Urgency from Vision Not Guilt

Good leaders understand that the presentation of vision must always, always be accompanied with a presentation of urgency for that vision. Without the consistent presentation of urgency, people vote with their behavior for the status quo. A good leader makes the status quo so unacceptable that people are willing to embrace a new vision.

If one creates urgency from a prophetic perspective so that everyone feels guilty about all that could be happening but is not, there will be no change. Prophets create guilt, and guilt is designed to produce repentance, which is a type of change. But changes in congregations, which may start with repentance, must be led by leaders rather than prophets. Shame and blame do not produce change.’ [healthy change or positive growth]
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Pastor as Chaplain vs. Leader

While the pastor is sewing the seeds of vision, the pastor is fulfilling well those ministries and responsibilities that are designed to keep the congregation small and effective at meeting member needs. Failure to do so will cause the pastor to lose credibility and reduce any future leverage for change. The pastor still functions as a chaplain: visiting, caring, and counseling.

At this time the pastor is really living a double life, or at least performing two jobs: a chaplain and a leader. This is one major reason why change is so difficult and why most pastors decide, often unintentionally, not to pursue it. The job is just too demanding. It is much easier to go with the flow.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Three necessary Teams for Change

All three of these teams are necessary. Many fail because they try to bring change on the strength of vision alone. - Ed

While the new pastor is communicating urgency and developing vision, he or she is also recruiting three key teams of people. Team One is a prayer team that will commit to pray regularly for changes that lead to health, growth, and reproduction.

Team Two is the vision or dream team. Certain people find new ideas and ways of thinking intriguing and are energized when put with others who think as they do. Also many declining congregations have some individuals who are dissatisfied with the status quo and make quite clear how they feel. Idea people and critics should be recruited for this team. The purpose of this team is to help the pastor develop arguments for urgency and create vision in order to address the urgency.

Team Three consists of leaders whom the pastor recruits and trains to help implement change. A pastor should not recruit these particular leaders or potential leaders for Teams One and Two. The pastor will need all the leaders that can possibly be recruited for Team Three.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Vision Without Guilt

The pastor needs to believe that God’s Spirit is at work in the lives of congregational members. This means the pastor is always seeing the congregation in its best light, hoping for the best, and telling stories of those who are doing things well. Individual and congregational confrontations will come when systemic change is attempted. However, vision never takes root in people when it is communicated through guilt, or acts of warfare. Vision is always cast in a positive light.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Good leadership and Vision

A congregation is desperate for leaders who are filled with passion, have already demonstrated courage, see flexibility as a virtue, are missional because of their passion, are wise, really believe God expects them to win with a whole groups of saints who feel the same, and who take bottom-line responsibility for what God will do through them.

Vision does not necessarily start with the pastor. However, most pastors who arrive to lead congregations that lack vision, hope, and morale will find that if they do not generate vision, no one else will. Committees, vision communities, or people exploring vision as a short-term project do not generate visions that produce systemic change.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Vision and a Warning

Vision is derived from the passion of a leader who has a prophetic fire burning within the soul to accomplish something significant for God. Groups may take this vision, help produce congregational ownership, and delineate its implementation, but, without prophetic fire to begin with, there are no images of preferred futures that produce systemic change. If pastors are not clear about either their role or that of the Church, most congregations will remain dormant, irrelevant to life change, and in decline.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Vision and Passion

Vision is derived from the passion of a leader who has a prophetic fire burning within the soul to accomplish something significant for God. Groups may take this vision, help produce congregational ownership, and delineate its implementation, but, without prophetic fire to begin with, there are no images of preferred futures that produce systemic change. If pastors are not clear about either their role or that of the Church, most congregations will remain dormant, irrelevant to life change, and in decline.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Vision and Effective Congregations

Effective congregations are led by pastors and a team of leaders who are clear about their mission and focused on achieving a vision. Unlike the majority of congregations that are either on a plateau or declining, effective congregations are healthy, growing, committed to reproduction, and open to changes that will move them from one level of effectiveness to the next...Vision does not necessarily start with the pastor. However, most pastors who arrive to lead congregations that lack vision, hope, and morale will find that if they do not generate vision, no one else will. Committees, vision communities, or people exploring vision as a short-term project do not generate visions that produce systemic change. .
Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Thoughts on Vision

There are dangers connected with not having a vision. Here are three.

Without a coherent vision...
1. energies of leaders go in many different directions and produce little benefit;
2. leaders feel like they are competing with each other for the available resources;
3. leaders are more vulnerable to the attacks of the forces in the congregation that are opposed to change.
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

Leading with Soul

Here are some quotes from Bolman and Deal worth reflecting on. - Ed

Perhaps we lost our way when we forgot that the heart of leadership lies in the hearts of leaders. We fooled ourselves, thinking that sheer bravado or sophisticated analytic techniques could respond to our deepest concerns. We lost touch with a most precious human gift---our souls. p. 6

The heart of leadership is in the hearts of leaders. You have to lead from something deep in your heart.

Like what?

I can’t tell you what’s in your heart, nor would you want me to. Would you want someone to offer you fruit but chew it up before giving it to you? On1y you really know what’s in your heart. p.21

The essence of leadership is not giving things or even providing visions. It is offering oneself and one's spirit. p.102

If you show people you don’t care, they’ll return the favor. Show them you care about them, they’ll reciprocate.
When people know that someone really cares, you can see it. It’s there in their faces. And in their actions. Love really is the gift that keeps on giving. p.84

Leading with Soul, Lee Bolman & Terrance Deal, Jossey-Bass Pub.

The purpose of Church

This is a vision of church worth building. - Ed

Barbara Brown Taylor in her recent book, Speaking of Sin, gives this description of the church. “The church exists so that God has a community in which to save people from meaninglessness, by reminding them who they are and what they are for. The church exists so that God has a place to point people toward a purpose as big as their capabilities, and help them identify all the ways they flee from that high call. The church exists so that people have a community in which they may confess their sin — as well as a community that will support them to turn back again. The church exists so that people have a place where they may repent of their fear, their hardness of heart, their isolation and loss of vision and where — having repented — they may be restored to fullness of life.”