Archives For Vision

What’s Different about 7 City Church?

July 27, 2012 — Leave a comment

“What’s different about 7 City Church?” That’s the question that was asked to me recently by a friend named Chad. I shared our vision to see cities transformed by inspiring community and influencing culture…but Chad wanted more. He wanted to know why he and his wife were so passionate to be a part of 7 City Church, which launches September 16, 2012, after so many years of being out of church. At the end of the day, here’s my answer.

Want to learn more about 7 City Church? Visit our Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Vimeo, or YouTube pages to get the latest.

 

In Church 7 City Church, Vision
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The Three Steps to Leading Successful Change

June 29, 2012 — Leave a comment

Leading change is one of the most important things leaders do. Author and business expert John Kotter devoted an entire book on How to Lead Change. Pastor Brad Powell wrote a book on the Art of Sacred Cow Tipping called Changing Your Church for Good. It’s one of the greatest challenges in leadership today.

Recently I was reflecting on the change process that leaders navigate in organizational settings. While there are many elements in the change process, three steps are always necessary: Seeking Insight, Selling Ideas, and Securing Involvement.

  • Seeking Insight is all about gaining perspective, counsel, advice, and wisdom from other leaders. This is the research side of leading change. Without it, change initiatives usually fall short of their full potential and often result in diminished outcomes.
  • Selling Ideas is the vision-casting side of leading change. It focuses on painting a clear picture of a bright future and usually involves speeches, small group meetings, and one-on-one conversations to help people see the possibilities of the new change. The goal is to do more than push your agenda…it’s to inspire a shared vision.
  • Securing Involvement is where people accept your new idea and throw their time, energy, emotions, and resources behind the vision. This is the buy-in side of leading change.

There are four observations I’d like to make about this three-step process to leading successful change.

Continue Reading…

In Church, Leadership, Organizations change, Church, Leadership, Organizations, Vision, Vision Casting
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Four Vision Casting Lessons in the Church Planting Process

June 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

In the last few weeks I’ve had to do a great deal of vision casting…probably more than any other time in my life. On May 27th, Karen and I announced that we are planting a new church in the downtown/West 7th area of Fort Worth. You can read more here and view our vision video here.

In just a matter of weeks I feel like I’ve had more vision-casting breakfasts, lunches, dinners, coffee meetings, and gatherings than I can count. And the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve been humbled as people have chosen to partner with us as we embark on this new journey.

Through this process, I’ve observed a few valuable lessons about vision and vision-casting. While I’m certainly not a Jedi master vision caster, here are four insights I’ve found particularly important.

1. The Process of Vision-Formation is Underestimated - The birthing of a vision in a leader’s heart is a often a raw mixture of pain, sweat, prayer, learning, editing, reflecting, and dreaming. Leaders have a biased toward action, and sometimes that bias trumps the vision-formation process. We want it quick and we want it now. While visions may form quickly, my experience is that the visions with the deepest roots often grows slowly over time. As I reflect on my own vision-formation process, I observe two things:

  • The values that shaped my vision have been “cooking” for over ten years.
  • The words that describe my vision have been “focusing” for over three years.

I’m not saying your vision-formation process has to take this long. But don’t rush it. In fact, there’s likely a deep connection between who God has been shaping you to be and what God is now calling you to do. That’s been the case for me. My vision has cooked for over ten years because during that period two major values formed inside of me. Those values shaped my vision and are now finding a new platform for expression. While impatience often tempted me to move quicker, I now see how perfect God’s timing is. If you’re struggling with the vision-formation process, here’s five thoughts to help you capture a vision.

2. The Fingerprint is the Game Changer in Vision - I cannot emphasize enough why this is so important. When leaders pop out a vision like it’s a bag of microwave popcorn, it usually lacks creativity and looks like a mass-produced, mind-numbing replica of another leader’s vision. We’ve heard it said a thousand times: vision is like a fingerprint. But my experience is quite the opposite. Most visions today look like they were formed by hands with melted fingertips…original prints are nowhere to be found.

If your vision has no uniqueness, creativity, or DNA that you can call your own, then you may have rushed through the process of vision formation. Remember, your vision needs substance. Fingerprints aren’t captured in water. They need a pliable surface where they are captured. Is your vision more like water or like clay?

Continue Reading…

In Church, Leadership, Organizations Clarity, Leadership, Passion, Vision, Vision Casting
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Vision-Casting: Keep it Simple

February 24, 2012 — Leave a comment

A great deal rides on a leader’s ability to cast vision. Not only must leaders capture a vision, they must effectively communicate the vision in such a way that they inspire teams and catalyze forward movement in organizations. Unfortunately, leaders tend to complicate vision casting. But as business author, Dave Anderson observes, the key to effective vision casting is to keep it simple…“The best things ever spoken or written were brief.” Dave sites the following example:

  • The Lord’s prayer has 66 words in it
  • The Gettysburg Address has 286 words
  • The Declaration of Independence has 1,332 words

On the other hand, the United States Department of Agriculture regulation on the sale of cabbage has 26,911 words. Your vision must have substance, but you must keep vision casting simple. People don’t remember complicated messages.

Question: What can you do to simplify your message? How clear and concise is your vision?

 

In Leadership Vision
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Look: How God Calls People

February 14, 2012 — Leave a comment

When people talk about the “call” of God, sometimes it’s with a bit of mystery. In fact, sometimes it’s outright bizarre. But the idea of “calling” is found throughout Scripture. God calls people to tasks, projects, ministry, countries, roles, fields, and industries. Because calling originates with God, He’s big enough to determine the subject of your calling. The question is: how does God call people?

In Exodus 3, we read about Moses’ burning bush experience. Something grabbed me about the issue of God’s calling when I read this passage:

“God saw that he had stopped to look. God called to him from out of the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’” (Exodus 3:4)

I believe this verse reveals an important aspect of calling. Too often we expect God to knock us off our feet with an undeniable calling. In fact, most of us would admit that if we had a burning bush experience, we’d be able to hear God speak to us just fine. But notice what this verse says: “God saw that he [Moses] had stopped to look.” It was only after Moses stopped to look that God began to speak.

Sometimes I wonder if we miss God’s call because we don’t stop to look first. We’re so hurried with our busy schedules that we don’t stop to see where God is already at work. God might want to call you to serve the underprivileged, but He’s waiting for you to stop and look and those in your community who are struggling in poverty. God might want to call you to serve your local church, but He’s waiting for you to stop and look at the needs in your church. God might want to call you to run for a political office, but He’s waiting for you to stop and look at the needs of those you would serve.

I’ve said this before…Calling and vision is often birthed out of a need. But unless you stop to look at the need, the calling may never come and the vision may never form. If you’re wondering why God’s not speaking to you, perhaps He’s waiting for you to “look.”

 

In Church, Culture, Leadership, Personal Growth Bible on Leadership, Calling, Needs, Vision
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The Opportunity Matrix

February 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

We live in an unprecedented time in history where opportunities are everywhere. And because opportunity abounds (often hidden as problems), leaders in particular wrestle with which opportunities are the best opportunities. How do you choose?

Opportunity typically works in tandem with two forces: Focus and Risk. Without focus, we tend to pursue every opportunity. But without a willingness to risk, we tend to avoid every opportunity. The following “Opportunity Matrix” illustrates four opportunity quadrants and what happens when focus and risk are at play.

High Focus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Low Focus

Low Risk                                                             High Risk

Immovable Complacency (Low Focus/Low Risk) – This type of opportunity really isn’t an opportunity at all. It’s like a giant magnet preventing any forward traction. Churches in this corner are typically disengaged, unmotivated, and on a comfortable plateau, or worse, coasting in a downward direction. Their lack of focus has made them complacent and their low risk tolerance has made them immovable.

Strategic Irrelevance (High Focus/Low Risk) – Leaders and churches in this quadrant are highly focused and deeply committed. The problem is, they’re highly focused and deeply committed to pursuing “safe” opportunities that keep them closely tied to outdated and irrelevant traditions. They resist change. These churches have tunnel vision…they’re so focused on what they are doing that they can’t see what they could do…and so they miss their greatest opportunities. They’re so married to their strategies that they’ve become strategically irrelevant.

Visionless Change (Low Focus/High Risk) – This corner of the quadrant is a bit of a paradox. The idea of taking risks while lacking focus doesn’t seem to fit together. This reality is usually nothing more than short-term infatuation. It could easily be described as vision-jumping, splash-in-the-pan leadership, or addiction to the latest fad. The problem is that nothing sticks. Churches in this scenario experience vision whiplash. You could say their infatuation with change overrides their clarity and commitment to vision, ultimately producing a high-risk, low-focus environment of “vision-less change.” They change for the sake of change without any understand of their True North. Leaders and volunteers are often worn out in this environment.

Vision-Centric Courage (High Focus/High Risk) – The top right box in the opportunity matrix is where high levels of focus intersect with high levels of risk with the greatest potential to produce high levels of impact. This doesn’t mean the risk is unwise or untested. Precisely the opposite. Leaders and churches in this corner have defined a clear vision and courageously execute tested, calculated, risk-taking strategies to see that vision fulfilled. Courage is only needed in the face of fear, and thus courage implies change. When the change is vision-centric, it keeps the organization on track.

So where are you (and your church) in the Opportunity Matrix? And what does it take to move to the top right quadrant? Consider the following as a launching point to embrace “Vision-Centric Courage”:

1. Moving from “Immovable Complacency” - Cultivate a learning posture while creating an appropriate sense of urgency. Most teams get stuck when they stop listening and learning. How can you expose your team to new voices, quality books, and fresh strategies. Do you need to acquire coaching or consulting? Before you can unlock the church, you have to unlock your leadership. And to get a sense of urgency in play, consider reading John Kotter’s book, A Sense of Urgency. Here’s a post I shared from Kotter’s book on urgency.

2. Moving from “Strategic Irrelevance” - Build momentum with small wins. You don’t have to turn the entire ship overnight, but you do need to start turning the rudder and introducing change. Small wins will give you the momentum, confidence, and trust to go after bigger opportunities.

3. Moving from “Visionless Change” - Solidify your vision and adopt the right perspective of opportunities. Solidifying your vision will be the toughest step, but it is essential if you want to keep your team energized and focused.  Once you solidify your vision, you need to take a new attitude toward opportunities. Andy Stanley framed it well when he said, ”Opportunity does not equal obligation.” Let this statement set you free from your infatuation with the latest, greatest idea.

Question: Which quadrant are you (and your church) in? What’s your next step?

In Leadership change, Courage, Focus, Opportunity, Risk, Vision
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"Won’t Do" vs. "Will Do": The Substance of Vision

February 11, 2011 — Leave a comment

“Inspiring vision isn’t about what you’re church doesn’t do!” That reality sank in the pastor’s mind as we wrapped up our lunch together. After talking for over an hour about the church he is leading, I refocused his attention on the issue of vision. In his mind, he knew exactly what he didn’t want his church to be…traditional, cluttered with programs, or a drop-off station for parents too lazy to disciple their kids. But what he wanted the church to be…that wasn’t so clear. And that’s when I challenged him: “You can’t build a church (or any organization) on what you’re not going to do. People follow leaders with vision. And vision is about what you will do, not what you won’t do.”

This tension is common in the early years of a leader’s life. Most of us didn’t start with a clear philosophy of ministry or leadership. All we knew was that when we saw something we didn’t like, we pointed at it with resolve and said, “When I’m a pastor, I won’t do that!” And so our “won’t do that” list grew longer each day. The problem is, we didn’t simultaneously create a “would do” list to counter the “won’t do” list.

This isn’t all bad. The way things are usually serves as the catalyst for the way things could be. And therein lies the rub. Too many leaders invite people to follow them into the wild blue yonder simply because they don’t like the way things are. They forget that current reality is the stimulus to change, not the substance of vision.

The current reality that you dislike (ineffective strategies, a disconnect with culture, or a poor ministry model) should stimulate you to change. It should spark a deep dissatisfaction in your soul. But your current reality is not the substance of your vision. Substance isn’t what your church won’t be; substance is what your church will be. If the substance of your vision is to not be something, then your vision has no life and it will lead you to make decisions for the simple sake of rebelling against what was.

So how do you ensure that your vision is more about “will do” substance rather than a never-ending list of “won’t dos?” Here are three keys to consider:

Continue Reading…

In Church, Leadership, Organizations Clarity, Vision
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Granger Community Church’s Audacious Vision

February 10, 2011 — 2 Comments
Vision, true, God-inspired vision, is audacious. Bill Hybels says that what makes a vision powerful is not that it’s just a picture of the future, but “the energy and the passion it evokes deep in one’s heart.”  Jim Collins espouses BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) as a critical piece to vision. So what does audacious vision look like?

Tim Steven’s, Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church, has posted Granger’s five-year vision…and it is audacious. The vision is captured in the statement, “Raising The BAR” and focuses on three major ideas:
  • BE the Church
  • ACTIVATE the Campus
  • REPRODUCE at Every Level

I’d like to challenge you to check out Granger’s Vision here. As you read the vision, what emotions rise inside of you? How does the vision speak to you? And what lessons can you learn about vision, vision-casting, and inspiring others? This is a great lesson in vision…don’t waste it.


In Church, Leadership Vision
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The Four Most Desired Characteristics in a Leader

February 2, 2011 — Leave a comment

If you surveyed all of your friends, co-workers, and neighbors and asked them which characteristics they most looked for in someone they were willing to follow, what do you think they would say? James Kouzes and Barry Posner have asked this question for years, surveying tens of thousands of people from different organizations and in different parts of the world, and the results are consistent. When provided a list of 20 qualities, only four averaged over 60% of the votes. As observed in their latest book, The Truth About Leadership, Kouzes and Posner pinpoint the four most admired characteristics in a leader’s life. More than anything, followers want to know that their leader is:

1.  Honest

2.  Forward-Looking

3.  Inspiring

4.  Competent

Do you exhibit these four traits? Are you HONEST? Do you have clear, unwavering ethical standards that guide your behavior? Are You FORWARD-LOOKING? This is having concern for your organization’s future and the ability to articulate clear direction. Are you INSPIRING? Kouzes and Posner say, “Being inspiring means sharing the genuine enthusiasm, excitement, and energy you have about the exciting possibilities ahead.” And are you COMPETENT? Your track record, more than anything else, reveals your ability to get things done.

If you want to grow your leadership, expand your influence, and do a favor to your followers, grow these four traits in your life. The people who follow you will thank you. And the people who don’t follow you just might start.

Question: How have you seen the four characteristics improve leader-follower relationships?

 

In Leadership Competence, Honesty, Inspiring, Leadership, Vision
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How to Lead Change

August 11, 2009 — 1 Comment

Leading change is one of the true tests of leadership. Harvard Business professor, John Kotter, is perhaps one of the best thinkers in this area and presents a great process for creating change in his classic book, Leading Change. Kotter’s 8-stage process includes:

Stage 1: Establish a Sense of Urgency - The first stage involves understanding reality and identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, and major opportunities. If a leader cannot create a sense of urgency that change must happen, they will never go any further. See my post on “Urgency” for more details.

Stage 2: Create the Guiding Coalition - With a sense of urgency established, leaders must then assemble a group of people with enough influence to lead change. This group must work together to become a team. It’s my belief that the best teams have a mix of influencers, innovators, investors, and initiators.

Stage 3: Develop a Vision and Strategy - Next, a clear vision needs to be articulated along with executable strategies that will generate progress toward the vision.

Stage 4: Communicate the Change Vision - Using every communication strategy possible, the new vision and strategies must be shared with the entire organization. Furthermore, the guiding coalition must take the lead by modeling the behaviors expected by employees.

Stage 5: Empower Broad-Based Action - This stage involves the removal of obstacles, making changes in systems or structures that undermine the vision, and employing risk-taking and innovative ideas.

Stage 6: Generate Short-Term Wins - Making progress is essential and therefore planning for improvements and recognizing and rewarding those who generate wins is essential. Small wins open the door for greater change. By celebrating the small wins you make the big wins possible.

Stage 7: Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change - The credibility gained from positive change should fuel the pursuit of more change as well as the hiring of people who can implement more change.

Stage 8: Anchor New Approaches in the Culture - Finally, the culture should reflect better performance, an orientation toward productivity, connections between new behaviors and organizational success, and appropriate succession planning.

Each stage to leading change can also be flipped to reflect the errors to creating change. For example, allowing too much complacency is the opposite of creating a sense of urgency. Declaring victory too soon is the opposite of consolidating gains and producing more change. Kotter asserts that a successful change transformation is 70%-90% leadership and only 10%-30% management.

Again, the ability to successfully create change is the true test of leadership. While the book is a classic, the principles in Leading Change are very relevant today. This book is a must read for any leader.

Question: Which stage of change do you need to give attention to right now?

 

In Church, Leadership, Organizations change, Leadership, Strategy, Vision
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