Currently I'm reading a book on leadership. By currently I mean like I put it down 15 minutes ago because what I was reading was driving me crazy. The chapter was on leaders being driven by vision, who then share that with their followers who are motivated and inspired to share in that vision. This chapter was driving me crazy because this used to be my life. Envisioning. Inspiring. Empowering. And this flame is something that needs to be re-lit in my new stage of life. Redefined. Rediscovered. Maybe writing will help. Maybe it won't.
Currently I reminisce though. I'm a leader in a college ministry. My vision is to make disciples of Christ who make disciples of Christ. My entire life revolves around this statement, which on one hand is so simple and on the other is so profound. Running small groups. Discipling up-and-coming leaders. Setting big picture visions and dreams into play with our leadership team and then delegating those dreams to people who would turn them into realities. Empowering and encouraging others in their God-given talents and helping direct them into how to use that for the Lord. This was my motivation, this was my entire waking and sleeping life, this was everything. Not once did it ever grow old or tiring. Not once did I ever say "I need a break from this". This my passion, my pursuit, my heartbeat. And I still get texts from those younger generations of leaders I mentored telling me about what they're now doing for the Lord. Clearly this was a work with dividends.
Now about a year later, I sit in another country. I teach as a missionary. I've given up my entire life for the Gospel, and yet.....it feels like I'm living less for the Gospel. That my impact is smaller. That my spiritual gifts haven't been as well-utilized as they once were. But I am confident of this: God did call me here. And I don't believe God ever calls us to a place of smaller impact, of less opportunity. I don't believe that God calls us to a place where we can only serve in limited ways that don't fit well with the way He designed. And I don't believe God calls us to a place where we'll be less passionate about what we are doing than what we were doing. The problem therefore must not be where I am. It must be my vision.
You can determine a person's vision by looking at their actions. If I envision myself to be an all-A student, I will spend more time studying. My vision drives me. If I envision myself to be an all-star basketball player, I will spend a lot of timing shooting hoops and working out. My vision is my motivator. When I was in college, I envisioned making disciples who made disciples. So I spent my time investing in others and their growth. Thinking about where I am now, I don't know that my actions are even focused enough to say I have a vision! I spend a lot of time planning lessons to help my students learn about their classes. And it makes my heart glad when a student says something like, "I like polynomials Miss Leneway. They're so cute!" (True quote.) But honestly, I can't picture my vision being as small as making people love math. When will that ever change the world? Likewise I coach basketball. When I see my girls looking for more opportunities to play now that the season is over that makes my heart glad. But my vision can't be as small as producing all-star basketball players. There is no profit in that. My vision needs to be so much bigger than these roles I am defined by.
Thus tonight I want to wrestle with my vision on this blog some, in hopes that by writing it out, it would become clearer to both you and myself what inspires me to do the work I do here. And by casting this vision, I'm praying that my energy would be refocused, rejuvenated and renewed to serve in a more effective way than I've been doing. A verse that has been inspiring me in this is Philippians 1:9-11: And this is my prayer:
that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight
Although we talk about love at first sight, we know that it's not typical to love someone when you first meet them. The truth is we learn to love people more as we get to know them more. The more we get to know someone, the more we begin to understand them. I know my best friend so well if you told me what she did, I could probably tell you why she did it. I could tell you about her hopes and dreams. I could tell you about how she will react to certain news. My love for my best friend is a love that is full of knowledge and insight because I've spent so much time getting to know her. And this knowledge in turn helps me love my best friend better.
In the same way, our love for Jesus is supposed to grow in knowledge and depth of insight. Having this desire to grow my students' love for the Lord in this way is something that really moves me. In my Bible class, we've been reading the book of Acts. My goal is for my students to be wrapped up in the story, enthralled by the way the Lord was moving in the early church. And it took a while to get there, but I'm starting to see that. Every once in a while, I hear them say "I can't believe he would do that!" or "That is so like the Sadducees to act that way!" or "Miss Leneway, do you think they were really still mad about....? Or were they just jealous because the disciples were starting to get more popular than them?" This story is coming alive in Bible class! But we could have that passion and still have no knowledge or understanding of what's actually going on or how to apply it to our lives. That's not what I want. So I make sure to challenge my students and to give them tools to continue to grow their knowledge and insight of the Bible even when not in Bible class.
But when only 25% of my teaching time is Bible class, this can't be enough! I need to have that passion that all of my students will learn to have a love for Christ that can not be satisfied. That their love for Him would be ever-increasing so that they just want to know and understand him more and more. That's my vision for my students. That's what I want to impart on them. A growing love for the Lord.
so that you may be able to discern what is best
I also am big on not wanting my followers to need me. When I was raising leaders in my college ministry, my motto was to raise leaders who do a better job than I could ever do and who can touch more lives than I ever could. Part of that is growing an independence in those followers and making sure they know how to hear from the Lord themselves. Never can I grow a dependency on me, I can only point to a dependency and reliance on Christ.
With my students likewise, I want to produce an independence in them. I want them to be able to use their knowledge of who God is, who He has designed them and His vision for the world to be a filter for which they learn how to make decisions. I want them not to have to ask me what the Lord would have them do in this situation, but be able to figure it out themselves because they know the Lord so intimately. At first, these questions will be essential for me to address. But this needs to be done with the intention of producing independent Christ-followers who can listen to God for themselves as well as looking for wisdom through the other members of Christ's body.
and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,
At the same time that my students are learning to discern what's best, I want them to learn how to be pure and blameless. In my years of experience, I've seen how sin never satisfies in the way you think it will. I've seen how it can create slavery and bondage, both in my own life and in the lives of others. And I've seen the wreckage and carnage it leaves in its wake. And man, I don't want my students to learn that the hard way. I just want them to want Jesus so badly that sin doesn't have a chance to hurt them. That they really would be able to stand pure and blameless because of that growing knowledge and love of the Lord that leads to right action.
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-
The right action that comes with loving and knowing the Lord is not just one that stays away from sin, but one that pursues good works and righteous acts. And I don't want my students to do this because they think they have to or to improve anyone's perception of them, but because they love Jesus so much that it doesn't make sense not to. Because at the end, Jesus will know the motivation of their hearts. When he gets to my students, I want him to say to them, "Well done good and faithful servant!" I want my students to have done so much good for Christ that their treasures in heaven make my own pile look puny.
Practically, I want to see these students reaching out to non-believers that they know. Or if they don't know any, finding some nonbelievers and building those relationships so they can share Christ! I want to see my students pushing each other to make godly decisions. I want to see students sharing with each other visions of what they'd like to see God doing and encourage each other in how to pursue those. I want to see my students helping other disciples grow in their spiritual maturity. And I want more than anything for them to find life and passion in doing this.
to the glory and praise of God!
And as all of this happens, I don't want us ever to forget the one to whom the credit is due. I don't want to take any praise for what God's doing in their lives. I don't want them to get credit for what a "good" kid they've become. I want all glory to go to God for an incredible live-changing work that He's done in their lives. I want it to be recognized that before we're living fully for Him, our life is meaningless and He's the only one who can give it meaning. And I don't want either them, myself or those who are watching to ever get that wrong but to constantly come back before the Lord celebrating this.
So I think that's my vision. To produce students that love the Lord so deeply that they would inspire others to do the same. My next step? Figure out how to make this dream a reality. Pray for me as I do.
And I encourage you: Before you go to bed tonight, think about what your vision is. If you don't think you have one, if you can't boil it down to a sentence that you can come back to when the going gets tough or when you're in need of direction, work on that. Ask God to guide you. Because your vision drives you, and living into a God-given vision is the most rewarding thing you could do with your life. If you have a vision, think about what steps you need to be taking to make that vision a greater reality in your life. Embody your vision. Inspire others to join you in your vision. After all, without vision we merely fumble around in the darkness.
