Visionary Leadership
Association Summit
Southwestern Seminary
Fort Worth, Texas
This Session on Vision
In this session you will:
Discovery four characteristics of a
visionary leader
Visionary Leadership
#1. Visionary leaders are visionaries
#2. Visionary leaders have a personal vision
#3. Visionary leaders lead visionary
organizations
#4. Visionary leaders understand their
times and know what to do
Visionary Leadership
#1. Visionary leaders are visionaries
Visionary Leadership
#1. Visionary leaders are visionaries
•Visionaries have a clear, challenging
picture of the organization’s future as
they believe it can and must be.
•Take the Vision Style Audit.*
Development of Vision
• An important factor in developing a vision
is your vision-style.
•Your vision-style is how you catch a vision.
Vision Style Audit
Directions: Take out a sheet of
paper and number from 1 to 11.
Vision Audit
Directions: Write down the letter (a or b)
that best describes your preference.
1. I tend to
a) dislike new problems
b) like new problems
2. I work best with
a) facts
b) ideas
Vision Audit
3. I like to think about
a) what is
b) what could be
4. I like
a) established ways to do things
b) new ways to do things
Vision Audit
5. I enjoy skills that
a) I have already learned and used
b) are newly learned but unused
6. In my work I tend to
a) take time to be precise
b) dislike taking time to be precise
Vision Audit
7. I would describe my work style as
a) steady with realistic expectations
b) periodic with bursts of enthusiasm
8. I have found that I am
a) patient with routine details
b) Impatient with routine details
Vision Audit
9. I am more likely to trust my
a) Experience
b) Inspiration
10. I am convinced that
a) seeing is believing
b) believing is seeing
Vision Audit
11. I tend to be
a) a pessimist
b) an optimist
Interpretation
•Total the number of As you circled.
•Total the number of Bs you circled.
•Which is the greater number?
Interpretation
•If you circled more As than Bs, you’re the
type of leader who catches a vision by visiting another ministry and seeing it for yourself. You focus more on the present than
the future.
Vision-style: Vision Catcher
Interpretation
•If you circled more Bs than As, you’re the
type of leader who creates a vision in your
head. You focus primarily on the future
and are a natural visionary.
Vision-style: Vision Creator
Visionary Leadership
#1. Visionary leaders are visionaries
#2. Visionary leaders have a personal
vision
Visionary Leadership
#2. Visionary leaders have a personal vision
•They’re directional leaders- have a clear
life’s direction.
•One’s life-direction consists of two core
ingredients
-Personal mission*
-Personal vision*
Visionary Leadership
Personal Mission
•Definition
•Importance
•Discovery
•Development
•Application
Visionary Leadership
Definition of Mission
A statement of what God wants you to do
with your life.
Visionary Leadership
Importance of Mission
•Aids in discovering your ministry niche
•Brings a sense of meaning and significance
•Focuses your life and ministry
•Helps evaluate one’s life
•Key to developing a personal vision
Visionary Leadership
Discovery of Mission
(Two Ds)
•Know your design
Gifts
Passion
Temperament*
•Know your direction
Visionary Leadership
Temperament
•DiSC
D-eagle
I-peacock
S-dove
C-owl
•MBTI (KTS)
Visionary Leadership
Temperament Question
What do people with my temperament do
in ministry?
Visionary Leadership
Discovery of Mission
(Two Ds)
•Know your design
-Gifts
-Passion
-Temperament
•Know your direction
Visionary Leadership
Development of Mission
(Examples)
My mission in life is to be used of God to
equip a new generation of leaders
nationally and internationally for highimpact ministryin the 21st. Century.
Slogan: Equipping tomorrow’s leaders
today.
Visionary Leadership
Development of Mission
(Examples)
My mission in life is to come alongside
churches and help them to become all
that Christ wants them to be.
Slogan: Envisioning tomorrow today.
Visionary Leadership
Application of Mission
(Try it!)
•What are your gifts?
•What is/are your passion(s)? What do you
feel strongly and care deeply about?
•What is your temperament (DiSC and MBTI)?
What are people with your temperament
doing in ministry?
Visionary Leadership
Application of Mission
(Try it!)
•What kind of divine design is best for what
you do in the ministry organization?
•Who is doing this well, and what is his/her
divine design?
Visionary Leadership
Personal Vision
•Definition
•Importance
•Development
•Application
Visionary Leadership
Definition of Vision
A clear, challenging picture of the future
of your life and personal ministry as you
believe it can and must be.
Visionary Leadership
Importance of Vision
While a personal mission helps you to
know where you’re going, the vision helps
you to see where your going.
Visionary Leadership
Development of Vision
•Expand your personal mission statement
•Build upon each of your personal ministry
core values
Visionary Leadership
Development of Vision
(An Example)
Cf. p. 167 of Being Leaders
Visionary Leadership
Application of Vision
(Let’s Try It!)
Based on your personal mission and/or
values, what do you see yourself doing
5, 10, 15 years from now?
Visionary Leadership
#1. Visionary leaders are visionaries
#2. Visionary leaders have a personal vision
#3. Visionary leaders lead visionary
organizations
Visionary Leadership
#3. Visionary leaders lead visionary
organizations.
Visionary Leadership
#3. Visionary leaders lead visionary
organizations.
•They’re most effective in visionary
organizations.
•What is your ministry’s vision?
•How does your personal vision align
with it?
•If it doesn’t-you need to find one that
does!
Visionary Leadership
#1. Visionary leaders are visionaries
#2. Visionary leaders have a personal vision
#3. Visionary leaders lead visionary
organizations
#4. Visionary leaders understand their
times and know what to do
Visionary Leadership
#4. Visionary leaders understand their times
and know what to do.
“And the sons of Issachar, men who
understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, . . .”
1 Chron. 12:32
Visionary Leadership
#4. Visionary leaders understand their times
and know what to do.
The Gretzky Factor
“It’s not as important to know where the
puck is now as to know where it will be.”
Wayne Gretzky
Visionary Leadership
#4. Visionary leaders understand their times
and know what to do.
“. . .before anyone can learn to lead,
he must learn something about this strange
new world. Indeed, anyone who does not
master this mercurial context will be
mastered by it. . . Leaders have the sense of
where the culture is going to be, where the
organization must be if it’s to grow.”
Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, pp. 2, 199
Visionary Leadership
#4. Visionary leaders understand their times
and know what to do.
•Vision is conceived in the context of the
times in which one lives.
•Most often vision is a reaction to one’s
times
A deep dissatisfaction
We can do better
Hybel’s holy discontent
Visionary Leadership
#4. Visionary leaders understand their times
and know what to do.
•How does one understand the times? The
answer is to exegete one’s culture.
And the sons of Issachar, men who
understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, . . .”
1 Chron. 12:32
Visionary Leadership
THE GENERAL ENVIRONMENT
“Understanding the Times”
THE MINISTRY ENVIRONMENT
“Knowing What We to Do”
Visionary Leadership
“UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES”
• Social Sector
• Technological Sector
• Economic Sector
• Political/Legal Sector
• Philosophical Sector*
Visionary Leadership
“UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES”
Philosophical Sector
“Postmodern Pilgrims”
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
1. In spite of growing secularization, God is
still working in the world-culture.
2. His primary vehicle is the church.
3. We need to discover and understand what
God is doing in these churches.
4. The way to do this is to scan the church
environment.
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
What is God doing?
• International Churches
• National Churches
• State Churches
• Area Churches
• Local Churches
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
What is God doing?
• Seeker Churches
• Emergent Churches
• Postmodern Churches
• Purpose-driven churches
• House Churches
• Cell Churches
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
How do we know it’s of God?
• A hermeneutic for interpreting the biblical
passages for doing church
• A theology of change
• A theology of culture
• A definition of the local church
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
• A hermeneutic for interpreting the biblical
passages for doing church
-Negative vs. positive approach
-Descriptive vs. prescriptive passages
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
• A theology of change
-Function
-Form
-Freedom
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
• A theology of culture
-Culture can be good or bad
-Three responses to culture
Isolation-withdraws
Accommodation-embraces
Contextualization-communicates
Visionary Leadership
“KNOWING WHAT TO DO”
• A definition of the local church
A necessary gathering of professing
believers in Christ who, under leadership,
are organized to pursue its mission
through its functions to accomplish its
purpose.
Visionary Leadership
Questions?