Being Mean About Vision

I just finished reading an article that made me really think about the role of a leader. I read these articles all the time and a lot of them are saying the same thing, and therefore, many of them do not floor me the way this one did. It was by Shawn Lovejoy and David Putman and they are pastors at Mountain Lake Church in Georgia, and they have a crazy passion for creative and effective leardership within the church. You can read the article on Catalyst Space.

The part that made me turn over in my heart and mind, was the idea that we, as leaders need to be mean about the vision. Now I work in Student Ministry, and as a Christian leader, we put a high priority on people being "nice," you know the whole "love is kind" thing? But when it comes to vision they said that while remaining a nice person, a good leader doesn't let anyone takeover or reprogram the specific vision that God has given her. That a good leader often has to be fairly forceful in clearly communicating the vision and then ask people to join him. Fairly often we allow people to re-direct our hearts and passions because we are afraid of what they will think, or what they will say, or maybe they will leave our organization. And while it is not intuative, I think that God gets frusturated when we let our vision break down, the vision that He gave us, based on what other people say or think, or wish we would do for them.

We were having a great discussion with our staff the other day over some tough situations that we are facing right now, and this exact idea came up. Someone in the ministry had made it very clear that they were unhappy with how we were running some things, and didn't think that the ideas we had on leadership were very fair. As we were talking and praying about this idea, and the person in this situation, I remembered something that Jesus said. He said "The Son of Man (Jesus) came to seek and to save that which was lost," not find and fix that which had left.

So I don't know what it is in your context, but if its a difficult student, a complaining parent, a boss that doesn't seem to ever have anything nice to say, the reality is, if God has given you a vision, that matches the teachings of Scripture, they may come a time that you will have to choose whether to let people leave, or let people talk because you are doing what God has called you to do, or choose to give in to the fleeting desires of the people God and called you to lead, and in doing so you give them the leadership and you become the follower. So I encourage you, find the freedom in being able to be mean about the vision that God has given you, because the time will come when you will have to choose what you will do, and there will be fallout. But just remember, Jesus often irritated people who wanted Him to do things for them, because He told many of them no, because even though they were nice and good ideas, they did not promote the mission that He was on Earth to do.

Something that I keep on my desk is a quote that Reggie Joiner once told me, 'The parents or people in your world that are hindering you from making the changes that you want to make, are the same ones that will complain in 5 or 10 years when you loose their students because you didnt change your programs to match the vision God gave you." So if you are feeling down, or lost, or stuck, press on because the best leaders are the ones that have the courage to make the hard descisions and choose to do what God calls them to do, even if that means well-meaning church people give them push back.