If you’ve ever taken a cruise, you realize how important mission and vision are.  We took a cruise to Gran Turk in early 2015.  It was a blast!  While the trip took a lot of personal planning, I’m grateful the company took some time to do some planning of their own.  Without a mission (port of destination) and vision (what it will look like along the way), we would have been doomed from the start.  So what is your vision for your life? Your church? Your family? As someone once said, “A failure to plan is a plan to fail”. Chances are if you have no blueprints for your life, you’re not going to build much of anything. You can jump on the expressway to nowhere and get there pretty quickly.  So where do you start?  Here are 8 thoughts on vision.

1. Pastor and author Andy Stanley argues that vision starts with a daily commitment. Think about that for a moment. Regardless of how great your vision is, unless you’re willing to commit to it, you’re doomed from the start. Will you make mistakes? Yes! But as Life Coach Dave Kraft says: “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not making much of anything.”

2. I believe one of the largest obstacles holding leaders back from casting vision is the fear of error. As someone said, “there’s so much fear of strange fire, that we have no fire!” When we fear what others will think if we fail, the obstacle in question is our pride.

3. Vision is a clear mental snapshot of “what could and should be”, according to Stanley. Vision is not the real challenge, the real challenge is making vision stick. Some of you have an idea of what could and should be. You may even have the wisdom to make it happen. But are you constantly and creatively finding ways to keep your vision before the eyes of your followers?

4. Another good question to ask when trying to understand your vision is to ask what the problem is that needs to be solved. For instance, maybe the problem is there are no basketball courts in your community for under privileged teenagers. Or maybe the problem is poor morale at your place of employment because the employees have no allocated place or times to get together for meaningful connection throughout the day. You can’t come up with a solution until you understand the problem.

5. Maybe you struggle with vision because you get side tracked. Often, less important things take the place of the urgent. Saying YES to vision may mean saying NO to less important details.  Why? The bible says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish!”. Pastor Johnny Hunt says it this way: “Where there is no clear, prophetic revelation, the people cast off all restraints!”. If the people in your life cannot see your vision, maybe it’s because you haven’t made it stick. Vision is a big deal when you realize people’s lives are at stake.

6. One way to make vision stick is to make it simple and memorable. Provide a visual. For example, if you’re a pastor, post a photo of you and your smiling church members standing in front of your sign. What simpler way to illustrate the goals of joy and unity? Again, not only must you state the vision, you must REPEATEDLY remind your people, family, organization and others of the vision.  Perhaps right now, you are faced with a challenge. Maybe, just maybe, you are burdened by the problem because God wants to use you to come up with a solution. It wouldn’t be the first time. A.W Tozer said: “God tells the man or woman who cares!” The challenge you are facing right now may be a leadership opportunity in disguise.

7. Whatever you do, Stanley emphasizes that you take notice when people catch your vision and CELEBRATE! As a leader you want to minor in pointing out flaws in other people and major in recognizing strengths.

8. In the meantime, understand that people’s complaints can be useful in determining their understanding of your vision. Feedback is your friend! Facts are your friends.  Sometimes their complaints only show their lack of understanding. Leaders never take constructive criticism personally.  They look beneath the service.  They attempt to determine motives.

So what have you learned about vision?  If you’d like to study this topic some more, buy a copy of Andy’s book ‘Making Vision Stick’.