A few views on vision

How do you view the term ‘vision’ when it comes to your church? Your personal life? Your work group or team?

Vision has earned a bad rap in many circles because of how it has been used to manipulate a number of situations. A leader gets up on stage and starts sharing about their dream for the future and people choose whether or not to follow it. In church settings this has caused some trouble, but in some cases, it has produced some good. The litmus test for whether it is a positive thing in every circle is not a good one, as it is hard to tell what something is until the seeds planted are ready for harvest. And that can take a whole season out of your history. For many, it has.

You are probably already familiar with how much I use the term ‘vision’ in my work through Lead Freely. Just take a glance at my services page, or go to the downloads, or just type ‘vision’ into the search bar, and you will get a pretty solid sample. You may already know that I use it as the final item in my 7-4-3-1 model for planning. (Click here to learn more about it) Anyone who struggles with the term may shy away from this, or even me, because of bad experiences with the idea of ‘vision’, or how it has been presented before. In general, I use vision as a pretty generalized term, because I know that it is more of a conversation than it is a statement.

Is vision all about the leader with the expectation of lifelong followers?

This is one fear, and it is a genuine one, because it has proven true in many stories in recent history. Scratch that, it has been problematic all throughout history. This could be called the megalomaniac problem. Maybe the ‘pied piper’ of faith and society. A direction and marching orders are created in an upper room and revealed to the group repeatedly, with the expectation that they will all execute it.

Is vision a settler’s dream?

It was presented to me a while back how the term ‘vision’ has a connotation of one knowing ‘better’ than the others and bordering on believing in a ‘manifest destiny’. This idea holds that when someone carries a ‘vision’ they believe all that is before them is for the taking, and no one was there before. Therefore, God wants us to have it. Vision then becomes about conquest and reward.

Is vision a fool’s errand?

For most, ‘vision’ has been presented as a strategy formed in a vacuum, that will somehow work out no matter what happens, or what anyone says. Who knows the future? How does this strategy fit with the story of every person it involves? It becomes an extra to the story of the community, not the story of the community encountering life together.

What do I think of the term ‘vision’?

Vision is seeing through the shadows that block the light on our path.

Not to badly paraphrase or contradict my past posts, but vision has to fit in the community, personally relevant in context, and consider a future that the Spirit may be instilling within the story of you and me. Vision is not about conquest, it is about hopeful existence. We look ahead based on where we have already gone, learning and leaning on experiences, with a realistic understanding of where we are today. Vision may not even be goal oriented because it is about deepening rather than sitting in the shallows of our journey.

So what about you? How do you view the term ‘vision’ in your setting? For yourself?