Lesson 3: Shepherd’s Vision
ii. Leaders are to direct and equip the church in doing ministry.
They are to build up the body of Christ. They are to protect it from false teaching and crafty schemes. They are to allow each part to work properly for the growth of the body. This is leadership!
iii. Leadership is casting a vision.
iv. “Vision is the ability of leadership to see beyond and not be bound by existing horizons. Vision enables the leadership to conceptualize what the organization could be, where it could go, and what it could do.”12
v. Shepherds cannot allow the church to determine the direction and purpose of the work. Elders lay before the church the aims, ministries, goals, and directives. Elders challenge, dream, and direct. They are not content with status quo or remaining the same but have somewhere to go for the sake of the Lord.
(Consider Paul’s work and writings.) d. Vision is essential for a healthy, growing church.13
i. Vision promotes unity within the leadership team. The preacher must be a part of helping establish and promote the vision. He is the most visible person in the congregation and communicates the most.
ii. Vision requires an investment of risk, time, money, and reputation.
iii. Vision invites others to join the effort. People want to know where they are going and when they will arrive.
iv. Vision must be future oriented.
v. Vision inspires endurance and sacrifice (Heb. 12:2).
II. Clarity Drives Confidence, Confidence Drives Commitment14 a. Clarity
i. All churches share a generic vision (ie. Love God, Love Man;
etc)
ii. What is your specific (vivid) vision for the church?
iii. Illustration – Habitat has a clear vision; In 2008, we had a clear vision for the La Cruz church in El Salvador.
iv. Involves overarching goal and direction v. Strategic priorities for reaching the goal.
vi. Resources
vii. Roles and responsibilities of people
12 Ian Fair, Leadership in the Kingdom: Sensitive Strategies for the Church in a Changing World (Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University Press, 1996), 132.
13 Steve Cloer, “The Minister-Elder Relationship within Churches That Work,” Discernment 2, no. 2 (2016): 1-15.
14 Frank LaFasto and Carl Larson, When Teams Work Best: 6,000 Team Members and Leaders Tell What It Takes to Succeed (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001), 169-72.
viii. The intended results and outcomes
b. Confidence – Clarity creates confidence in the leadership and momentum going forward.
i. Confidence in the leadership and their direction. (911 and George Bush’s speech with a bullhorn at the WTC.) ii. Confidence builds with things getting done and
accomplishments taking place.
c. Commitment – Confidence builds commitment to the clear goals and mission of the church.
i. Commitment involves the tenacity to persevere despite the challenges and diversions along the way. Deal with the issues that come up along the way.
ii. Commitment makes the actions be toward the goal.
iii. Commitment creates accountability for the results.
d. Consider Nehemiah’s use of this same strategy.
i. Clarity – Rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.
ii. Confidence – Started building and seeing it going up (built where emotionally invested and in community with one another).
iii. Commitment – They persevered to accomplish the goal despite the attacks of Tobiah and Sanballat. They got results (Neh.
6:15).
III. Some Tools for Developing a Vision a. Questions to Help Create Clarity15
i. Why do we exist?
ii. How do we behave?
iii. What do we do?
iv. How will we succeed?
v. What is the most important right now?
vi. Who must do what?
b. What is required to make a vision successful?
i. Specific
ii. Funded (resources and budget support is necessary) iii. Easily seen (not overly complicated and intricate)
iv. Talked about (It has to be communicated in many different forms; You want your membership discussing and talking about it; enthusiasm)
c. SWOT Analysis – This analysis is helpful to do for a church overall or a given ministry or mission effort.
i. Strengths ii. Weaknesses iii. Opportunities iv. Threats
15 Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012), 77.
d. Enlist others in the vision.
i. A one-person vision is just a dream.
ii. Leaders must listen deeply to their people and know what they need and desire.
iii. Leaders are the CRO’s [Chief Reminding Officers] of the church.
iv. You can never overcommunicate your vision. It has to be constantly reminded and aimed for regularly.
e. Questions to help a local church clarify its vision.
i. “If we accomplished one thing during the next _x_ months, what would it be? In other words, What must be true _x_
months from now for us to be able to look back and say with any credibility that we had a good period?”16
ii. What are the most pressing needs in our community that our church needs to address in order to make an impact for Christ?
iii. What are the current strengths of our church family (i.e. gifts, talents, blessings)?
iv. What programs or ministries have made the most impact for Christ in the last thirty years at our church?
v. What is our burden? (Is our burden
children/families/marriages/grieving individuals/specific mission field/etc?)
vi. What would you tell a friend who asked, “What is your church doing?”
vii. Where does God want us to go/do in the next five years?
IV. Applications from this Study
a. Time spent in clarifying the vision is not time wasted, but essential to the work of an eldership. It will promote the unity, help in
understanding roles, and avoid future problems.
b. The church follows its leaders! They look to leaders to determine where they will go. The essential thing that elders must do, that
members cannot do, is establish the vision and direction of the church.
Don’t allow the pressing of the urgent and regular routines to keep you from doing the role that only you can do (see Acts 6:1-6). Ministers, deacons, and members should help with this process, but the ultimate responsibility is the shepherds.
c. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Peter Drucker. This strategy is essential and necessary for a church to have, but the culture of the church will still determine the vision’s success. By “culture” I mean the group norms of behavior and shared values. So be aware—in order to accomplish the vision you are going to have use your church’s
16 Lencioni, The Advantage, 122.
culture and that may take some modification.17 We will talk more about this later.
17 Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 72-73.
Lesson 4: A Shepherd’s Teaching