Three Axe-Sharpening Results of God Dreams
Will Mancini
Imagine that the role of vision in your church is like an axe. When skillfully used, it makes a path clear. It removes obstacles. It broadens the path for others to follow. It enables greater accomplishment.
Most pastors regularly pick up the axe of vision in their ministry. Some quickly and timidly set it back down, having never been trained in its effective use. Others swing like crazy, unaware that they wield a dull edge. Too often they become frustrated or confused by too little return for their tireless work.
Life is too short and ministry is too hard to swing all day with a blunt-edged vision.
What will your church’s ultimate contribution look like in your community or city? Who are you becoming as a congregation? What will guide your most important priorities along the way? And what singular impact will your church have as the years unfold?
These vital questions are all informed by vision.
Today’s commonly followed menu for becoming a visionary church leader is pretty straightforward: Be a person of prayer and a student of God’s Word. Then get additional help: digest a Patrick Lencioni business book, be inspired by a rapid-growth church story or the next edgy missional dude at this year’s conference, and sift through your Twitter feed for some strategic ministry gold.
But this wealth of excellent resources is not leading to visionary planning marked by stunning clarity. Today’s training diet for pastoral leaders does not automatically, or even naturally, results in the skills and practices of visionary leadership.
In fact, the typical pastor doesn’t get close to a basic competence level in visionary leadership. Instead, despite our best efforts to keep our eye on the ball of vision, we get tackled by “Sunday’s-a-coming” busyness, we get distracted by the next how-to-church book, and we stay addicted to “done-for-you” resources. If all those challenges aren’t enough to trample our imagination, the needs of a spiritually messy congregation pile on.
Whatever your situation, my experience suggests this: the majority of a church’s senior team resonates with the idea of visionary leadership but doesn’t feel competent enough in it.
I wrote God Dreams to give leaders new tools to inspire people and focus their congregation, from staff and lay leaders to members and new attenders. Wholeheartedly working the process in the book gives leadership a beautiful and powerful picture of the church’s future, and crystal-clear steps to get there.
I am most excited about these three axe-sharpening results of God Dreams:
1. A deeper sense of meaning personally as a leader. Many pastors seem to be missing the sense of freedom and confidence that is possible with a vision marked by increased clarity.
2. A significant improvement in the ability to inspire others. With so much to distract us, the local church leader has a special role to show people the kingdom of God invading the everyday. People need to see what God is up to, or as Eugene Peterson translates so finely, “If [they] can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves” (Prov. 29:18 e Message).
3. A growing evidence of the team focusing in a new way. Focusing, that is, on God things not just good things, resulting in a forced multiplication of every decision, every dollar, and every mobilized saint. The church has a desperate need to learn how better to focus its attention and resources.
My own vision—and ours together at Auxano—is to help churches and Christian ministries experience the incredible benefits of leading with stunning, God-given clarity. It begins with the ability to share the story of your life and ministry every day, becoming what I call “the everyday visionary.” It ends with experiencing redemptive movement as a church—seeing more men and women and boys and girls following Jesus for the first time and for a lifetime.
Download a Free PDF of the newly released God Dreams Visual Summary.
Pick up your axe of vision with your personal or team copies of God Dreams here.