Stanley describes a time when his church needed to raise $1 million in four months to start building its first building. The Lord led him to forego his salary during this period to show his people that he was willing to “put his money where [his] vision was” (134). This might seem ridiculous, but it makes sense in the big picture. By making sacrifices (of various resources), we communicate to our people that we are confident in the vision God has given us. For Stanley, as with Nehemiah, sacrifice for a God-inspired vision “paves the way for spiritual renewal” (137). Are we willing – individually and corporately – to lay down whatever it takes to move toward our vision, that we might experience growth and renewal?
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision
In his book, Visioneering, Andy Stanley uses the life of Nehemiah as a model to lay out several building blocks for developing and maintaining vision. One of these is: “Don’t expect others to take greater risks or make greater sacrifices than you have.” To work toward his vision, Nehemiah left a comfortable job and traveled far from home “in the hopes that a group of people he had never met would join him in a project that had little chance of success” (132). As leaders, we likewise need to be willing to take risks and make sacrifices to realize our vision. If we do not show others that we are sharing in the cost of the vision, how can we expect them to get on board with it?
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Michael, I appreciated your post and was convicted by the sacrificial and dedicated attitude displayed by Andy Stanley. As I was reading, I was wondering how much of a factor ego plays into the modeling concept of leaders. I feel that a majority of the time as leaders we feel that we are above the people. We feel that we have already made sacrifices and we have put in our time so now that we are the leader we can live comfortably and at peace. We set the vision for the people, but it is not for us, it is for them. They are the ones who need to put in the hard work for the vision to be achieved not me. However, I believe that as leaders we are different from the people yet we are still a part of them. The vision we cast for the community is a vision that is also cast for us as members of the community. Therefore, we are just as responsible to play our part and contribute to the vision being reached. I strongly agree with Andy Stanley that we need to model the vision for the people.
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