Skip to main content

Vision Leaks

I was leafing through one of my old notebooks today (one of the tedious benefits of unpacking after a move - I have had to look at everything I haven't thrown away and evaluate it again before stuffing it in a box or on a shelf where it won't be looked again for the next five years). This notebook was a loose, unintentional chronicle of my early days with the Journey. (Not the point of this post - but what a great ride the last three years have been. I have been destroyed and rebuilt by the gospel in ways I could never have imagined four years ago - Thank you Father God!)

Now the point of this post: I took notes from my first Leadership Summit in 2006. I had not read Courageous Leadership and was still pridefully disdainful of all things "seeker friendly" and "Willow." I have since repented.

I take notes in a strange way, I suppose - I doodle more than manuscript. And I found in my notes a picture of a bucket with a crack with a simple phrase: Vision Leaks.

I had never thought about the need to cast and continually and creatively recast vision - because people simply do not stay envisioned. In my Christian education leadership days, I would grow frustrated - especially with those were supposed to be leading me - that they seemed to lose sight and enthusiasm. Those who worked around me daily were continually having their buckets refilled because I was continually pouring vision out. It wasn't really intentional - I was just drunk with it. I was genuinely excited about what God was doing and what he would do... but the board and the church would become detached from the daily struggles and successes - and of the steady progress toward our preferred future - and I often failed to do much more than simply castigate them for being short sighted.

I realize now that their struggles were the result of my lack of leading up (another term I have learned that has proven tremendously helpful).

Another thing hits me about this - my vision leaks too. I get tired. I become mechanical. I become lazy, misguided, distracted, and selfish.

As a result I can see a clear need to continually have my own bucket refilled too. I have started identifying people who can serve this purpose in my life - dudes who call out of me my best and challenge me to step up my game.

So, just some random thoughts... how are you doing with keeping people's buckets continually refilled? How are you doing it so it stays fresh, authentic, and inspiring? How are you doing with refilling your own bucket?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching the Story Arc of the Bible

Each of the Journey campuses has started teaching a gospel class - a class that answers basic questions about following Christ and being a member in our church. This class has attracted a large number of people who are "peaking over the fence" - checking this whole Christianity thing out. That is both exciting and challenging. It gives us the chance to share the Bible with people who don't necessarily come to it with faith - as well as challenge those who do trust the Bible to get on mission with us. Our first lesson was on the story arc of the Bible - what is referred to as the diachronic view of scripture. Simply put, it is a way of looking at scripture as a complete story - with one major primary theme: God in Jesus reconciling the world to himself. Teaching a diachronic view of scripture to postmodern culture, though, presents some unique challenges. In prepping to teach, I wrote out the following thoughts. I would be glad to get any thoughts you have on this to

Milestones Ministry Discipline Forum Audio

In 2007, I taught a parenting forum at The Journey .  I posted the audio for that forum here, but The Journey has since cleaned up their media archives and this forum was taken down.  For some reason, though, this blog entry continues to be one of the most popular on my site. So, in an attempt to offer something of value, I am going to update this blog to reflect some of the best information we explored at that forum years ago.  Many blessings to you in your parenting journey. ..... Too often we as parents discipline out of wrong motives or for wrong goals. We want others to think we have it all together. We don't want to embarrassed in public places. We sure don't want to look like those "other" parents who have no control over their kids. How do we enter into parenting with true humility and raise "good" kids who are no more than legalistic moralists or moral relativists? The gospel tells us that we are both more broken and sinful than we care

The Gospel, Faith, and Asking Jesus into Your Heart

Kelly, our wonderful  Trailhead Kids leader, sent me a link to a great blog over at Sojourn Church.  It is titled " 9 Reasons not to Ask Jesus into your Heart ."  You should read it because it is clear, succinct, and right. I am not a fan of asking Jesus into your heart.  I am not a fan of committing your life to Christ or making him Lord of your life or asking Jesus to be your friend, either.  Strange thing for a pastor to say, right?  Wrong. After I became a believer and started working in a Christian high school, I came to see just how short those kinds of sayings fall from leading people to the real gospel.  As a new believer (and a lover of all things English), I loved my job, most of the things about my school, and, of course, my students.  One of the key frustrations I had, though, was that so many of my students claimed to follow Jesus but so few of them seemed to know him or love him. So, about two months into the school year, I decided to have the students wr