Helen Keller famously said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” When it comes to leadership we often think of vision as a view of a preferred future. That is not a bad definition—not exhaustive but accurate nonetheless. Whenever I have candidated at a new church with the possibility of becoming that church’s pastor I always ask the Governing Board this question—“If I come here as your pastor, what are the things I must personally do? In other words, what are the things I cannot train, delegate, or hire someone else to do—the things my hands must touch?”
On the short list of things given in answer (and it really is a short list) the role of visionary or vision-caster is always mentioned. In reality this is a process of looking over the horizon and being able to communicate what you see in such a compelling way that the church wants to follow you there. This can be a somewhat daunting task, don’t you think? John Maxwell likes to use the metaphor of the train. For people to follow you they have to be convinced you know where the train is headed (and it is someplace they want to go) and they are confident you know how to get it there.
However, there is a complication. Let us keep in mind that the entity we are called to lead is not a local small business, or a franchise, or a corporation—it is the church. Here we are as stewards of the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the family of God—Jesus is the Lord of the church—it is “the called out people” for whom He died. That changes things dramatically. Visionary leadership of the church is then not where we want to take it, but where He wants it to go.
Here is where the pastoral role is so different from the President or the CEO. Our responsibility when it comes to vision is not to be novel or even creative—for we are not authors of vision but discoverers of it. As I write this I am taking a short break from doing final preparation on my presentation for “Vision Sunday” coming up in just a few days. I trust I have been faithful in “discovering” where God wants to take us. Pray that I have.