-130 cargo aircraft? And if you could, would you want five C-130’s or just one? You get the picture.
Keep in mind that the concepts we are covering are very powerful when implemented. The truth is that pastors have trucks in their fleet that have never seen drive time. The cost is high as the precious cargo of motivational kingdom fuel never dispenses to hearts and minds of their people. But get those rucks rollin and you will see things happen like you’ve never seen before!
This post is the second in a series on “Vehicles for Vision.” The first post dealt with a primary challenge on the subject- the default setting in the pastor’s mind that preaching is the primary vehicle for vision. It is the default mode because it is the easiest. After all, pastors are preparing messages every Sunday already and they don’t have to get other people involved in the delivery process. It’s simple and clean.
In that post we revealed that despite the important role of preaching, the primary vehicle is the church’s connecting environment. So let’s start there and continue our list:
Vehicle #1: The Connecting Environment. This is the primary vehicle because it is the most relationally intensive. Therefore most of the validation, understanding and appreciation takes place here. Don’t complicate this too much. If you have small groups or Sunday school or missional communities, I am suggesting that those leaders or facilitators and the environments that they create are crucial to the delivery of vision.
Vehicle #2: The Leadership Pipeline. If you understand the importance of vehicle one, you might be asking, “How does that actually work?” That’s a great question because it reveals an even more foundational vehicle. In fact, I consider it the prime mover. The leadership pipeline is the vehicle where vision is transferred from leaders to other leaders. It assumes a leadership development culture. It supposes there are time and places where only leaders meet to pray, dream, dialogue and train together.
Vehicle #3: The Preaching Event. Now we get to everyone’s favorite. And this vehicle is important as it carries a special authority and motivational dynamic with the congregation at large. Preaching connects the vision to the Word of God, to the act of worship, and rallies the entire body of Christ together in a unique way.
Vehicle #4: The Structural Story. This is a meaningful piece that I look forward to unpacking with you. By structural story I mean everything from staff and volunteer position titles, to budget categories, to systems. It’s everything in the background; the supporting processes of the organization. And these pieces will either make a random, static-like noise or work together to contribute to the story and the vision.
Vehicle #5: The Visual Brand. From screens and worship guides, to curriculum and websites, your church is creating visual palettes from which people are digesting information. It may be a church sign, or a e-mail from the pastor. Everything speaks. As we explore this often overlooked vehicle we will show how you can constantly reflect and reinforce your vision.
Vehicle #6 The Voice of Each One. The icing on the cake is always the word on the street. Vision transfers through people not paper. And the ultimate test is not how well vision was communicated leader to leader, but from a participant to participant. By that I mean, what does Joe attendee say to a co-workers after he’s visited your church for six months? There are important steps that you can take, to help the vision transfer on the front line. Do you know what they are?
As we continue the series we will explore each vehicle further. For now I would encourage you to evaluate your ministry. How many of these vehicles are you currently using?
10 Surprising Mobile Web Stats for Church Leaders
Why should a church leader invest in online presence and functionality for mobile devises today?
These ten stats might surprise you.
1. There are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers (that’s 77 percent of the world population).
2. Within 5 years mobile will overtake PC as the most popoular way to get on the Web.
3. In 2011 over 85 percent of new handsets will be able to access the mobile Web.
4. 25% of mobile Web users in the US are mobile only.
5. The number of mobile Web searches has quadrupled in the last year.
6. 71 percent of smartphone users that see TV, press or online ad, do a mobile search.
7. Mobile ad spend worldwide is predicted to sky rocket to $20.6 billion in 2015.
8. The most used mobile apps in the US are games; news; maps; social and music.
9. Paying by mobile i.e. m-payments will be worth US$240 billion in 2011
10. M-payments could reach over US$1 trillion by 2015.
After a few moments of reflection any leader dialing into these stats will want to take action. Here are some questions to consider:
- How do you leverage mobile internet access for the mission of your church?
- How does mobile web and marketing relate to classic ways of building awareness?
- How does mobile web provide new possibilities for brick-and-mortar ministries?
- How does mobile web create a new possibilities for equipping and connecting?
- How does mobile web impact the landscape of missions and missional living?
- How will the mobile web shape how we give?
These ten stats were taken from the longer list at MobiThinking. I found them thru a tweet from DJ Chuang. DJ, by the way, is a great guy who consults with dual passions- the Asian-America church and ministry technology- specifically web and social media. Another guy who can help you stay on top of the technology curve is Tim Peters, a church communications consultant with Auxano.
The Time and Place for The Authentic Church
- When I attended VBS at a small Lutheran church in 1st grade, I was thrilled to get the little silver Bible sticker in my pocket Bible.; the kind with Jesus pictures. I always wanted to go back to that church, but we never did.
- When I attended catechism at a Presbyterian church in Augusta, GA. I memorized lot’s of God statements. It felt like the right thing to do.
- When I attended Young Life meetings in high school. It was cool. It was spiritual.
- When I attended a EFCA church at Penn State and carried around Desiring God (by John Piper) like a sacred text.
- When I church hopped in Midland, TX working in the oil field. While exploring the black gold of the Permian Basin, I searched for the true expression of God’s church.
- At seminary I found a church in the black and hispanic area in which I lived. It wasn’t what I was used to so it was better.
- And still I combed the spiritual classics of centuries gone-by, searching for the hidden keys to walking with God.
- Finally, I found the best model of all. I joined the staff of a church that started south of Houston. We reached unchurched people like that big Chicago seeker church that had all of the answers. I got to be a part of a team that grew one of America’s finest megachurches. This had to be the model, the authentic church.
Churches are not franchises to be reproduced as exactly as possible wherever and whenever—in Rome and Moscow and London and Baltimore—the only thing changed being the translation of the menu. But if we don’t acquire a narrative sense, a story sense, with the expectation that we are each one of us uniquely ourselves—participants in the unique place and time and weather of where we live and worship—we will always be looking somewhere else or to a different century for a model by which we can be an authentic and biblical church. The usefulness of Acts as a story, and not a prescription or admonition, is that it keeps us faithful to the plot, Jesus, and at the same time free to respond out of our own circumstances and obedience.Peterson, Eugene H. (2011). The Pastor: A Memoir (p. 119). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
In light of Peterson’s words, I ask again, “How is it going?” Or maybe the better question to ask is “Where have you been looking?”
It’s my dream that each pastor find the time and place for the authentic church. And the amazing answer is “It’s right now, right where you are.”
If you are new to my blog, thanks for stopping by. You may want to consider a book I wrote about discovering the authentic church for your time and place. I called the book Church Unique to highlight what Eugene Peterson is talking about here. It’s really about entering more deeply into the context that God has placed you to develop your own model of ministry. It’s about faithfulness to The Plot rather than mimicking another person’s story.
