Visionary Leadership (7)
The Lord gave the word;
Great was the company of those who proclaimed it… Psalm 68.11
The vision process
Church leaders who do not cast vision for the people entrusted to their care should either learn how to do this necessary work, or find something else to do.
It’s that serious, friends.
Casting true and compelling vision is a primary duty of those who are called to leadership in the church. Jesus clearly demonstrated as much by His constant teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God. The apostles did the same. Casting vision is not a one-time or even an annual work. It involves a process, a process consisting of certain components and objectives that enable vision to do its work.
Vision that moves God’s people to sacrificial works large and small, that fills them with joy in the prospect and satisfaction in the doing, such vision comes from the Lord. It is revealed in His Word. Only God is sufficiently big, wise, and powerful to project a vision that can take us beyond ourselves into fuller and more abundant life in the Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit and more consistent and fruitful labors in building the Lord’s church.
God gives the Word of vision to church leaders; their duty is to receive and understand that vision, and to proclaim it and enlist others in proclaiming it, until all God’s people understand and own the vision and are pursuing it daily in everything they do.
Like I said, vision is not a perfunctory but a necessary aspect of the life of a local church.
Vision for the Church
Thus, church leaders must learn to cast vision. We could scarcely do better than to reflect on David’s work in this important calling.
Like David, church leaders must discover God’s vision in His Word, not in our own ideas about this, that, or the other. We must search the Scriptures together, prayerfully waiting on the Lord to make clear His vision for our church. That vision will share much in common with all true churches; yet it will feature aspects unique to our church’s setting and opportunities.
As visionary leaders begin to develop God’s vision for their church, we must remember and return to God’s works from the past, so that the work we propose for our congregation can be seen to be clearly in line with what God has done for His people in previous generations.
We must embrace large goals—goals befitting the God we serve, His greatness, majesty, power, beauty, holiness, justice, enormity, and love. We must make those goals visible to the imaginations of God’s people and desirable to their hearts. Only God can change minds and hearts, of course, but He can use our efforts to teach and encourage those we serve. Church leaders should search the Scriptures for God’s vision for His Church and, bringing those ideas down to their own context, spell them out clearly and repeatedly, to lead the people we serve.
Visionary leaders must show how all the gifts of all God’s people contribute to achieving the vision we are casting. Realizing a great vision, one that is befitting for and will exalt and glorify God, requires the gifts and time and treasure and talents of all God’s people. It is the duty of visionary leaders to show every member of the Body of Christ where they may use their gifts, whether many or few, great or large, in realizing the Lord’s vision for His Church, and then to equip them to use those gifts in daily good works of ministry. This is how the Lord builds His churches (Eph. 4.11-16).
And we must, in all our ministry activities, demonstrate the life of discipleship and the kind of zeal for God and His will that encourages progress toward His vision for our work.
This above all
Above all, visionary church leaders must work hard at casting the Biblical vision of God—of our Lord Jesus Christ, exalted in glory, building His Church, overpowering and subduing His foes, preparing a place for us, riding forth daily conquering and to conquer, and coming again in glory to take us to Himself.
God is working to transform His people into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3.12-18). When at last we see Him in glory, we will be like Him (1 Jn. 3.2, 3). His Church is His Body, and is also being shaped and built to refract His resurrection life into the world. We cannot aspire to be like Jesus, whether as individuals or a community of believers, unless visionary leaders take us into His Presence in worship and teach us to see, with the eye of faith, all the beauty and wonder and glory and majesty and brilliance and power of our risen and reigning Lord and King.
Without vision there is no leadership, nowhere to go, nothing to aspire to, nohting to achieve except to perpetuate the status quo indefinitely into the future. Without visionary leadership, like David, the visions we do pursue—and people are always in pursuit of some vision—will most likely emerge from our needs and wants, our concern for comfort and convenience, or our own best ideas about the church, leaving us in pursuit of the love of ourselves rather than of God and our neighbors.
Visionary, Kingdom-focused leaders are the great need of the churches in our day. Pray, friends, that God will raise up many visionary leaders who can take us more deeply into His Word and Kingdom than ever we have gone before.
For reflection or discussion
1. How does vision operate in a person’s life? Do you agree that everyone is following some vision?
2. What can you do to become a more visionary leader in your own sphere—your Personal Mission Field?
3. Begin praying daily for all your church leaders, that God will lead them to seek Him for a fuller vision of His will for your church.
Next steps—Preparation: J. I. Packer wrote that every believer has something more to learn and someone to lead. What is your vision for yourself as a visionary leader? How should you prepare for this?
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
A good supplement to this ongoing study on the Church is our free PDF book, Pray for Your Church. Download your copy from The Ailbe Bookstore by clicking here.
This week: Our Read Moore podcast continues an extensive look at the Kingdom of God from our book, The Kingdom Turn. In our Crosfigell teaching letter, we are looking at the state of pastors and churches during the period of the Celtic Revival, using contemporary witnesses. And in our Scriptorium column we are studying the sermon on the mount. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
And please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe with your prayers and gifts. You can contribute online, via PayPal or Anedot, or by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
