Does your team know the vision of your church?

There's one thing I bring up more with leaders than anything else: vision.

Vision is a concept that is thrown around a lot in the church world and I believe it's one of the most important elements of leadership. It's where you're going. It's why you're doing what you're doing. Obviously, it's important that you as the leader know the vision, but it's just as important for your team to know the vision.

I once worked for a church where the pastor would say this line often: "we have a big vision for this organization." What I never once heard him say was what that vision was. I had a hard time moving our church toward the vision because I had little clarity on what it was.

You have to let your team in on your goals. You have to let them in on the vision.

There's a statistic, often found in the business and marketing space, that says it takes someone hearing your message 8 times before it begins to sink in. 8 times! (I’ve heard this stat as high as 13 times.) So, if you're selling a product, you need to get it front of someone's face 8 times before they'll buy. The reason is simple. Advertisers are everywhere. Messages are everywhere. Our brains have learned to filter them out. In marketing, you have to repeat yourself to be heard.

The same thing applies to casting vision: we have to do it over and over. When we do that, people get it. When they get it, they can help us pursue it.