Casting the Vision

By Doug Franklin August 6, 2009

Vision casting is important, we all get this. But how do we get our vision into the hearts of our followers? Repeating the vision over and over is good. Catchy slogans and t-shirts aren’t bad, but at times we don’t feel like the vision is penetrating the hearts of our key people. We don’t see the vision reflected in their actions. We don’t hear them repeating it. We feel frustrated and alone.

Before you give up on vision casting, here are three ideas to make your vision come to life in the heats of your followers:

1. Bring clarity to your vision
Make sure your vision is one clear statement. Ever notice how many vision statements have a list of value statements in them? We Christians love to add things to vision statements like “all to the glory of God” or “to further the Kingdom.” We feel a need to make it more spiritual or add emphasis to prove we actually believe it. Bring clarity to your vision – make it simple, direct, and easy to understand. This will help your followers engage with the vision. If you want to test this with your followers, ask yourself this question: “Who do we serve?” Then ask your followers and see if the answers match. If they don’t, then you need to bring clarity to your vision.

2. Bring community to your team
Vision often deepens from authentic relationships between leaders and followers. Do you know what’s important to your key people? Do you know their family situation or what pressures they face outside of your ministry? Getting to know your team and helping them reach their personal goals is an effective way of instilling vision deep in their hearts.

3. Bring commitment to your vision
Often times when followers don’t buy our vision hook, line, and sinker, we think we need to make changes or need to go in a different direction. This just confuses followers and leads them to assume you don’t have a clear plan. Instead, put action steps in place to bring your vision to life. For example: if your vision is to help parents understand youth culture then reinforce this vision by bringing in a speaker who will give a seminar on current youth culture. This will communicate that you are serious about the vision and its success.

Never give up on vision casting. It is a powerful tool in the hands of a leader. Vision has the power to motivate and inspire our followers. It has the power to end frustration and bring the joy of community to our ministries.