Quotes about Vision

1

Vision and mission provide both the starting point and direction for your efforts and are the dual lenses through which myriad future decisions must be evaluated.

2

Vision can sometimes be a terrible burden. God may give a vision without the context of the time it will take to become the vision. Sometimes church leaders feel that because they have a vision, it must happen quickly. I am reminded of Joseph and the vision he had from God. I wonder how often Joseph sat in that jail cell expecting to be delivered at any moment, when it was going to be over 13 years until he was free and God’s vision began to manifest itself. What a long time and much preparation between vision and the working out of the vision! Wisdom would dictate that we prepare to do what we can when we can, and then wait on the Lord and His timing to bring the vision to fruition.

3

To be effective, vision must be:

1. Clearly and repeatedly communicated in several different ways.

2. Be understood by the congregation – they need to understand it the way the leaders do.

3. Embraced by the congregation – it has to become their vision.

4. Able to provoke a response from the members of the church.

4

God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.

5

Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.

6

Are you settling for a vision that is too small in your life? Are you choosing the easy option because you don’t really believe God can bring about something great in your life? Yes, God sometimes calls us to be faithful in the little things, but is that really your calling, or are you afraid to hope for anything more? And what about your church? Do you expect to see God do great things there? Do you pray for God to do great things there, or are you content just to survive? All too often we don’t really expect God to do anything dramatic, do we? It seems too difficult to imagine.

7

Without theological vision, a vision that wrestles with what it means to be God’s people, in God’s world, under God’s rule, the church inevitably loses both its identity as God’s possession and its purpose as the people and place where God’s glory is displayed in the gospel and God’s praise is declared.

8

Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.

9

A vision gives life and if there is no vision, the seeds of death are being sown and it is just a matter of time until death will prevail.

10

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision (Helen Keller).

11

Leaders take lessons from the past, but never sacrifice the future for the sake of mere continuity. People of vision gauge decisions on the future; the story of the past cannot be rewritten.

12

Vision without execution is hallucination