Vision De-Clarity

I have operated for years with an appreciation for the need to create vision statements to guide my leadership. This week I began to wonder where that impetus came from in my life. It's been delivered to me from some of the dozens of leadership books on my shelf. There are a number of those books that are written by Christians who have scoured the Bible for evidence of how to apply such business best practices to ministry. Nehemiah has become the patron saint of how one man who is compelled by God with a clear vision can accomplish some amazing things.

Anybody open to revisiting these assumptions?

Here's my postulate. Vision needs to be the exclusive domain of God. Every time an organization articulates a vision it is going to be different from the vision God has for all of us who are his people. In most cases it will be only part of the story…and therein lies the danger. We are like offensive linemen who have a gloriously clear picture of what it looks like to block for our quarterback but have no sense of what else we are supposed to do to contribute to our team's victory. Our concentration on anything that is less than ushering in the Kingdom of God in our midst means that we might unintentionally disrupt God's Kingdom-growing agenda in and through us.

So in YFC we (famously) are possessed by the vision of reaching every kid. When that vision is allowed to govern our world of operations and strategies it can lead us to some sort of elevated organizational arrogance that is a true hindrance to humbly collaborating with others under the Lordship of Jesus. It has led us in the past to practices that settle on decisions for Christ rather than making disciples of Christ.

When a Christian college articulates a hybrid vision so that it accommodates current best practices in higher ed it can fail to explore other Kingdom agendas, the ones that might be most catalytic in bringing about amazing and lasting impact. Unquestioned assumptions choke off the life-giving connections to God's ultimate picture of how he wants to rule in our midst.

Let's let the full witness of Scripture describe God's vision for us; then we align to what he wants for us all. We won't be clueless and floundering without direction. Rather, we will find the detail and precision we need to operate when we break out our particular assignments as mission statements. YFC gathers people who have a similar mission assignment from the Lord into an organization…each YFC community chapter operates with a contextualized version of that mission…each of us who work in YFC need to understand our particular roles as contributors to that mission--roles that we must discern in part because the Lord Jesus, Keeper of the Vision, has given each of us gifts to pull of the tasks for which he created us.

Revisit Nehemiah against the backdrop of this rant. God's vision was so much greater than rebuilding the wall. Nehemiah had mission clarity that fed into God's ultimate plan for bringing his people back together as a witness to the nations. That was enough.

(For my YFC family, I think that much of the exciting sense of progress that we sense right now can be explained by how we are moving to more fully embrace a Kingdom way of life for how we live and work together. For instance, humility is hardly a strategic initiative!)

Can we let go of the need to articulate any vision other than what God has already declared? Rather, can we confine our scrutiny to knowing what our assignment is and trusting God to move all of us into position for HIM to bring about what HE promises? We will likely lose some of our distinctiveness, maybe even our funding appeal. But if God is going to get ALL the glory, we'd best be ready to embrace our most ultimate assignment of dying to our organizational and personal selves for The Cause.

Gotta Order My Rosetta Stone

Geordon Rendle joined our YFC/USA national board for the first time last week. He's an employee of YFC International, lives in Buenos Aires, and only has oversight responsibility for all of the YFC member nations in the western hemisphere! I am really encouraged to have him on board with us, though I know he's spread a bit thin.

He didn't come empty handed to his first meeting. Geordon, who is a missionary kid from Canada who has lived most of his life in South America, is as engaging a translator as anyone you'll meet. I love hearing him interpret himself as he prays! The nugget he gave us was this: 22% of young people under the age of 18 living in America right now are Spanish speaking.

We have some staff and strategy catch up to do if we're serious about reaching young people everywhere…

All ideas welcome right now.

Refreshing Exhaustion

Our Youth for Christ national staff conference ended yesterday afternoon, with a national board meeting following until noon today. Such an experience gives us all a chance to get a "feel" for what's going on in our mission across the country. Very unscientific stuff, to be sure.

But if, for instance, we bumped into complaints and cynicism as often as we jostled our way through the hallways we'd be pretty discouraged with what our YFC family was feeling. Not to mention the fact that it's pretty hard to lead when there's a lack of trust or credibility.

The really cool thing is that we seem to be riding a crest of confidence in our national leadership, especially as it's concentrated in our YFC president, Dan Wolgemuth. It's hard to compare Dan as a leader to anyone else I've known. His desire to follow Jesus with abandon as we engage in our mission to reach kids far from God is compelling. And he invites us to join him without the slightest hint of having a cheesy or choreographed style. Authenticity and transparency are staples of Dan's character. His sacrificial work on behalf of the mission is viral.

I love the challenges and opportunities of leading in the environment that has been largely created by the favor of God beaming out from my boss. I find a weird sort of refreshment even on the tail end of exhausting service like I engaged in this week. When I'm weak, I'm strong. Go figure.