Vision Navigator

In honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I thought it timely to focus some attention to perhaps his most famous speech-namely, the “I Have a Dream” speech.

If you haven’t heard or read it in its entirely, you owe it to yourself to do so. Below is a link to the video on YouTube. The full text of the speech can be found here.

In addition to its historical significance, the speech is a truly remarkable example of vision casting and the power of words. What’s especially remarkable is that the 16 minute speech was scripted out by Dr. King to last only four minutes, a limitation placed upon him by organizers of the March on Washington event. But as the crowd heard and began to respond to his tightly woven, yet soaring poetic prose, Dr. King dropped the script and began to improvise.

The result was a 16 minute long fusion of preparation and passion. In it, Dr. King managed to not only illustrate the intolerable divisions and injustices of his present time, but also to cast an enduring vision of freedom, unity and justice for the future of all Americans.

I wonder what Dr. King would think if he were alive today? I wonder what his dream means in light of another historical event on the horizon-namely, the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States?

What are your thoughts? Which words in the speech have the most meaning for you? Are Dr. King’s words still applicable today?

Ran across a couple of great posts on vision, both of which drive home the notion that vision should be more than just an idea — vision needs to connect mission to strategy in a real/tangible/practical way:

1) Larry Brey talks about how Vision is Divisive, but in a good way — here’s a quote:

Vision isn’t a statement, it’s what you do. The more you clarify the vision the more divisive it is. It draws a line in the sand that says either jump on board or get out of the way because here’s where this church is going. For too long churches have muddied the vision keeping in nebulous and ill defined. When vision is only something you say, anything goes. But when you drill it down to what you do people are forced to do something…either get on board or go somewhere else.

2) Chris Marlow explains why Vision is Overrated — namely vision devoid of implementation — excerpt is below:

I think vision gets way to much credit in the church world. Lot’s of dreamers with big idea’s. (people like me) Dreams mean nothing if they don’t get some feet and start walking. Vision can become your friend or your enemy. Vision can bear fruit or cause apathy.

The difference is leadership. It takes a leader to see the vision from scratch to wholeness while a dreamer will continue to “put stuff on paper” but that “stuff” never comes alive in the people of God. A true leader will take the words on the paper document and bring life and fruit from the vision.

The greatest leaders are not the visionary but the implementer. The visionary has to learn how to implement or have people around them who can implement the vision.

Is your vision becoming a reality? Do you have a clear strategy or process for accomplishing your God-given mission, or is it still just wishful thinking?