5 Ways To Destroy A Vision

The greatest gift a leader ever receives is vision.  You see, in part it is vision that defines you as a leader.   No one else gets the vision.  It is reserved solely for you as the leader.  It is yours and yours alone.  You cast it while others catch it.  It is a great privilege to have vision.

However, with great privilege comes great responsibility.  Vision needs to be nurtured, fed, cared for, cultivated, and given a chance to grow and become viral.  It needs protecting as others will try to hijack it.  Vision also needs to have a resource strategy and be fully funded.    Finally, vision needs to be celebrated. 

But unfortunately, many leaders don’t give vision the proper attention it needs.  Through actions leaders knowingly or unknowingly do, they allow vision to leak.  They lose the wonder and awe of a God-sized dream.  They allow the challenges of life and ministry to steal their heart’s affections for the vision they once had.  The purpose of the vision can become perverted.  Then sadly, the vision is destroyed.

After participating in over 5,000 one-on-one conversations with local church leaders in the past decade, the following are the five most common ways I have seen leaders destroy vision.

1. Don’t Let God Lead It – Psalms 127 tells us that unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.  Leaders are people of movement.  They are constantly advancing.  But leaders can accomplish only so much without God.  Sometimes, in an effort to live a life of meaning and significance, our God-given vision morphs into an exercise of human effort or personal agendas.  God has quietly been removed from the process.
2. Don’t Do What God Says – Joe Sangl of I Was Broke Now I’m Not and new owner of INJOY Stewardship Solutions says of the early days of NewSpring Church, “When people ask us why we grew so fast, we all say, ‘We let God lead it and did what He said.’” Obedience to the Spirit’s leading always results in life change and increased influence.
3. Don’t Involve Others – In a pivotal scene in the recent movie Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, the central character Caesar communicates via sign language “Apes alone weak.  Apes together strong.”  The producers of this movie remind us that when it comes to the fulfillment of mission and vision, leaders acting alone are weak.  Leaders who build a team are strong and effective.
4. Don’t Change – Leaders, the vision never changes.  However, your methods must constantly change.  What made you successful today will not keep you successful tomorrow.  While we must always plan strategically, effective leaders also build in adaptability to react to instability, globalization, new technologies, creative ideas, and people.
5. Don’t Keep Your Word – Nothing kills vision faster than BROKEN PROMISES.  For a vision to be realized, people must trust you before taking the journey with you.  They must first believe in the leader.  They must have enough faith and trust in you to leave where they currently are to go to a better place.  Broken promises erode faith and trust to the point people are no longer willing to follow you. 

So how do you avoid destroying a vision?  What do you do to not only keep a vision alive but allow it to grow and thrive?  It’s simple – do these five things:

• Let God Lead It.
• Do What God Says.
• Involve Others.
• Change.
• Keep Your Word.

Leaders, a God-given vision is a dear, precious gift.  It is a picture of a preferred and achievable future.  Do these five things and you will insert yourself into God’s redemptive story in a way that will blow your mind!      

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