Vision and Church Leadership

by Bill Eubanks

Church leaders must be men of vision. When I say that, I speak of vision in two senses. First, we must be gripped by a profound theological vision – a vision of the greatness of God.

Second, we need a strategic vision of what the organization is called to do. In this sense, a vision is a clear sense of the direction an organization is to move.

A Vision of God

John Piper has said, “The vision of a great God is the linchpin in the life of the church – both its worship and its ministry.”¹ He explained, “People are starving for the greatness of God. But most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure. There are far more popular prescriptions on the market, but the benefit of any other remedy is brief and shallow. [Ministry] that does not have the aroma of God’s greatness may entertain for a season, but it will not touch the hidden cry of the soul: ‘Show me thy glory!’”²

He is absolutely correct. And his words are particularly relevant as applied to leadership. If a man does not grow and live in the soil of understanding God’s greatness and the daily experience of His great grace, then he will not bear lasting fruit, or even survive in the adversities of leadership.

Let’s think about that. First, the true and lasting spiritual fruit of ministry comes from the realization and experience of all that God is. Jonathon Edwards once said, “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”³ If that is true – and it is – then the goal of our ministry must be to bring people to a full knowledge and satisfying experience of our great God in every part of their lives. Piper once explained this in the ministry of preaching: “My burden is to plead for the supremacy of God in preaching -- that the dominant note of preaching be the freedom of God's sovereign grace, the unifying theme be the zeal that God has for his own glory, the grand object of preaching be the infinite and inexhaustible being of God, and the pervasive atmosphere of preaching be the holiness of God. Then when preaching takes up the ordinary things of life -- family, job, leisure, friendships; or the crises of our day -- AIDS, divorce, addictions, depression, abuses, poverty, hunger, and, worst of all, unreached peoples of the world, these matters are not only taken up. They are taken all the way up into God.”⁴

So the greatness of God – His magnificent virtues, majestic attributes and awesome glory – must define our leadership and ministry to others. And the theme of His greatness will never define our leadership and ministries unless it first grips us and governs our lives and passions. So leaders must have a vision of the greatness of God in order to minister the truth of His greatness to others.

The second point I made is that anchoring our lives in the greatness of God is necessary to survive the adversities of ministry. When the winds of opposition are strong, unless a leader’s roots are strong in the soil of God’s greatness, unless He fears God more than man, he will likely fold his tent and run, or he will capitulate to the desires of men. But if his ministry in anchored in the sovereign call of a God Who is majestic in the heavens and awesome in praises, Who is possessed of all power and authority, to Whom the entire world is accountable, and Who reigns in a great and unfailing redemptive love, then he will endure hardship and serve the Lord faithfully.

It was such a vision that sustained Isaiah through the very difficult ordeals of his ministry. He was driven by a defining vision of God, having witnessed the greatness of His majesty, glory, power, holiness, and mercy.

And it was written of Moses, “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Heb. 11:27). Hudson Armerding commented, “Moses acted in this decisive way because he… had a spiritual perspective – a clear-eyed vision of the One whom he served and of the eternal recompense that only He can give.” ⁵

Robert Dick Wilson was one of the great professors at Princeton Theological Seminary. One of his students had been invited to preach in Miller Chapel twelve years after his graduation. Old Dr. Wilson came in and sat down near the front. At the close of the meeting the old professor came up to his former student, cocked his head to one side in his characteristic way, extended his hand, and said, “If you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach. I only come once. I am glad that you are a big-godder. When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big-godders or little-godders, and then I know what their ministry will be.” His former student asked him to explain, and he replied, "Well, some men have a little god and they are always in trouble with him. He can't do any miracles. He can't take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture to us. He doesn't intervene on behalf of his people. They have a little-god and I call them little-godders. Then, there are those who have a great God. He speaks and it is done. He commands and it stands fast. He knows how to show himself strong on behalf of them who fear Him. You have a great God; and He will bless your ministry.” He paused a moment, smiled, said, “God bless you,” and turned and walked out.⁶

A Vision of Ministry

The second aspect of vision that a leader needs is a strategic vision of what the organization is called to do. In this context, a vision is like a picture of the church’s future. It identifies the specific aims or objectives for the church. This type of vision needs to be somewhat fluid – changing as governed by the changing DNA of the local church or the needs of the culture in which it exists.

A

Our Vision at GPBC is to glorify our God by producing growing disciples of Jesus Christ who are

Ÿ Intentional in witness

Ÿ Strong in prayer

Ÿ Partnering with missionaries

• Enriched individuals and families

To these ends we teach God’s Word and help and encourage one another by the strength that He gives.

Once we embraced this as our Vision, we were able to conceive a Strategic Plan for how to accomplish the four priorities of our vision. We could then mobilize our people, programs, and finances toward this common plan.

Then, periodically, we will come back to the table and prayerfully reflect on a biblical theology of the church, the DNA of our body, and the needs of the culture in which we live. We will then revisit our Vision Statement and Strategic Plan, and perhaps revise them to be more effective and relevant (to currently identifiable needs) as the Lord leads us.

Such a guiding vision helps an organization in several ways. First, it motivates and unites people. None of us wants to follow someone who doesn’t know where he is going. But it is thrilling to be part of an endeavor with a clear sense of direction. Matthew Henry went to London, met a young lady of the nobility, who was also wealthy, and they fell in love. She went to ask her father if she could marry him and he said, “He’s got no background, you don’t know where he’s come from.” She said, “Yes, I know, but I know where he’s going and I want to go with him.” That’s leadership!

Second, it helps an organization to be more relevant and impacting. It marks a course, identifying the priorities that will be the primary focus. When the vision statement of an organization is frequently revisited and refined, it will be all the more relevant to the emerging issues and needs of its people and to the culture it is trying to reach.

Third, it focuses resources efficiently. As we embrace new priorities (in light of needs or existing weaknesses), we are able to better direct our resources – human and financial – at those specific priorities.

As Hans Finzel has written, “vision statements are like glue. They help … hold an organization together. They are like yardsticks by which [one] can measure how his group is doing. And they are like a laser pointing you to your destination.” ⁷

Conclusion

So there you have it: A leader needs to be a man of two visions – a theological vision of the greatness of God, and a practical vision of an agenda for the church. The latter is characteristic of leadership in any walk of life. It is the former – a vision of the greatness of God – that distinguishes true spiritual leadership.

Both of these senses of vision are important. To have only one is a prescription for frustration and failure. To lead with only a theological vision is likely to be spiritually rich but minimal in impact, because of the ambiguous nature of the direction of the organization. But to lead with only a pragmatic vision is tragic. It is to lead with earthly resources, out of an earthly motivation, and for earthly objectives. Any earthly-minded leader can demonstrate a practical vision. Only a spiritually-minded leader will lead by a theological vision. But his leadership will be less effective unless he has a clear and well-communicated vision of an agenda for the organization.

It is my guess, however, that more and more churches today are led by men who have a practical vision without a driving theological vision. The problem is that such leaders often build large and popular churches on a foundation of human wisdom, managerial science, and the power of personality.

We must build with the bricks of God’s great excellencies and His great and precious promises, driven by the experience of His great power and mercy and truth, and for the demonstration of His great glory. That is how to build a great church! It is all about, because and for the greatness of God.

A. W. Tozer once looked over the landscape of evangelical Christianity in America and bemoaned the loss of spiritual power, “religious awe and consciousness of the divine presence.” He then offered a prescription for her to recover her lost passion and power:

“What can we plain Christians do to bring back the departed glory? Is there some secret we may learn? Is there a formula for personal revival we can apply to the present situation, to our own situation? The answer to these questions is yes.

“Yet the answer may easily disappoint some persons, for it is anything but profound. I bring no esoteric cryptogram, no mystic code to be painfully deciphered. I appeal to no hidden law of the unconscious, no occult knowledge meant only for the few. The secret is an open one which the wayfaring man may read. It is simply the old and ever new counsel: Acquaint thyself with God. To regain her lost power the Church must see heaven opened and have a transforming vision of God.

“But the God we must see is not the utilitarian God who is having such a run of popularity today, whose chief claim to men’s attention is His ability to bring them success in their various undertakings and who for that reason is being cajoled and flattered by everyone who wants a favor. The God we must learn to know is the Majesty in the heavens, God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, the only wise God, our Saviour. He it is that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, who bringeth out His starry host by number and calleth them all by name through the greatness of His power, who seeth the works of man as vanity, who putteth no confidence in princes and asks no counsel of kings.”⁸

May we all become men of such vision!