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Vision is Where!
By: Richard L. Molenhouse


Microsoft once used the phrase, "Where do you want to go today?" in their product advertising. It's a catchy slogan that suggests that the products of the company will take you where you want to go. I've been thinking that for ministries the slogan should go like this, "Do you know where you're going, today?" Everything that we do as leaders is impacted by vision or by the lack of it. The concrete work can not begin until the vision is imagined, until the where is "seen" and understood clearly. Before a project is initiated or a ministry plans for the new year the vision must be clear and easily identified.

You might have heard the story about a child that watches a sculptor as he labors on a great block of marble. As the story goes, the sculpting continues day after day. The sculptor, consumed in his work, does not notice the child coming to watch him each day. He chisels and chips away at the great piece of marble. When he is finished a magnificent lion stands in stone, majestic and unmoving. The child asks, in awe, how did you know there was a lion in there? The truth of the matter is revealed through the unselfconscious awe of a child.

What the child in the story innocently observed was that the sculptor had to "see" the lion before he could begin. The block of marble, as it came from the quarry, would have been no more than a large roughly cut slab of stone. What the child witnessed was a vision being brought to life. The lion in that block of stone had to be released. Once he had been "seen" inside of that block of stone it was possible to "see" how to "get" him out.

The critical element for a well managed organization is vision. The first thing that a ministry must have before the work begins is vision. The plans and the work stay on target when there is clear vision.

The construction of a new house, for another example, requires a great deal of planning before the work begins. The plans must wait, however, until the person that is ordering the construction "sees" the desired house in his imagination. Without that vision all of the plans are on hold. The architect cannot begin to design the structure without the owner's vision. The style and size and all of the amenities of the house come together once the vision is described. With the drawings complete the owner can look at the first tangible piece of the vision and judge if the work can go forward. The contractor will use the approved drawings to plan for the actual construction. The vision now directs everything from the ordering of the building materials to scheduling the crews. Each of these steps need careful planning and each step has it's beginning in the vision.

Building a house is a complex and creative enterprise not unlike the building of a ministry. Both require careful planning and follow a path that begins and ends in vision. The end has to be "seen" first in order to know where to begin. Secondly, the vision must be kept sight of to guide the plans and the work. Finally, the vision ensures that there is a way to measure the completed work and judge it well done.

At the beginning of every good work there is a vision. We serve a God of vision. The Lord says that He has great plans for us, plans to prosper us. These plans have their beginning in His vision. As ministry leaders our plans need to be built on a clear and well-articulated vision.

Do you know where your ministry is going...Today? 

 


In coming issues I will be presenting a series of instructive letters on planning. The series will outline the process of constructing a working plan for any organization. I will cover the process from the Vision, to the Tools, to the Preparation and the Completion and Implementation of an Annual Ministry Plan. Then in succeeding issues I will cover the Monitoring, Adjusting, Reviewing of the Plan, and finally beginning the cycle again with the preparation to plan for the following year.

"...What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do."
Isaiah 46:11

 

Copyright © 1999-2006 Richard L. Molenhouse, all rights reserved.


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