History

Usually the word elicits one of two responses: a glassy-eyed stare and memories of those required classes in school that were mind-numbing, or an excited look followed by the phrase "Did you know that..."

I, proudly, am guilty of the latter.

Not content to read and study "normal" history (both my undergraduate and graduate minors are in history), I default to the obscure and strange. Who else would read books on the history of salt - or the history of dust - or the history of cod. Yes, cod. The little fish, that when salted, kept it edible for long sea voyages, allowing the "discovery" of the Americas by Europeans, among other uses (that's a two-for-one use of history, in case you didn't notice).

Leaders need to understand history, too.

Not just the history of books, though that's a great start. Leaders in the local church need to know the history of the people and place they are serving.

Only by understanding the past can you ever hope to lead to the future. Will Mancini, author of "Church Unique" and founder of Auxano, calls that "vision equity." It's the stories and actions over the years that have led that church to the place it is today. It's the solid foundation that tomorrow is built on. To be ignorant of it or to ignore it is an invitation to mediocrity at best, or disaster at worst.

History is a rock. Not an anchor to the past, but a bridge to the future.

Are you a student of the history of the people and place you serve? If not, there's still time.

Class starts today.

Respond to the Vision God Has for Your Life

Perry Noble, pastor of Newspring Church in Anderson, SC, filled in Sunday at Elevation Church for Steven Furtick, who was ill. It was certainly a God-timing thing, as months ago Perry had asked to preach on this particular date, but Pastor Steven was reluctant as we were scheduled to start a new series today. But when Pastor Steven begin feeling ill Thursday, and finally made the decision not to preach around Saturday noon, Perry was on his way an hour later.

In his unique style, Perry preached on Vision. Preaching from Acts 26:15-18, he gave the following four points about vision:

• Vision begins with an accurate view of Jesus - when we recognize who He is, we will do what He says
• Vision calls us to action - In Christ we are completely forgiven, valuable, and unconditionally loved
• Vision will impact you personally - what would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?
• Vision will lead to the supernatural - God doing the "super" through your "natural"

...and a final comment: God's not finished with me yet!

•  

Community Context

The community does not exist primarily for the church

but the church for the community.

This quote by Gaines S. Dobbins in "Building Better Churches" underscores the importance of understanding the context of the "place" a church finds itself in. Here is a sampling of some questions church leaders ought to be asking on a regular basis:

• Has the church a plan for studying and knowing its territory?
• Has the church a map or maps of its territory and outlying districts?
• Has the church accurate information as to population statistics such as age, race, and occupation?
• Is the church reasonably informed as to economic conditions in the community?
• Has the church ever made a study of community health conditions?
• Has the church any plan of active cooperation with the schools in the community?
• Does the church take an active interest in providing or encouraging better cultural advantage?
• Is the church aware of and making any contribution toward the solution of the problem of delinquency?
• Has the church any program for the improvement of family life?
• Is the church building wholesome community consciousness and developing civic pride?
• Is the church promoting good citizenship?
• Is the church promoting neighborliness?

Sounds like questions taken from the latest writings on leadership and vision, right?

Wrong - they were written in 1947, near the end of Dobbins' career as a professor of Christian education. For over 25 years Dr. Dobbins used knowledge like this to train young pastors as they prepared to begin serving in churches across the world.

We would do well today to remember his teachings.

The Art of Visualization

Leonardo da Vinci was the greatest genius in history. In his life he was recognized as an artist, sculptor, musician, scientist, writer, architect, inventor, and military engineer. If you wanted to learn how to be a creative thinker, then studying the life of da Vinci would certainly be a great start.

If you begin to think like da Vinci, you would soon realize that the five senses - sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell - are the keys to opening the doors of experience and learning. Of these, he viewed sight as the most important.

Da Vinci was most dramatic in describing the power of vision:

He who loses his sight loses his view of the universe, and is like one interred alive who can still move about and breathe in his grave. Do you not see that the eye encompasses the beauty of the whole world: It is the master of astronomy, it assists and directs all the arts of man. It sends men forth to all the corners of the earth. It reigns over the various departments of mathematics, and all its sciences are the most infallible. It has measured the distance and size of the stars; has discovered the elements. It has created architecture and perspective, and the divine art of painting.

Visualization is a marvelous tool to sharpen all your senses, improve your memory, and prepare for accomplishing your goals in life. The ability to visualize a desired outcome is built into your brain, and your brain is designed to help you succeed in matching that picture with your performance.

Want to learn more about visualization, and even develop exercises that will improve your visualization skills? Check out "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci" by Michael J. Gelb. Drawing on da Vinci's notebooks, inventions, and legendary works of art, Gelb introduces Seven Da Vincian Principles - the essential elements of genius.

With da Vinci as your inspiration, you can learn the art of visualization and how it can help your problem solving and creative thinking.

2 Questions for Your Consideration...

Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company magazine and author of the book "Rules of Thumb", thinks every leader needs to keep 2 lists:

• What gets you up in the morning?
• What keeps you up at night?

There is a lot for leaders to think about in those two sentences. Here is a summary of  Webber's challenges:

Some people just have jobs. Others have something they really work at.
Some people are just occupied. Others have something that preoccupies them.

It makes all the difference in the world.

Consider this: you spend at least eight hours a day working, five days a week. A minimum of forty hours a week for at least forty-eight to fifty weeks a year. That's a minimum of 1,920 hours a year. For how many years? You do the math.

What gets you up in the morning?
The level of energy put out by an organization's people is one of the things that you are aware of as soon as you enter their space. There's a buzz in the air (sometimes literally) created by people who are working  hard and working together. They want to be there - they came in ready to go.

What keeps you up at night?
This is a chance to be honest with yourself. Many times leaders rarely get a chance to reflect on the things that really matter to the organization's goals. Most of the time, day-to-day urgent concerns crowd out broader issues that are the really important ones. The things that often keep leaders up are the things that never seem to find the time or place for serious engagement in the course of an ordinary workday. 

We all want to do work that excites us. We want to care about things that concern us. So, about that list...

Take out a stack of three-by-five cards. Use one to write down the answer to the question "What gets you up in the morning?" Keep it to one sentence. If you don't like your answer, throw away the card and start over - it's only a card. Keep doing it until you've got an answer you can live with.

Now repeat the exercise for the question "What keeps you up at night?" Work at it until you've got an honest answer.

Now read your answers out loud to yourself. If you like them - if they give you a sense of purpose and direction - congratulations! Use them as a compass, checking from time to time to see if they're still true.

If you don't like one or both of your answers, you have a new question to consider: What are you going to do about it?

Whatever your answers are, you're spending almost two thousand hours a year of your life doing it.

That makes it worthwhile to come up with answers you can not only live with but also live for.

Just Whose Vision is it, Anyway?

At Elevation Church, Pastor Steven Furtick's sermon last Sunday was entitled " Why Do Dreams Die?" The short answer to the question: they die in the beginning, when doubt kills your dream; they die in the middle, when distraction kills your dream; and they die in the end, when discouragement kills your dream.

At our community group last night, we had a great discussion on the topic from many different vantage points - 20 somethings who are on the front edge of their dreams; 30 somethings who are in the first stages of doubts about their dreams; and 50 somethings who have dreamed again and again.

It brought to mind something I have been rereading this week: George Barna's "A Fish Out of Water." Barna was an early influence on my understanding of vision, and his comments from this book on the difference between God's vision and ours seem to be a fitting part of my group's discussion. Here's what Barna had to say:

How can you tell if a vision that moves you is from God or something of your own creation? Here are some hallmarks of God's vision:

• Human vision is based on trying to maximize our resources and skills. God's vision is based on using us beyond our capacity.
• Human vision is based on accomplishing the most appealing dream. God's vision challenges us to accomplish an impossible or improbable dream.
• Human vision is often based on what brings us delight. God's vision is a reflection of what brings Him delight.
• Human vision is dangerous because it inflates our ego. God's vision is dangerous because it demonstrates His power at work within us - and our complete inadequacy.
• Human vision drives us to push ourselves to the limit. God's vision drives us to our knees in submission, humility, and obedience.
• Human vision represents a commitment we develop and pursue until we tire of the battle. God's vision becomes an obsession we embrace until He enables us to fulfill it or He brings us home.
• Human vision reflects our cultural obsessions: size, speed, status, and success. God's vision reflects biblical obsessions: people, holiness, love, and transformation.

What about your vision or dream? Is it yours, or God's?

What Olympic Athletes and Your Leadership Team Share in Common

Over two weeks of Olympic events have wrapped up, closing with a thrilling gold medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada. The Olympic Games are spaced out enough so that I really enjoy watching the competitions, even the more esoteric events (like curling).

For all the hype and hoopla, to me the single most important aspect of the Games is the unique skill sets it takes for each athlete to become a world-class participant in their sport. For many, that means years of preparation and practice for a one-time shot at a medal. Most don’t ever get a chance to medal, yet all prepare as if they were already a champion.

In other words, they have locked away in their minds a preferred vision of the future that has them accepting a gold medal. That vision keeps them going day after day, month after month, up early and late in practice.

Church leadership teams don’t compete for a gold medal, but their reward is much more important: changed lives, as members develop into loving, growing disciples. That’s an outcome worth working for!

Glancing Back at 2009

Most church leaders are all too glad to be bringing 2009 to a close. The economic situation that began in the fall of 2008 is still impacting ministries across the country. While there is no denying the impact of that event, I prefer to take a “glass half full” approach and have been looking this week at some positive movements in the Body of Christ.

Vision – Church leaders are increasingly concerned about their vision. My experience with vision planning matters goes back to seminary in the early 80's: Lyle Schaller, Aubrey Malphurs, Bobb Biehl, Kennon Callahan, Peter Drucker - these were the leaders in the field that we followed. Others have joined them in the years since, but all of these - and especially Malphurs - have influenced my own views of vision planning in the churches I served and in the churches I work with now as a development consultant.

Enter “Church Unique”, by author Will Mancini and the team at the Auxano Group. Church Unique’s approach centers on the powerfully simple concept that God has created all churches as unique. While we understand that God created His world with uniqueness (think snowflakes), and His children (DNA, environment, and culture) the same way, we think that churches are mostly alike. Do you think He would act any different with His church?

Church Unique serves as a map that will help you discover and live a vision that creates a unique church culture in your ministry setting. The book outlines a process that will help you discover, develop, and deliver your unique vision by creating your own Vision Pathway. The clarity and practical application you will realize through this process will take you to new levels of effectiveness and to a lifestyle of visionary leadership.

Leaders realize now more than ever that their vision will not move forward unless it ties into and brings together leadership, communication, processes, environments, and culture. “Church Unique” gives church leaders a practical tool to capture their culture and build a movement that flows into their community with contagious redemptive passion.

Tomorrow's final look back: The Greening of the Church

Focus on the Ultimate to Make Your Vision Sharp

What does it take to gain the focus required to become a truly effective leader? The Apostle Paul had absolute focus on his mission – a focus that enabled him to let go of everything that was not critical to his mission. In Philippians 3:5-9, Paul willingly discarded his heritage, his lineage, his former legalism, and his past zeal in order to advance his mission.

Paul’s focus was so sharp that he discarded everything he once counted gain. But he goes beyond that: he counted everything as garbage for the sake of obtaining Christ.

Leaders who want to change the world need to have this same kind of sharp focus. The keys are priorities and concentration. A leader who knows his priorities but lacks concentration knows what to do, but never gets it done. A leader with concentration but no priorities has excellence without progress. But when leaders harness both, they gain the potential to achieve great things.

John Maxwell, writing in “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader” says that leaders base their decisions on a variety of things:

• The Ultimate – First things first
• The Urgent – Loud things first
• The Unpleasant – Hard things first
• The Unfinished – Last things first
• The Unfulfilling – Dull things first

Paul exemplifies a leader who focused on the ultimate every day. How about you? To get back on track with your focus, work on these items:

• Work on yourself: you are your greatest asset or worst liability
• Work on your priorities: fight for the important ones
• Work in your strengths: you can reach your potential if you do
• Work with your colleagues: you can’t be effective alone

Focus on the ultimate, and your vision will become sharper.

3D Leadership Vision

Earlier this year my family and I saw our first digital 3D movie – G Force. The movie was fun entertainment for a family night, but what captivated me most was the use of the latest technology to show a film in 3 dimensions, giving a richness and depth to the movie.

The thought later occurred to me that leaders, too, have to work in 3 dimensions to have richness and depth. These 3 dimensions are not length, width, and depth, but 3 representations of time: past, present, and future. A wise leader recognizes the importance of all three:

• Past is history
• Present is reality
• Future is opportunity

History – Every past success and failure can be a source of information and wisdom – if you allow it to be. The wise leader learns both from success and failure. Don’t be satisfied with your successes, and don’t be dismayed by your failures. History is important: it is not a rock to hold on to, but a bridge to the future.

Reality – No matter what a leader learns from the past, it will never tell you all you need to know for the present. The wise leader is constantly gathering information from many sources about what’s going on in the here and now – because that’s where we are at. They ask others on their team, they talk with their peers; they look to other leaders for insight. Wise leaders also become students of the culture they are seeking to minister to.

Opportunity – Wise leaders see tomorrow before it arrives. They have a vision for a preferable future, they understand what it will take to get there, they know who they will need to be on the team to be successful, and they recognize obstacles long before they become apparent to others.

The 3D movie I saw required me to wear special glasses; even then the view was only an illusion of depth. Wise leaders will understand the three dimensions of past, present, and future, and realize they are not an illusion, but a powerful force that will help them lead others with real depth and dimension.

Do You Have 20-20 Leadership Vision?

Have you had a vision check-up recently?

Not seeing-with-your-eyes vision, but leadership vision.

No matter what your definition of leadership vision, you inevitably see it through a lens and a filter.

An optical lens is a device with perfect or approximate symmetry which transmits and reflects light, converging or diverging the beam. Your leadership lens (you may have more than one) works in a similar fashion, allowing you to focus in on a specific matter on one hand, while sometimes causing you to lose focus on others.

An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits light having certain properties while blocking the remainder. Your leadership filters work-consciously or unconsciously-to let some things register while keeping out others.

What lens are you looking at your world through?

What filters do you view reality through?

Knowing the answers to those two questions won't give you 20-20 leadership vision, but to trying to lead without an awareness of your lens and filters will surely cause leadership myopia at best, and leadership blindness at worst.

Visioneering

Andy Stanley, senior pastor at North Point Ministries in Atlanta (and one of the co-founders of the Catalyst Conference) wrote a book in 1999 entitled "Visioneering." Stanley calls it a new word, an old concept, and a familiar process.

The book weaves the story of Nehemiah and his leadership in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem into leaders today who want to find a clear, God-ordained vision for each of the roles they play.

While the book stands alone on its own, I find it an appropriate launching point for the next few days of blog posts. I'm headed to Catalyst X in Atlanta tomorrow, accompanied by my wife, our 21 year old daughter, and 17 year old son. We've been looking forward to this for months. We're expecting powerful moments of worship. We will hear men and women bringing clear messages from God. We will meet new friends. We will be challenged to move beyond where we are to what God has planned for us.

We will be visioneering.

Visioneering = Inspiration + Conviction + Action + Determination + Completion

Catalyst X begins tomorrow morning...stay tuned!

Chazown

My seminary experience didn't include Greek or Hebrew (officially anyway, but that's another story). My daughter is taking Greek now and loves it, so I always have a ready reference. I know enough that to really get behind the ideas the biblical writers were trying to convey, you have to look at words in the original language.

Such is the case with the Hebrew word "chazown" - vision. Craig Groeschel's book by the same name is proving to be very instructive in my pursuit of the concept of vision. Here's a sample:

Four Gifts

1. The vision God gives you will bring focus to your life
2. With vision also comes endurance
3. Vision brings peace
4. True vision brings great passion

When you get a vision for what God has in mind for your life, things change.

A lot.

Catalyst Countdown: 2 days...

Vision

When you hear the word "vision", you usually think of seeing things. Well, it is about seeing things - sometimes. But you don't always see things with your eyes.

Sometimes you see with your heart.

And sometimes, you see when there's nothing to see...

"Go and look toward the see," Elijah told his servant. And he went up and looked. "There is nothing there." he said.

Seven times Elijah said, "Go back."

The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea."

Elijah smiled.

Vision is all of the above - and much more. But there is something more important than knowing what it is.

It's having it.

Where there is no vision - no dream, no revelation, no vision, no sense of our created purpose, we perish.

I don't know about you, but I choose LIFE.

What's on Your Menu?

This week has been a closer examination of Will Mancini's book "Church Unique." Specifically, the chapter entitled "Lost Congregations" that examines how churches adapt to a vision vacuum. Using the metaphor of Soul Fast Food, Mancini challenges the church leader to examine how their structures, programs, and ministries may have become a substitute for the real meal - what God intends for the church.

To close out the week, I simply want to restate some of Mancini's questions for your consideration.

• What really happens in the soul of a congregant when left in a church's vision vacuum over time?
• What is left to excite the heart of church attenders?
• What then fuels the dreams of your people?
• What nourishes the identity of those who call your church home?

God's people have a heart for mission; we need guidance to carry it out - vision. When a church articulates and clarifies its vision, the people of God will be released in a powerful realization of God at work in their world.

What's on your menu?

Learning to Stay Three Steps Ahead

Over the last year, three couples who are friends of ours, along with my wife and I, have all enrolled in dance lessons at a local studio. None of us had much experience at this dance thing, and it had certainly been a few years since any of us had a regular occasion to be in a “dancing” situation. Nevertheless, we signed up, and participated in the first class session – and a second, and a third. No, we’re not slow learners – we learned two different types of dance (waltz and swing) and a couple of hundred steps – at least it seemed like that many. In reality, there are a few basic steps for each type of dance, and everything else builds off the patterns of those few steps.

Successful, enjoyable dance requires that you not only concentrate on the step you are doing, but to look ahead to what you are going to do next – and beyond that.

Church leaders often find themselves in the same situation: it’s not just enough to know where you are at now; you also have to be looking several “steps” ahead. In the powerful little book The Big Moo, edited by Seth Godin, there is some advice that church leaders would do well to heed: stay three steps ahead.

One step is easy – but it isn’t enough. If you are only one step ahead, by the time your church acts on your ideas and initiative, it is too late. One-step innovations are deceptive – things seem to work for awhile, but then one day you wake up and they are no longer working.

Two steps is tempting – it means you’ve partnered with someone else on your staff or in another group. Together, there is more momentum behind an innovative idea or direction. It’s easier to convince others to go along, to get support for the project. But two steps is still a problem, because the world (the real competition of the church) is three steps ahead. The world wins out because it always seems to be ahead of where you want to be.

Three steps changes the game – it means you are a groundbreaker and a pathfinder. You’re not just thinking outside the box; the box hasn’t even be put together yet. At this point in the dance, you’re challenging the structure and organization of your church – and ruffling feathers along the way. Three steps is difficult. It’s difficult to sell the idea to your board, hard to assemble dancing partners along the way, and seeming impossible to get some of your key leaders to understand.

Follow the music in your heart and head, and lead your church three steps ahead – now that’s a dance worth being in!

Vision

This week has been a whirlwind tour of Dr. John Media's "Brain Rules". His work is a fascinating journey into our brains, developing a set of 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home, and school. Though I've only taken a look at 5 of the 12, I encourage you to get a copy of his book, check out his website, and find out how they can make a difference in the way you live.

Here are some of his comments about vision:

Vision trumps all other senses.

• Vision is by far our most dominant sense, taking up half of our brain's resources.
• What we see is only what our brain tells us we see, and it is not 1005 accurate.
• The visual analysis we do has many steps. The retina assembles photons into little movie-like streams of information. The visual cortex processes these streams, some areas registering motion, others registering color, etc. Finally, we combine that information back together so we can see.
• We learn and remember best through pictures, not through written or spoken words.
• We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you'll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you'll remember 65%.
• Pictures beat text as well, in part because reading is so inefficient for us. Our brain sees words as lots of tiny pictures, and we have to identify certain features in the letters to be able to read them. That takes time.
• Why is vision such a big deal to us? Perhaps because it's how we've always apprehended major threats, food supplies and reproductive opportunity.
• Toss your PowerPoint presentations. It’s text-based (nearly 40 words per slide), with six hierarchical levels of chapters and subheads—all words. Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images. Burn your current PowerPoint presentations and make new ones.

Check out this video for more information on vision.

That Vision Thing

Over the last few weeks I have been talking to several churches about vision and direction. The common theme in all of these directions is that the churches don't have a vision, or at least one that can be articulated by their leaders. You can be sure that if the leadership of your church can't state its vision, then the typical member can't either, and that is a big problem.

A companion to no vision, or a fuzzy vision, is a vision that is generic. Tim Stevens, of Granger Community Church, had this to say about vision:

If someone hasn't left your church recently,

you vision is probably too broad.

It's great for a church to say "We want to reach the world", and "Our vision is to glorify God." Sounds great, but doesn't impact your community with life-changing actions.

Will Mancini, in Church Unique, challenges the church to identify its Kingdom Concept in order to be a powerful force for God's work in its community. The 3-part Kingdom Concept is all about vision, and it starts with "The Local Predicament." What are the unique needs and opportunities where God has placed your church?

Geography is a starting place for narrowing your vision. Yes, your church should have the concept of reaching the world in its heart, but if you don't have a focus to reach your specific community, then your efforts will be diluted.

Stevens goes on to suggest these directions for a church that's just starting or one that's going through a major change:

• Start very focused - Have a laser-targeted vision for your church as a whole, and then for each event or outreach as well. Who are you trying to reach with your weekend service? with your web site? with your children's programming?
• Do a few things well - don't try to be all things to all people. Figure out your core competencies, and knock the ball out of the park.
• Add slowly - Take on one major new outreach or ministry each year that helps you reach your target. Raise up leaders, but don't launch ministries until you have identified a trained leader to run point.

If you begin to narrow your focus, someone in your church will probably leave because you aren't meeting their specific needs. It's OK. Free them to follow God's directions for their lives; encourage them in seeking a church that provides what they're looking for.

What if Your Church Took the Night Off?

Dave Ferguson, lead pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville , IL had a great post on his blog earlier this year. Recently CCC is launching a new initiative entitled "Discover Your Dream" - I was fortunate to be a part of the first rollout and it was very challenging to me. I'm working on a presentation entitled "Turn the Ordinary into Extraordinary." In the past 24 hours, these three things have come together in a unique nexus. Read Dave's quick post below:

My high school daughter Amy is a barista at Starbucks. Earlier this year all the Starbucks across North America closed shop for three and half hours in the evening. Why? To hear from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz via video about the companies need to get back to it's original vision. Next, the store manager talked about several strategic changes that the store would make to give the customer better and more personalized service. And the evening ended by re-training everyone at that Starbucks store. When my daughter got home here is what she said to me, "Dad, you would have loved it!...It's really weird, I know that I really work at a fast food chain, but they made me believe that it really matters."

So here is my question:

If we were to close all the churches across North America for three and half hours and we had the chance to vision-cast and re-train every Christ Follower, what would need to be said and what would you do?