3. No hard choices are made.
The power of a real vision is it declares a church’s priorities.
By implication, it also declares those things that are NOT priorities.
Unfortunately, many visions (and the processes by which they are developed) suffer from a bad case of peacekeeping and accommodation. When leaders approach the point of making hard trade-offs that will disappoint or alienate someone, they often pull back.
The result is a lack of focus and clarity that robs the ministry of the anticipated benefits.
4. The next steps are missing.
Visionary leaders are generally not known for their execution ability.
Even if the visioning process has avoided the previous three ailments, someone needs to make the transition from a high-level, inspirational vision to concrete plans. Without this, people will wait and wonder what they are supposed to do.
I’m not the only person who has these mixed feelings about visions. I will close with one of my favorite quotes from one of America’s truly visionary pastors. “Visions excite people. They inspire people. They compel people into action. But unless people eventually see progress toward the fulfillment of the vision, they will conclude that the vision caster is just a dreamer blowing smoke, and their morale will plummet” (Bill Hybels, Courageous Leadership).
What’s the health of your vision?
