Vision Navigator

This post is the first in a series of nine, chronicling my reflections on “The Nines.”  For more info on others in the series, see this post.

My experience with The Nines was kicked off by Dino Rizzo., Lead Pastor of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, LA.  The first point of his talk, “Know Christ,”  set the tone for me for the rest of the day’s experience.  For it struck me how easy it is for us as church leaders to forget this foundational point in the midst of all the wisdom, tips, examples, and information that is available to us.  Not that listening and learning from others is a bad thing.  In fact, more often than not this is a very wise thing to do.

But it can also be VERY BAD!  How?  When we allow the flow of information to crowd out God’s still small voice in our lives.  Which find us looking first at what others are doing and saying, rather than looking to Christ for our guidance and inspiration.

Because when we do this, we make idols out of our experiences, or the experiences of others.  Which skews our perspective, causing us to lose sight of the very one we profess to follow.

This point was reiterated by Nancy Beach, Teaching Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church.  She shared how she was grieved by the observations many have shared with her as they become close to senior leaders of churches.  While noting that there are exceptions, she lamented the fact that so many see less and less of Jesus, the closer they get to these leaders.

Ironic isn’t it?  That folks whose mission it is to introduce people to Christ would become distant from him themselves.  But why is this so?

Maybe it’s a failure of vision.  Maybe it’s harder to follow a Lord and Savior we can’t physically see, than to follow a path that’s well worn by tradition, validated by best practices, or fueled by the cult of the buzzworthy.

Or maybe we’re like Peter.  We get out of the boat ok, and are amazed to find ourselves walking on water.  But then our experience kicks in, telling us it’s actually impossible for us to walk on water.  And our eyes turn away from Christ, becoming fixed on the wind and the waves, causing us to sink.

So we look for ways to keep ourselves afloat, hoping that a new strategy, technique or insight may turn us into better wave walkers.  But we only sink further into frustration and despair.  For if we can’t keep our own head above water, how can we hope to rescue others who are drowning?

So what’s a church leader to do?  Flail harder?  Hide the fact that we can’t walk on water?  Retreat to the shore?  Or look back to the one who can lead us out of the depths, trusting him to help us become and do more than we ever dreamed possible?

I realize this may sound trite and simplistic.  And it is, on one level.  Look to Christ.  That’s it.

But practically consider again who this Christ is… he is Creator and Redeemer; Lord and Savior; Lion and Lamb; Divine and Human; Ruler and Servant; Exalted and Humble; the one true Prophet, Priest, and King; the Good Shepherd; the Prince of Peace; the embodiment of God’s self-sacrificing love, and THE Living Word, who makes all other words meaningful.

I love how my former professor, Yandall Woodfin, puts it, describing Christ as the “clue to reality,” or the connecting principle that makes reality itself meaningful and intelligible.

This Christ then, who has the power to unmake everything in existence, humbled himself out of love to become one of us.  To save us.  To remove the stain of sin and death that separated us from the love of God.  To restore us.  To redeem us.  And to call us to follow him, not as slaves, but as sons.  So now we’re beloved family members privileged to participate in our Father’s mission, carrying this message of redemption and reconciliation to others.

We must never lose sight of that.  We CAN walk on water — do what seems impossible and nonsensical — when our eyes are fixed on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.  The trick is to learn from the lives and experiences of others without idolizing them or allowing them to divert our attention from the unique calling and path God has placed before us.

The last speaker I was able to catch, Jon Tyson (Lead Pastor, Trinity Grace Church, New York, NY), made a point that sums this up well.  Namely, that an echo rarely has power.  This begs the question then, are we seeking God’s face to see and follow his unique direction for our lives, or we merely echoing what we hear from others? Are we fueled by Christ’s water walking inspiration, or our own experience driven expectations?

What are your thoughts?  How do you keep your vision clear and focused on Christ?  What sort of things compete for your attention?  How can you learn from others and their experiences without turning them into idols?

I heard a great quote yesterday from a friend and mentor:

Man’s disappointment is God’s appointment.

With today being St. Patrick’s Day, it struck me that this quote was borne out in the life of St. Patrick himself.

For although St. Patrick’s name has become synonymous with all things Irish, he was not a native Irishman.  In fact, he was born in Wales, where he grew up on a farm.  At the age of sixteen, he was captured by raiders, who took him back to Ireland as a slave.  For six years he lived there in relative solitude - separated from family and friends, living the rather lonely life of a shepherd.

During this time, however, he began to pray, and hear from God.  Eventually he heard a voice that told him he would soon be going home.  Later he heard that a ship was being made ready for him.  This prompted him to flee his master and travel to a port 200 miles away, where he found eventual passage back to his home.

A few years after his return, Patrick had a vision.  In it, a man coming from Ireland brought him a letter representing the “Voice of the Irish.”  Patrick also imagined that he heard the voices of Irish natives calling out to him to come and walk among them.  Patrick saw this vision as a call from God to return to Ireland to serve as a missionary.

Note the significance here?  God was calling Patrick to leave the safety and comfort of home to return to the land of his enslavement.  And not only return there, but adopt it, and embrace it as part of his own calling and identity.

And Patrick did return - allowing this vision from God to transform his own view of Ireland - from a place of slavery and personal disappointment, to a place of calling and divine appointment.

During his ministry in Ireland, Patrick took on a second name, becoming known as Patricius Daorbae.  This second name, Daorbae, was a Gaelic word, meaning “he was enslaved.”

Rather than denying or becoming bitter about his bad luck then, Patrick embraced it as part of God’s unique vision for him.  His work as a missionary led to his eventual recognition a few centuries later as the Patron Saint of Ireland.  Ironic isn’t it, how God could transform a seemingly insignificant foreign slave into a revered Saint and native son?

What’s your story?  How do you view the disappointments of your past?  Do your own failures or weaknesses disqualify, or uniquely qualify you to serve God?

On the heels of this post on validation, and our need to be seen and recognized for who we are, I was reminded of an incredible quote by a new friend on twitter, Jason Mitchener:

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” - Michelangelo

This is a powerful metaphor for God’s redemptive work, isn’t it? Seeing beyond the exterior, and peering deep into the very heart of our being to see who we were created to be. And then chipping away at the barrier that encases and enslaves us - the time hardened exterior we erect that separates us from our Father/Creator and the life we were meant to live.

The only catch is that carving isn’t very pleasant. And neither is being exposed to the light, when you’ve been safely tucked away in the dark for some time. So do we allow ourselves to be carved? Do we expose ourselves to the light to be reshaped in the image of God?

To do so takes trust. Trust not only in the artist’s skill and ability, but also in his heart and vision for us.

Do you have that kind of trust? Do you find yourself moving towards the light, or maintaining your barriers?

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?

[Note: I've been on a self-imposed blog hiatus for the past few weeks, but wanted to check in to offer a brief word of explanation, and let my faithful readers (that's you!) know that I'm still alive and well].

When I was a kid, I remember either my older brother or sister having a very “hip” to do list (it was the 70s, when hip was really cool). It had a glossy plastic orange cover with lowercase white lettering that read “Dumb Things I Gotta Do.” This list hung around our house for a number of years, and to my knowledge nothing was ever written in it. This isn’t surprising really, because who wants to be reminded of pointless tasks you’re forced to do against your will?

This list came to mind recently, because I realized some of my own to do lists have started to feel like that for me. Chores. Sources of stress. Burdens. Fun-suckers. Energy drains. Dumb things I gotta do.

So what’s a person to do? Add another “to do.” Namely, write a blog post about it

Seriously, I’ve come to realize such feelings are an indicator that there is a disconnect in certain areas of my life between vision and reality. That I’ve over-committed, and undervalued the limited amount of time and energy I really have to spend. That I’ve allowed complexity to set in, at the expense of simplicity and clarity.

So for the past couple of weeks I’ve been doing what I counsel my clients to do. Hop off the treadmill for a bit to evaluate why I was on it in the first place. Employ the aid of a strategic outsider to help me gain some perspective and ongoing vision clarity (because, as a friend of mine so aptly puts it, “You can’t see the back of your own head”). Take some time to evaluate all the task oriented clutter that I’ve accumulated, to see where it fits (or doesn’t fit) within the broader missional framework for my life.

Thus, the blog hiatus. So now you know.

Does your life feel clear or cluttered? How do you manage your to do list(s)? When you look at the tasks on them, do you feel drained or energized?

Wanted to pass along a link to a great article by Will Mancini, which was published on the web a week or so ago [link to the full article is here]– here’s an excerpt:

What if the real challenge of translating vision to reality is something inherently wrong with our current models for vision? What if strategic planning models and long-range planning teams spend countless hours developing a vision or a plan that, by its very nature, is unrealizable? What if we changed our paradigm or working definition of vision in a way that made it naturally and organically more likely to blossom? What if we could make vision so clear that action was inevitable?

I believe the real challenge of turning vision into reality is one seven-letter word: clarity.

This resonates with me on so many levels. It’s part of the reason I joined up with Mancini and the Auxano team in the first place.

For when leaders pursue clarity, they find a unique vision from God that nourishes them and compels others to join. It’s not about the latest tricks, trends, or techniques then. It’s not about coercion or manipulation. Rather, it’s about leaning into, living, and casting a clear vision that invites others to participate in God’s mission — catalyzing folks into action to become part of something larger than themselves, a unique expression of Christ’s body on earth.

What is your experience? Do you see a connection between vision and reality in your life, or in the life of your church?

Wanted to relay some powerful thoughts from Will Mancini’s blog:

Walk into a first grade classroom and ask the kids to raise their hand if they can draw. All of the kids will raise their hand. Ask if they can sing. All of the kids raise their hand. Ask if they can dance. All of the kids raise their hand. Ask them if they can read and only some will raise their hand. Now do the same exercise with a ninth grade classroom. The results are opposite- the only time they all raise their hands is when asked about reading.

Noting Einstein’s quote about imagination being more important than knowledge, he goes on to ask, “Where doe our extreme capacity for imagination go?”

What’s the state of your imagination? Is your view bounded by what you know, or by what God says is possible?

What is impossible with men is possible with God. Luke 18:27

David Hayward had a thought provoking post earlier this week on Spiritual Engineering. He notes the preoccupation the Nazis had with social engineering, and how their desire to achieve a perfect society ironically translated into a genocidal agenda to contain or eliminate those who were considered to be disruptive or inferior.

He closes the post by asking this question: “When we try to engineer the kind of community that we want, are we actually doing violence to the body of Christ and violating his parts?“

Below was my response:

I think we all naturally gravitate towards engineering things in our favor, whether we’re conscious of it or not. It’s part of our broken, fallen nature seeking safety and self-preservation, and is not something we can escape. When we give in to this need for self exaltation, and organize others around our cause, then we recognize it as the warped type of social engineering you describe, where the goal is uniformity, not unity — promoting our own agenda, rather than participating in God’s mission.

The key to me is being aware of this, and humbly submitting ourselves together to become the community that God wants us to be. This involves dragging our own thoughts, feelings, convictions, biases, etc., into the light — sharing them with each other — airing them out — arguing if need be. And realizing that none of us has “the answer” in our back pocket. We all have limited perspectives at best, and we all need illumination from our Heavenly Father, the Waymaker, to show us the way forward.

This involves trust — trusting that God really does want to guide us and show us the way if we ask. It also involves trusting our Father’s heart, even when the path runs through the desert, is obscured, dark, or full of stumbling blocks. Because God’s purpose for the path often has more to do with the process — growing our faith, making us more dependent on him, and more loving/forgiving towards ourselves and each other — than the actual destination.

The question for me then is not whether we should try to engineer or not, but who’s agenda we’re advancing — each day — today — in this moment…

What are your thoughts? When church leaders cast a vision for your community, do you feel motivated or manipulated? How might the trust you place in leadership impact your perception?