This week, I’m honored to share Rev. Therese Lehman’s experiences surrounding crafting and honing a vision with her congregation.

As Therese reminds us, crafting a vision isn’t easy, but the results are well worth the struggle. And, by using her Creating a Culture of Renewal® learnings, and gaining confidence in her leadership skills, she was able to hone her vision into one that was truly a Jesus-like dream.

And, with the help of God, not at all “impossible”!

A Good Leader Challenges

Crafting a vision is hard work, takes time, takes active listening to many people and involves a lot of prayer. Trying to get a group of 12 people to come to a consensus around that vision is impossible without understanding yourself and others, and having leadership skills such as spirituality, conflict productivity, listening, confidence and boldness.

The Walnut Street UMC Leadership/Visioning Team had read and discussed “Dream Like Jesus” over the previous14 months.  We had some good discussions and completed all the exercises. One person came up with something and everyone was eager to agree to implement it so we could move on.  But it didn’t feel right to me.

The first thing I learned and put into action was that a good leader asks questions and challenges.  I didn’t do that right away because of my fears, but gradually I began some push back as to whether the vision, “To be Christ in our families, church, community and the world and to bring others into God’s family” was really a vision or a mission.  I boldly shared and asked questions, stepping out of my comfort zone by speaking up.  After further prayer, thought and discussion over the next few months, the vision changed to “No more homelessness or hunger in Chillicothe.”  This was more of a Jesus-sized vision but how would we get buy-in from the congregation and what goals would we set up?  I found myself “kicking the vision down the road” for another couple of months, fearing making a decision.

I learned through my DiSC® profile that I prefer to “seek closure” instead of being more open.  By postponing a decision on a vision, I wasn’t doing either.  I needed to be “more intentional about exploring new ideas to create a vision” and “be more adventurous and voice my ideas.”

Prioritizing the Big Picture

I attended a couple of city council meetings where the issue of homelessness was being discussed.  As I listened to the speakers, I began to hear a word other than homelessness – poverty.  Many of Chillicothe’s residents live well below the poverty line and a factory that employees over 800 people will be closing at the end of this year.  What if we began to address this bigger issue?  It scared me!  I wanted to hold back and be very cautious, but Creating a Culture of Renewal® had taught me that I should be adventurous, more open, prioritize the big picture, and speak out.

At the next Leadership/Vision meeting, I confidently and boldly proposed a new vision, “Poverty-free Chillicothe.”  It fulfilled all the elements of a Jesus-like dream and was bold!  I was totally surprised by the response. There was so much discussion, and everyone present spoke out, which did not always happen.  I was amazed that there was lots of push back and everyone was alive!!! It was wonderful!!  I realized it was what had been missing in our work together.  People began to explore some of the implications of the word “poverty” and how this vision was a challenge to our whole community!  This is what we needed.

Vision Impossible? NOT!

I am now realizing that creating a vision isn’t so much about achieving a successful result, as it is about coming together around a challenge in the community and discovering together the steps toward a solution.  This vision will have many action steps for the future, but we can begin with education about poverty both in our church and in our community.  Then we can discover what areas of poverty we would like to act upon.

At the end of our discussion, I knew I needed to give certain people time to process the new information and challenge others to come up with ideas on possible action steps.  I challenged everyone to take this vision and share it with family, friends and co-workers, both inside and outside the church.  They are to bring their feedback to our next meeting. I am excited to hear what people have to share.  I will be practicing active listening during this meeting more than talking!

The excitement and chatter after the meeting indicated that my new approach in leadership had sparked something.  I am now excited to take this vision further and begin testing assumptions and crafting action steps and goals with the team.  I want to involve the congregation and the community into looking into the deeper problem of poverty and discover how we can become poverty-free – because it is possible with God.

Therese’s vision of a poverty-free community initially did seem like a “vision impossible” but she knew in her heart that everything is possible with God.  And Creating a Culture of Renewal®’s proven leadership training is all about co-creating miracles with God and envisioning Jesus-sized dreams.

Crafting a vision isn’t always a simple task, but Therese tackled it with support from her Creating a Culture of Renewal® colleagues and her strengthened leadership skills. I feel confident that her vision will one day become reality.

Having trouble crafting your own Jesus-sized vision? Or have that vision, but need the skills to truly implement it? Creating a Culture of Renewal® is a proven and effective clergy leadership program that can bring about real change to your leadership, your congregation, and your community, too. I encourage you to take advantage of our free interactive seminar, How Christian Ministries are Achieving Success to learn more. Last Minute registration ends for Creating a Culture of Renewal® on September 8th, so you’ll want to take advantage of a free seminar today!

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