Although he didn't see it coming, Pastor Benjamin Smith was nonetheless headed for a train wreck at that night's Board meeting.
Nearing the end of his first year in a new district and his seventh year in the ministry, Ben saw himself as a visionary. The daunting demands of pastoring a rural, three-church district had not kept him from dreaming about a better future for his people. Fully committed to the bed rock principles of the priesthood of all believers, spiritual gifts, discipline, and body life, Ben had recently spent weeks chiseling out a master plan for his largest church. He fully expected the Board to endorse it. "Tonight will be the turning point," he told his wife excitedly. "This stuff makes so much sense, and it's scriptural. I know it will fly!"
Even though Ben had hardly shared his vision with anyone, he felt he could count on the support of a core of his leaders. Unfortunately, those key people were not quite where Ben projected them to be in their thinking. They were not prepared, at least on the night of Ben's board meeting, to grasp the nuances of complex visions and paradigm shirts.
The head elder, Mark, had that very afternoon had a serious conflict with his new boss. Uncommunicative and authoritarian, the new man ran the office like a military camp, and Mark resented it. Office morale had plummeted. At a meeting things got more than a little testy, and Mark had left the office that afternoon hoping the evening Board meeting would finish early so he could collapse at home.
The day hadn't been much better for Diane, the head deaconess. Her nine-year-old had spent the last four days in bed with a temperature hovering around 103°. Too little sleep and too much worry left Diane anxious and uptight. She planned to attend the Board meeting that evening only on condition that her husband would call if anything changed in her little girl.
Ruth, the Sabbath School superintendent, managed a local drugstore and routinely put in 60-hour weeks. She had been working on a special project at work since 6:00 a.m. and had stayed late to cover for an employee who suddenly got sick. She wondered how she was going to find time to pick up groceries, fix supper for the family, and still be at the board meeting by seven.
Besides distracted supporters, Ben would also have to deal with his aging church clerk, Betty. She had just that after noon said to her husband, "That young man has got to learn that we serve a God of order. He forgot again to put the second reading in the church bulletin for a membership transfer. And he never gives me the agenda for Board meetings ahead of time so I can type it up and get it out. Either things get better fast or they can find them selves a new clerk!"
Fred, the Personal Ministries director, planned his own disgruntled contribution for the evening's agenda. He'd been on the phone since early in the day with two church elders. They were all deeply concerned about the new style of "dance-hall" music introduced during the song service on the previous Sabbath.
Finally, at 7:15 p.m., Ben rushed into the Board meeting with his tie slightly askew. He apologized for the delay and hurriedly set up the easel on which he hoped to outline his plan. After opening prayer, the clerk read the minutes from the previous meeting.
"Thank you," Pastor Ben intoned. "All in favor? Fine. Now the financial..."
Cutting off the pastor in mid-sentence, Betty announced, "Just a minute, young man. I have some very important business to present." A half hour later, Ben felt like he had been on the witness stand under cross-examination. He promised Betty to be more organized in the future, and the whole Board begged Betty to stay on. She graciously agreed.
Emboldened by this crusty presentation, Fred then told the Board about the song-service episode. The ensuing discussion meandered and digressed from music tastes to overheads to the need for reverence among young people. The Board formed a subcommittee to look into the matter.
By 8:55 p.m., Ben felt drained. Nonetheless, he prayed silently, sucked in a deep breath, and gamely began outlining his vision on the easel in graphic multicolor. By his third point, four Board members, including Diane, had excused themselves and left. Ben's eye caught Mark looking down at his watch. Ruth raised her hand and commented, "Pastor, planning like this is good I'm sure, but we aren't even doing what we already know we should be doing! The problem with this church is that we need to get off our pews and get busy. We need to stop talking and start doing." Several nodded agreement. Around 9:30 Ben threw in the towel, mumbling something about "Maybe next time we can . . ." He stayed after the others exited, head down, wondering where to go from there.
Essentials when implementing a new vision
A clear vision for the future and a captivating sense of purpose is vital to the health of any church. For the visionary pas tor, however, those dreams can, at the same time, be both highly energizing and terribly frustrating. The road to the implementation of a new vision can be fraught with detours and ditches. Thankfully, a pastor's frustration level can be significantly reduced by giving attention to certain fundamental principles. Ben's experience could have been different if he had understood the following issues.
1. Visionaries are often strong right-brain thinkers who get blind-sided by overlooking left-brain details. They relish the forest and aren't all that interested in twigs and leaves. Things like bulletin information and agendas are on the outer edges of their consciousness and far down their list of priorities. These details, however, will be very important to someone. It is therefore helpful if a visionary can delegate administrative details to volunteers who en joy that ministry or find donors to pay for a part-time secretary.
2. Visionaries often see the future so clearly in their own mind's eye that they underestimate the difficulty others may have in grasping the concepts. As a result, they often fail to appreciate the effort necessary to "sell" the vision to those around them. Vision casting usually requires patient, personal effort over an extended time. Before any new vision or paradigm is brought to a vote, the key players should be visited and well-informed ahead of time. A key person may not even be a Board member but someone who is leading from the sidelines. Usually a retreat is a far better setting to discuss new visions than a Board meeting at the end of everyone's hectic day. Even when people understand the vision, they will often need some kind of brief refresher course every one or two months.
3. People fall into three groups: visionaries, planners, and doers. To use a space analogy, visionaries decide where to go in outer space, the planners design the rocket, and the doers build it. All are vital. One group is not more important than the others, just different. If doers are placed on a visioning team, they will soon complain that "all this group does is talk, talk, talk!" On the other hand, if you put visionaries with a group of doers, they will complain that they are busy but haven't got a clue where they're going. Once pastors understand these differences, they can utilize each group more appropriately. Pastors who are not visionaries themselves can activate and support those in the congregation who are. Pastors who do have visionary gifts can build a team of visionaries and planners around themselves to develop an initial consensus for change. Such a group, no matter how small, could then become the core of an ongoing strategic planning team that brings others into the process over time.
4. For most people, "seeing is believing." It is often better, therefore, to start implementing a vision in small ways first, breaking it down into bite-size pieces, with out the need for bringing the entire game plan to a premature vote. Little successes become the "firstfruits" that give the vision credibility and help gain support from leadership in general. Any vote that is taken can be on a trial basis for a certain number of months to be reevaluated later.
5. In seeking change, it is vital to under stand and respect a church's culture. Culture is "what we value and the way we do things around here" Learn the culture by asking questions and understanding the history. A visionary's enthusiasm can lead him to inadvertently trample a church's culture, looking like the proverbial bull in a china shop to an old-timer in the pew.
Some toes are more sensitive than others, just as some issues are more touchy than others. A pastor may need to spend considerable time reshaping a church's culture before a new vision can find fertile soil. Change the mind before you change the method. It is also important to prioritize elements of the vision, taking into account what areas of the culture are most amenable to change. Alienating people over the song service may subvert attempts to alter other more vital or essential areas of church life.
6. Someone has said, "The difference between a leader and a martyr is about six steps!" Visionary pastors are often in danger of running ahead of their people. When seeking to bring about change, they need to know how much is in their "goodwill bank account." Goodwill is the trust and support of the congregation, especially leadership. Pastors need to understand how to make deposits in that account and what constitutes a withdrawal. Before initiating change, a leader needs to be sure there is enough goodwill in the account to avoid an overdraft!
7. Visionaries often get discouraged. In a high-task environment, visioning is too often undervalued. It can be very helpful for a visionary pastor to meet regularly with two or three mature, sympathetic church members for encouragement, honest sharing, and prayer.
As difficult as pursuing a new vision can be, the rewards are enormous. When your tenure is over, you will be glad if your people can say, "There is the person who helped us discover God's vision. There is the leader who enabled us to dream great dreams and to see that amazing visions do actually come true."
