Archives For Vision

Will Your Vision Win?

July 25, 2011 — Leave a comment

Burning Platform

When talking to people about your vision you have to realize that you’re not communicating in a vacuum.  There are all sorts of “visions” out there that people are encountering every week.  So what helps make sure your vision cuts through the clutter?

As a leader here’s a question you should start with to determine the impact potential of your message: What happens if you don’t do your vision? What happens if you don’t build that building, start that organization, or launch that program?  Really, what’s the worst-case scenario?

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Planning a Capital Campaign

April 4, 2011 — 2 Comments

I love strategic thinking.  In fact, when you combine that with my competitiveness then you have a dangerous mix for a “Settlers of Catan” game.  Last week, David Messner and myself took the time to map out a campaign that is launching this fall. It was so much fun to see the ideas all charted out and arranged.  (This go around we decided to go old school with paper and markers instead of using mind mapping software)

One of my favorite parts of working with churches is taking the big picture and breaking it down smaller action steps.  This morning I was meeting with Kregg Hood, Senior Vice President of Stewardship and Loans here at AG Financial, and we were noting how there are easily over 100 action steps leading up to the launch of a campaign.  And that doesn’t even include the follow-up phase.  Sometimes a vision can be overwhelming, but when you get it all on paper then people can begin to see how, with God’s help, this might actually happen.    So what are some things to consider when planning a capital campaign?  Here are some things I would suggest:

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Chan Vs. Caine Round 2

January 24, 2011 — Leave a comment

It’s been interesting how many personal comments I’ve received from round one of this blog idea. I think more people are wrestling with sorting out some of this stuff than I realized. Ultimately, I think it’s a good sign when people are asking the “how should I apply this”questions.

One notion from round 1 was the idea that digital connectivity can actually be dangerous. As I was processing this with another church leader we began talking about how this can play out in the church world. I’ll admit that it’s fun to see what God is doing across our country, but should we begin to worry when everyone’s vision begins to look the same? In all honesty I think it’s hard to discern if God starting a movement or if digital connectivity has allowed us to hear from others in place of God. I think we just have to be careful that as we celebrate what God is doing in one place that we don’t just assume that we need to import that vision into our situation. Again the same thing can happen on a personal level. We can get so enamored with the momentum or blessing on what someone is doing that we lose focus on the unique calling God has for you and me. Obviously we can learn from other, but we have to be careful to seek God about how to apply that in our situation. I have learned a lot on this topic from Craig Groeschel. He points out that if we want to reach people that no one else is reaching that we have to be willing to do things no one else is doing. My point is that digital connectivity can fight against that.

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