Catching Vision

Without boasting, it is fair to acknowledge that I am a visionary leader.  I care about where things (and people) are headed and I thrive on planning ahead.  When vision is lacking, I get uneasy.  However, I am undoubtedly a beginner when it comes to trusting God to provide that vision.

When I became Urban Mosaic's team leader, some part of me assumed that I would sit down for a day or two, look at the information before me (regarding the needs of city churches and the gifts of our personnel), and piece together God's intended purpose for our team.  You're chuckling, aren't you?  Thus began a lesson in listening, waiting, and letting God give fresh vision.

One tool that I used for the development of my personal sense of mission (which, it turns out, is essential if you want to be leading other people somewhere!) was a 6+ week process called Life Compass.  Joining a group of other local CRM staff, apprentices and neighbors, each week brought us questions and exercises to tease out a response to What should I be doing with my life?

The process looked something like this: gathering and learning together in a living room.

 We took tests about our personalities and spiritual gifts.  We looked at the overall story of our lives and how God had taught us and brought fruitfulness in different situations and seasons.  We each met with coaches and talked in small groups to get feedback.  And at the end, we each produced a vision statement.  Here is mine:

I will take the next few weeks to unpack this statement in segments, line by line.  It is quite dense, and I will admit that it is far more powerful than I expected.  Though it took hard work to get here, I am still convinced that vision is more "caught" than created.  In drafting this culminating statement, all I had to do was pull in the stray threads of my life and my passions -- what was already there -- and start weaving them into a single work.  Stay tuned for those parts that make up the whole!