Have you ever heard that sound when air leaks? The sound is almost so faint that the ears
struggle to pick it up. What usually happens is that the product once full of air starts to
cave in and become misshaped.
What if I told you that this realistic issue applies directly to communicating vision and sustaining it?
Here is an example:
About five years ago I had the privilege of sharing the new vision for the Jr. High ministry at my church. We were launching small groups, new adult leadership teams, and focusing hard on shepherding students outside of the church walls. Everyone was encouraged and excited to see how God would use our team in moving toward this new vision. As the fall started, everything was functioning with excellence. Our numbers were growing and at many points the amount of ministry God was providing felt overwhelming, but we pushed onward.
Later that fall, we had a discipleship weekend where many students dug deeper into Jesus and many surrendered their lives to Him! As I participated and observed the ministry outside of the church walls, I was encouraged to see leaders at school plays, games, and meet ups with students just to talk. The vision was being pursued.
But then, I noticed we started to cave in.
It was not a quick cave in, but a slow one.
Leaders started having their meetings after our meetings, students were pulling out of our mid
week gathering, and everything just started to feel deflated.
After many conversations and sleepless nights, I continued to ask God why things were not
working the way they had been. What was different? What went wrong? How did I mess things
up?
In the midst of this season of ministry I discovered that vision leaks and it must be shared constantly.
It took almost a whole year to redirect the ministry back to what the vision was because so
much had leaked out. Needless to say, when the vision had become clear, the ministry was rocking
again on a new level.
Maybe you have experienced vision leaking in your ministry in the past, or maybe you are starting to see vision leak currently.
My encouragement to you is to start pumping the vision like never before.
Here are several ways I started pumping vision back into the ministry:
- Creatively share the vision each week (Story, video, written pieces, etc…)
- Give your team opportunities to communicate the vision (Weekly meetings and social media are
great) - Share wins each week that move toward the vision (We created a “WIN” board in our team
area) - Specifically engage each team member to hear what they believe the vision to be with real
time examples of how we are pursuing that vision. - Create a ministry blueprint to understand values, gifts, and audience that help us
pursue the vision
This is a huge topic and one that I am sure brings to mind many experiences. What experiences do you have where your vision started leaking? What vision igniting strategies did you execute?
How will you lead when vision leaks?
