This wonderful cartoon from ASBO Jesus got me thinking about the whole vision thing. As a pastor, one of the chief difficulties is inspiring volunteers to pursue a vision. Here’s my comments.
- Inspire, don’t threaten.
- People are more important than the work or the timeline
- To inspire, YOU must be inspired, and keeping yourself motivated and ‘inspirational’ while going through life’s normal ups and downs is a tough discipline.
- WITHOUT a vision, church is boring and lethargic. People like to be part of a ship that’s going somewhere.
- Forging a vision that works first involves forging it with a team, not just yourself.
- God uses our own passions and experience from which we draw our vision and inspiration, but it is also GOD’s vision and timeline that matter, and discerning which is which is tough. Having a team (see #5) helps lend some objectivity to help figure out what is ‘me and God’ and what is just ‘me.’
- Aim at nothing, hit nothing. But if you do aim at something, be happy no matter what you hit, you are almost sure NOT to hit exactly what you were aiming at. Learn from it.