Healthy Leaders | Issue 35
What is a legitimate vision? And how do we discover it?
Welcome to Issue 35 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue: what is a legitimate vision?
Hello friends,
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.1
As we have previously discussed, there are three parts to leadership. A leader establishes the vision, aligns the people to that vision, and motivates them to move toward it and fulfill it.
All of this relies on the vision of the leader, of course.
Leaders are not content merely to scrape by. They want to transform the lives of those around them, the organizations in which they are involved, and the world. They are not content to merely maintain the status quo.
“Leaders lead. They go first. They begin the quest for a new order. They plunge into new, sometimes dangerous, and always unpredictable territory. They take us to places we’ve never been before, and probably could never find on our own.” (from Leading)
This quest into new territory does not always provide a leader with a clear, detailed vision, but rather the sense of energy and excitement that comes from a new challenge. Therefore, leaders have to be comfortable with uncertainty and flexible enough to define and redefine the vision as things move forward. As Malcolm goes on to say in Leading:
“The leader’s vision will generally evolve in interaction with the people as well as the external context of the organization. Good visions are dynamic; they will change — and the new vision is usually better than the previous one!”
But this still leaves us with a fundamental question. We know that even the best leaders are still humans who make mistakes. How can we as leaders know that our vision is actually legitimate?
Here’s Malcolm with more:
Like everything in healthy Christian leadership, the center of it all is union with Christ. Thus, pursuing vision involves actively seeking God’s will through prayer, worship, fasting, and cultivating a rich inner life with Him. If you are having trouble identifying a clear, legitimate vision for your life and leadership, you must get with God!
When we first met Pastor S from India he was in this posture, waiting on God for the next vision for his church network. Even so, he was struggling with a lack of confidence about what to do next. The Building Healthy Leaders training that he participated in broke through this insecurity, prompting him to expand his ministry beyond the walls of his church and make connections with other leaders in the city. “It was the first time I started to think outside my territory.”
When he began applying what he had learned at his church, big things started happening. By God’s grace, they had 30 new converts in short order, and the church grew quickly from around 150 to 200 members. In the span of six months, they planted two more new churches! But the growth was not only in number.
“I’m rejoicing to see spiritual growth in my congregation day-by-day. They have increased in their dependency on God, and have come to the point of being willing to sacrifice and do anything for God. They have vibrant prayer lives. Their attitudes, lifestyles, and conversations have changed dramatically. They have increased in love for each other, in unity, brotherhood, and commitment to the church.”
Besides all of this, Pastor S identified ten potential emerging leaders from his church with whom he and his wife began meeting several times a week. They spend time together, pray, engage in Bible study, and share tea and meals together. They are also connected through a WhatsApp group for encouragement and accountability.
Pastor Siddhartha himself now has a clear vision for his people, and has increased in patience, self-control, perseverance, and dependency on God. He is excited about the future!
“Now I know that I’m part of a vision where God is raising a generation of healthy leaders. My church leaders and youth have caught this passion to serve the Lord.”
What about you?
There’s a lot of good advice out there on how to define a vision; we’ve shared quite a bit of it ourselves… Question the status quo. Kill the sacred cows. Harvest new ideas. Find something that needs fixing. Look for opportunities. Constantly seek higher ground. Dream and plan.2
But most of all: fix your eyes on God. Cling to Him. Seek Him. Love Him. Pray that He will lead you into new opportunities, to fulfill His purposes, for the good of His people!
We’d love to hear what God plants in your hearts as a result.
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
Recommended Resources
Book: Leading
For more resources, visit our website.
Thanks to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for putting together a comprehensive set of video courses for growing healthy organizations, starting with this series of courses on leadership by Malcolm. We’ll be using some of their videos and some of our own. Be sure to check out what they’re doing!