Vision is good, but character is better.


Wayne Morgan - March 29, 2022
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I was forced into becoming a leadership junkie. Beginning in middle school I was labeled "a leader" probably because I was leading people the wrong direction and that was a passive aggressive way to reign me in! Thankfully, I was told that I could do something bigger with my influence. I'm so thankful for the men and women that poured into my life to help point me to the Bible and what it said about leadership.

These leadership intensives focused on doing the right thing, stepping away from the crowd, and honing character. Class after class, event after event, these concepts were reinforced with scripture and modeled in everyday life. I was called to see myself as God saw me, encouraged to think for myself and challenged to constantly align my thinking with the Bible.

I remember the shift from character development into a vision driven leadership. My pastor took a group of us as seniors in high school to a leadership conference. Looking back now, it was probably as much of a book tour as it was a conference. We sat in an arena and heard a funny, thoughtful man who brought insights from his experience as a pastor inspired hundreds of pastors at that event alone. It was there I was introduced to the concept of having vision as a leader.

Since that date in the late nineties, the concept of leadership vision has been the preeminent focus of many conferences I've attended. Through the years I have heard some incredible insights, seen how psychology influences my leadership, gained confidence in decision making, delegating, and trusting a team, and learned from successful leaders across many different platforms. It's been incredible - just when you think you have dug to the deepest depth of leadership development...

one more researcher finds an insight!

another organization breaks through a once impossible barrier!

Over the past few months, I've been slowly processing the Mars Hill podcast and now the Hillsong documentary. These are sobering resources that I believe every leader should process through. They expose deep warnings for anyone who serves in leadership. They've served to reinforce a trend I have noticed in my ministry experience: vision is good, but character is better. Here are a three things we should keep in mind when we are focusing on building leadership vision.

Vision is mentioned fewer times in scripture than character.

I know, I know... No one wants to hear about humanity's potential for messing up! Seriously, conferences that highlight the stories of leaders messing up and causing pain is probably going to go out of business after the first run. Let's face it, it is much easier to talk about our success and achieving BIG dreams at these large gatherings. We want to be inspired and amazed. We want to get better at what we do as leaders. Honest talks of deepening character are good for a breakout but probably not the mainstage.

Character makes you accountable, vision can make you untouchable.

Maybe I'm overstating this a bit, but haven't we all been to leadership conferences where the speaker has told us to get people "out of the wrong seats." The encouragement is usually met with an entertaining but effective way to remove people who are in the way of your vision. I get the principle, but let me ask this question: Is it possible that a leader without deep, Christ-like character, and guided by the Holy Spirit could use this as means to remove accountability? In training leaders this principle without training character, is it setting leaders up to be spiritual abusers?

I want to encourage you to constantly develop accountability. Find people who disagree with you to be part of your team. Maybe you can use the Mars Hill and Hillsong Documentary pieces as part of introducing or deepening your personal accountability. And if you engage with the above, I encourage you to watch or listen and take care you are not dismissive as these documentaries reach into uncomfortable areas. Hear the stories and ask God to give you wisdom to process the information. Let them forge deep, uncomfortable conversations that help you think through your character at new levels.

Warning - You might begin to worship the vision that God gave you.

Imagine God burdening your heart to reach a community of students. You pray and ask God how you can make a difference and God leads you to a vision to buy a van for your church. After proposing this crazy vision to your board, God miraculously moves, and a van is purchased. God moved in such a BIG way that you didn't get a used van, they bought a NEW van.

The first week, the students you were praying to reach start piling into the van. Kids are inviting their friends and the vehicle is PACKED. You have one problem. You just detailed the new ride and these kids... are... dirty.

You decide to be Christ-like and ignore the smell, but then it happens... a kid smacks his face against the freshly cleaned glass and you lose your cool. You finally arrive at your "ministry" after several minutes of telling these students how disrespectful they are!

In reality, this wasn't about disrespect... it was about the kids messing up the new van. You need people who are going to hold you accountable for those moments you step from spirit-led to human centered control-freak because those moments are bound to happen.

Maybe your vision isn't a van. You see a need to serve the families in your church better through your youth ministry. People who help you stay on target will help make sure you aren't worshipping a vision more than you are worshipping the God who gave you that vision. Worshipping the vision will lead to manipulation, frustration, and eventually failure. Unfortunately, we can lead others to worship the vision, too. This kind of failure can help deepen your character, but accountability will leave you less of a scar to recover from as a leader. Accountability will prevent you from leading people to worship the wrong thing.

Vision is good! It's necessary as a leader, but please don't overlook your character in the process. Since COVID I've talked with several ministry leaders who are struggling to find a renewed vision. If that's you, maybe God has paused a new vision, so that you can take a breath in ministry and intentionally deepen your character. Are you following Jesus well? Are you living out the commands of Jesus? Are you abiding in Christ like He taught us John 15... or have you gotten caught up worshipping the vision that He gave you a few years ago?

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Wayne Morgan is the National Ministries Director for NNYM.

 

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