Vision: The Leader's Greatest Weapon

Take vision away from a leader and you cut out his or her heart. Vision is the fuel that leaders run on. It’s the energy that creates action. It’s the fire that ignites the passion of followers. It’s the clear call that sustains focused effort year after year, decade after decade, as people offer consistent and sacrificial service to God. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.” They can’t focus, can’t reach their goal, can’t follow their dream. An older translation says, “Without vision, the people perish.” I’ve seen it with my own eyes - without vision, people lose the vitality that makes them feel alive.

I’m not saying that the only thing churches need is visionary leadership. When a local church is discouraged or demoralized, it turns to its shepherds, its artists, and its mercy-gifted folks for a fresh wave of encouragement. When the church needs organization and order, it turns to gifted administrators and says, “Do something about this chaos.” When it needs edification it turns to people with the gift of teaching.  But when a church needs a God-honoring, kingdom-advancing, heart-thumping vision, it turns to its leaders. That’s because God put in the leader’s arsenal the potent offensive weapon called vision. The goal of this chapter is to unravel the complexities of vision so that we leaders can learn to unleash its power in our churches. This is where world change begins. 

First, let’s define vision. I’ve heard dozens of definitions and so have you. But my best shot at a crisp definition is this: Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion. For Henry Ford it was the picture of a future where a Model T was parked in the driveway of every butcher, baker, and candlestick maker. For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. it was the picture of a future where two children, one black and one white, would sit across from each other on a seesaw, oblivious of the colour of each others’ skin. Dr. Billy Graham pictured thousands of wayward people coming forward to trust Christ as the choir sang “Just As I Am.”

For each of these people, their picture of the future made their hearts beat fast and their minds race. What picture does that to you? Is it a picture of hungry children being fed and protected in a secure environment? Is it a picture of homeless people finding shelter or of abused women finding a safe place? Is it a picture of dying churches experiencing renewal? Confused people coming to faith? Lay people finding meaningful ministry opportunities? Does the thought of lonely people finding community in small groups or artists finally using their God-given gifts in church ministry bring a lump to your throat? I believe there are as many passion-producing pictures as there are leaders.

When God finally brings clarity of vision to a leader’s life, everything changes. The dominoes start to fall. Here’s the typical progression: First, a leader sees the vision, sees that life-changing image of the future that makes his or her pulse quicken. Seeing the vision might be the result of reading scripture or of hearing an exciting story of life-transformation. It might result from coming face-to-face with a need that grips one’s heart. It might even come as a leading directly from God. More likely, though, one sees the vision through witnessing or experiencing a work of God that’s already being done by someone else. Seeing this form of ministry or service ignites an internal response that simply can’t be ignored.

Without hesitation the leader says, “I think I could give my life to this. I think maybe I was born for this!” Sometimes a vision comes like an epiphany, all at once-bang!-it’s there. Sometimes it comes into focus piece by piece over a long period of time, like a confusing puzzle that finally makes sense. But at some point a leader sees clearly the vision that God intends for him or her to see. Then, almost immediately, comes the feeling of the vision. Remember our working definition: Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion. What makes a vision so powerful? It’s not just the picture of the future. It’s the energy and the passion it evokes deep in one’s heart. This level of energy or passion must be experienced to be fully understood. 

Almost thirty years ago, while Dr. B was casting his vision of life in a biblically functioning community, I experienced an intensity of emotion I’d never felt before in my life. Sometimes I felt like cheering wildly and at other times I felt like sobbing. Occasionally I wanted to stand up in front of my classmates and scream, “Hey, everybody, this is it! Don’t you see it? Can’t you feel it? The local church is the hope of the world. It’s the God-ordained redemptive agency upon which the destiny of the entire world hangs. So cancel your career plans. Do something important with your one and only life. Lay it down for Christ and his church!” Decades have passed, but the feelings behind those worlds are as real to me today as they were in that college classroom. 

And still today, if you strapped a heart monitor to my chest when someone is talking about the beauty, the power, or the potential of the church it would been and flash and smoke and signal: Danger, Danger, Danger. After all these years, the passion isn’t fading. On the contrary, it’s growing in intensity. I’ve learned firsthand that God-given visions pack a powerful punch and make a lasting impact.

Excerpted from Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels