Video Transcript: Going Public

So we've been talking kind of exhausting detail about how in the world you craft a vision and  what difference that vision makes. And so we talked about creating a vision statement, that is a pithy statement a sentence or two, and is simply something that that grabs people's  emotions, and hopefully, becomes kind of the, that North Star that we talked about that vision statement that people can come back to, will be able to say, that's what we're doing. That's  where we're going. And so it's a directional thing, as I've introduced this new kind of symbol  here in this slide of the guy on the arrow saying, that's where we're going. So we've talked  about that a great deal. But now, it's time for you to go public. In other words, if you've done  your job well, in crafting a vision and a vision statement, you've gotten people together, but  you've not given into groupthink. You've got people on board with the vision, and now you're  ready to go public with it to share it with the organization. Here's where you've got to be very, very, very careful. And that's what we're going to talk about the vision is the star that you  steer by. Remember, it's not the map that you follow, is not a detailed plan of how you're  going to go from here to here. It's the picture of there. And so it becomes a star that you steer by much like the North Star, as I've been talking about, where it becomes the thing you judge  your your progress, according to where you are in relationship to that fixed point, the North  Star. And so the vision statement, and the vision itself becomes that North Star now, you get  that down, you get the statement down to the point where you like it, you feel like it captures  people's attention and love, then you're ready to do the rollout. It's vitally important how you  do that rollout. As one person said, "You never get a second chance to make a first  impression." And in fact, if you do this wrong, you're going to find that the people who are  opposed to a vision are going to have time to marshal their resources if you have to go back  and redo things. And so how you communicate is very important when you're going to roll out a vision statement. And so here's just some thoughts on rollout. It's all about communication.  You define here, and you define there. Now, here, there's a problem. And you've got to define  what that problem is in your communication. And then you've got to say, Why is there better  than here. And then you've got to be able to say why something needs to be done, and why it needs to be done now. Now that sounds simple. But it requires good communication, because  people have to acknowledge that there is a problem. One of my heroes, a person I've admired in the business world for his leadership was named Lee Iacocca. Now in the history of the  United States, he was somebody who was involved in the manufacture of automobiles. He  had been fired by Ford company and, and Chrysler decided to hire him as their chairman,  their CEO, he was going to be the head of Chrysler. Now at the time, Chrysler was in deep  trouble in this country. Sales had been going down, they were ready to start shutting down  factories or laying off workers. Things look like a dire future for Chrysler Corporation. And  Iacocca came in and tried to define, well, what's wrong here? What is the problem, and there  were a myriad of problems. I know, I bought a car just before he took over there, I bought a  Dodge Aries, I bought it brand new, I was looking at several different models from General  Motors and Ford. But the Chrysler one I suspect was the cheapest. That's why I bought that  one. It was the first one of the first front drive models on the market here in the United States. And so I bought this thing wasn't long after buying it that I noticed some things. You know,  like, the driver's side door, for instance, had a small gap at the bottom when you close it. And  it was just a fit and finish thing is what they call it was wasn't anything all that important. It  wasn't a detriment to the operation of the of the car, but it was something that just made you realize that somebody didn't do their job here. And when you got inside and you looked up at  the dome light, there was a gap there. Apparently they cut the hole where the dome light was to go into the headliner too big. And so there was this little gap where that should have been  covered by the dome light. It's those kind of things that just as Iacocca went through he says,  you know, we've given up on quality, in order to produce quickly we given up on quality. And  not only that have had they lessened their quality, but they were having more and more  troubles with the cars that they were putting out there and people were coming back and  were upset. Now, if you're in any kind of marketing situation, that's a bad thing. Studies have  shown that people have a bad experience with a church or a car or a shopping experience,  grocery store or whatever, they're going to tell 11 people, but if they have a good experience, they're only going to tell four. And so if you, if you've got a growing number of people who 

have a negative experience, they're going to be telling their friends don't buy a Chrysler, Well  I owned a Chrysler and this was my experience. And so other organizations have had that  same kind of experience, General Motors went through a very similar thing here, as there  were just crazy things that were going on this problem, all these kinds of things, Lee Iacocca  identified. And then he identified the fact that we've got to look for a new vision, a new future, something that's going to a value system that's going to push us into the future positively.  And so he began to talk about quality. In fact, he ended up getting Toyota which was number  one and quality at that point. He went out and he bought Toyota's and then he brought them  into where his engineers were they took the cars apart, and they said, Look at this, everything fits. Everything's where it is. This is a this is what we're aiming for. It was a marvelous picture  of what they were trying to create. And so they began to talk about the quality that they were going to develop into their operating and production system. And this was essential as he  created a vision of a very profitable company, one where there's a growing market share, etc,  it was necessary to create that new vision. Because in order to survive, he had to go to the  United States Congress and ask for loans, large loans in order to keep the company afloat  until they could turn things around. And it was the vision that he had and the way that he sold it and the way that he communicated it, that allowed the government give him millions of  dollars. And in fact, the ended up paying them back sooner than what he anticipated and  what the government anticipated, because they were captured by the vision. And pretty soon  the country was captured by the vision. And people began to buy Chrysler products once  again. And they began producing some new products that were exciting. And yeah, so that's,  that's an example from the world of marketing and the world of manufacturing. The same  thing is true in the church, or in the Christian organization, or in the organization for which  you are a part of the village or part of the city you're a part of. In order to move people for the future. They have to understand that there's a problem here. There's a problem right here  right now. And you've got to propose a solution for that future that leads them to the future.  Now I think we've been using Nehemiah as an example of this all along. And it's a good  example. Nehemiah, you remember, was first touched in chapter one, as he says, My brother  Hanani came back from Jerusalem area. And he said, How are the people doing there? And  Hanani says it's terrible, the walls broken down, and that that's an issue, a huge issue in that  day and age. First of all, the wall was something that provides security for the city, as we've  talked about. But beyond that, it was also a disgrace. Not only could people get into those  walls break in there and rob anybody they wanted to rob if they were powerful enough. But it  was a symbol of disgrace. You see, battles back in that time weren't considered to be just a  battle between the Assyrians and the Israelites. It was considered to be a battle between their gods. You see gods were considered to be a kind of geographically limited. And so there was a god. That was the god of that area, in fact, you read later, when the conquerors decided to  resettle some people in the area of the central part of what was Palestine, God sent lions  among them, you read about this in the book of II Kings. And so they appealed to the  Emperor, they said, you know, we don't know how to appease the god of this area. And so  some priests were sent to instruct them. That was the idea. So if this army conquered this  one, it was because this god was stronger. And so if you've got the City of God, the city of  David, Jerusalem, the center of Temple worship, the center of where God said he would live,  you would have his experience there, and that place is torn apart and the wall is torn down.  The only conclusion is, this god must be incredibly weak. And so Unani Hanani tells me  Nehemiah about the desperation of that city where the walls are broken down. And he ends  up weeping and fasting and praying for days until God begins to give him an inkling of his  calling to be a leader in that situation. And he goes to the emperor, the king, and he is given  permission to go back there to try to make a difference there. And he's given resources to do  that with. And so he goes, and and you can read about him making an inspection of the walls. First of all, he's trying to determine what's the reality, as we talked about together to find out  what is here, you know, what, what is the presence? And what's the problem? And so he goes  around the entire city inspecting the walls. It's only then that he announces the vision, he rolls it out. And he does this in a passage we've looked at before. And Nehemiah chapter two,  "then I said to them, you see the trouble we are in." He's talking about, here we are, 

"Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates had been burned with fire." That's here, there, "Come,  let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem will no longer be in disgrace. And then I told him about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me." God, God had arranged every step of the way had arranged for things to happen, so that they wouldn't even have to  pay for the equipment, they wouldn't even have to pay for the materials to rebuild the wall,  the king and the Empire were going to do all of that, that God was behind all of this all the  way. So all of that's communicated to the people and they reply, great. Let's get started. Yeah, that's his rollout. So when you're thinking of rolling out your vision statement, the first thing  you've got to include, is defining reality. Max Depree is a well known businessmen as a  Christian businessman. For many years, he was the head of a large office manufacturing  company here in West Michigan, where I'm live. And he wrote several books on leadership. In  one of them he said, "The first task of leadership is to define reality." Because sometimes  people can't quite see what reality is. In fact. Tom Rainer. I've quoted him before. He's a  leader, a consultant, church consultant in this area. And he says his hardest task, when it  comes to a church is to get them to acknowledge reality, acknowledge what the problem is,  the here before you go to there, and he tells a story of one church where he went there, and  he looked at attendance banners, he looked at the membership records, he looked at the  giving patterns over the past decade. He looked at the number of people coming to faith, the  number of children involved in the children's ministry, he looked at everything he could look  at. And at the end, he was asked to present to the congregation and they gathered and he  said, Look, you are in trouble, folks. You are troubled, you're going to die as a congregation if  things don't change, And he hauled out his graphs and he said, you know, to his great, not  surprised because he'd had it happen before. But to his great chagrin, somebody then and  stood up and said, "Well, you know, it's not really that bad. There's just, you know, a few pews emptier than what there used to be. But it's not that bad." And so it took a while to convince  that church that they were in dire need, because it had happened so slowly. And it had  happened over 20 years that they hadn't even noticed that they had so shrunk. I shared this  picture. This is the kind of place we're talking about. Once upon a time, those pews were  probably full with young families and children bustling, but you look at it now. And it's  changed dramatically. To the point there's only a few people, it's only about 50% full. In the  United States, it's considered that 80% of the churches are on a plateau or declining 80% of  the churches are on their way to death. Now, how do you define reality? It's your job as a  leader. When you're communicating, you're rolling out your vision for a new future to say,  here's where we are. Here is where the problem is. Andy Stanley put it this way, as far as how you communicate your vision. He said, "explanation of the problem, engages the mind. The  solution engages the imagination, the region, the reasons engage the heart. What difference  will this make? Why should we attempt this? God is in it how?" Now, I want to apply that with  three stories. The first one is of a church in my community. I took some training to become a  consultant with a group in Chicago, Illinois, and they had contract with a church very near me  to do strategic planning. And their goal was they said that out of all the 350,000 Some  churches in the United States, they were trying to identify 10,000 that were really going to  make a difference in the next 10 years. And they were consulting they were consulting with  them. Trying to make them more effective trying to provide them too, tools and influence. And I happen to go to lunch with one of the trainers actually been around for a while. And he said,  How are things going over at such and such a church? And he said, it's terrible. So we thought they were one of the 10,000. But they're not says because they refused to acknowledge  reality. When the problem was explained, there were so many people who said, No, and we're  going to get into that later, what will kill vision. So many people had said, No, that the place  was moving ahead, and they were canceling the contract with them. So you define reality.  And then you talk about the preferable future? What difference is this going to make? Why  should we do this? And why should we do this now? And the why is usually one of two things,  as we've talked about, it's usually a problem that needs to identify needs to be identified.  Now, sometimes that problem can be something that is going to lead to your death,  eventually. When I moved to the church in California, we defined this whole process of  relocation. And that was going to be our preferred vision. Now, we had several vision 

statements before that, that wasn't part of it, we were going to just simply expand our facility. But over a period of time, we came to the conclusion that this was God's will for us among the leadership. And so we rolled that out. And ended up being a long process took us six and a  half years to relocate from where we were to a new campus that 2would allow future growth  of the congregation. And along the way, we ended up having to move into temporary  facilities, we ended up planning to be there for 18 months, ended up being two and a half  years. While we were in this temporary facility, you know, we kept holding up that vision of  where we're going to go except I kept I kept blowing it, I kept trying to empathize with those  people are saying how hard this is and how painful it is. And sometimes I just talked to  negatively about the process, because I was trying to acknowledge their pain. But we tried  overall to hold up that that vision of where we're going and how we're going to get there. And  it was, it was a time of real testing. Well, our attendance while we were there began to  decline, overall, it declined 23%. Imagine we're collecting millions of dollars trying to raise  millions of dollars to do this relocation. And our attendance is going down by 23%, resources  down 23%. And things got so bad that we were at a point where we're gonna have start laying off staff because we couldn't afford to keep everybody anymore. And we developed, we  decided to have a congregational meeting and invited the entire congregation if we talked  about the vision. And once again, we had time to talk about the vision of where we're going  and why we're doing this. But then we started talking about the problem. That's where we're  going. But now we've got this problem. And that is our income is not matching our vision. And so we asked the congregation, what do you think we ought to do? And that was a strategic  move. As it turned out, we didn't know exactly what God was going to do. But we've been  praying about this for a long time. So what should we do? And in the process of that  discussion among people in the congregation, an elderly member of our church stood up. And he said, you know, he said, I've been part of this community for a long time. And he said, You  know, I've seen all kinds of projects that resulted from visions that we had. And there were  there was a Christian school in that area that was kindergarten to 12th grade and had an  excellent education. It had an excellent record. And it was his generation that built that thing.  There was a school for the elderly, there was a place for the elderly, excuse me, a rest home  that included places where people could live independently, as well as where they could live  with just some help, and where they could get skilled nursing care. And it was a magnificent  facility. And it was known in the community for the quality of care that's gotten there. People  wanted to get into that home. And there was a school and home for those who had developed developmental disabilities. And in fact, there were homes throughout the community where  these young adults were living and sometimes older adults were living and they were being  taught to live independently. And he said, you know, all of those situations, we hit a time like  this where where we wondered, is that vision true? And we found that we had to buckle up  again, and start sacrificing and and then the problems will go away and we can reach that  vision. I'm not using his exact words, obviously, but it was a powerful moment. In fact, what  made it really powerful was something that can only come from God. A young father was  sitting there that night, had three young children, and he stood up and he went and stood  next to this old older man, as the man had now sat down, put his hand on his shoulder, and  he looked at him he said I have failed you. Said you folks sacrificed in order to provide all this  stuff we enjoy, said your sacrifice to build this church originally. He said I never had a part of  that I just received it. You sacrifice to make that Christian school a reality. I didn't sacrifice I  just pay the tuition, my children go there. I, I have not taken on the burden myself. He said,  and I vow to you today that I'm going change that. You can't script moments like that. It was  incredibly powerful. And things turned around, and we ended up attaining our vision. So yeah, so the explanation of the problem will engage the mind. Yeah, this is the problem. But the  solution engages the imagination and gets people excited. And the solution is, we're going  there. Now, why should we attempt this? And God is in it, how? In the process of preparing for relocation, we had to redo our vision, our vision up to that point, had we hadn't put a number  on the vision statement, but we said, yeah, what's it gonna look like when we are a church  and 1000 people? When I came there, there was about 400, attending regularly. And we said,  we're aiming toward 1000. And that has implications for building programs, implications for 

staffing, implication for financial outlay implications for missions, outreach, all of those things. Were going there. And we got there. It was amazing. God blessed incredibly. And every year, I  took a group of leaders, the elders, the deacons, and the staff on a retreat to talk about the  vision. And where are we going in this next year? What has God done this past year? Let's  celebrate it. And we were in one of those meetings. On a weekend, that we had reached our  vision. And so we celebrated that together, we prayed, we praised God, we worshipped  together, just thanking God for that reality. And then then there were gathering in small  groups of leaders to talk about areas of ministry within our church. And in each one, I had  them defining the reality. Where are we now talk about that talk about where God has led us  in this past year and years. And then I want you to talk about what that ministry areas going  to look like, when we're to 2000 people in attendance. And so they got together, they  discussed and then I called them back for reporting and the first group came back and  reported and said, you know, what, we don't want to go to 2000. We're pretty comfortable  where we are, you know, we know enough people were big enough, we've got an influence  and etc. Second group piped up and said, you know, we came to the same conclusion. So  somehow was Well, wait a minute you know, we've talked about getting here. But now we're  talking about going there, and they're not on board. They're the leaders, what are we going to do? And I spent just a few moments quietly praying. Finally, I said, probably led by the Holy  Spirit and said you know, what your wants to do, or what I want to do, really is secondary to  what does God want to do? Here we are in Southern California, one of the least church wide  open mission fields that exists on the face of the earth. And we're in a key area, what is God  wants to do. And so we scrapped my agenda for the rest of that retreat. And we spent time in  prayer together, we spent time talking together, we spent time worshiping together. And at  the end, we all left there, it gave us it's one of those pictures in my mind that won't go away,  of this group of people gathered men and women arms around each other and saying we're  going to 2000. And that's how we ended up getting into relocation discussion in the first  place. What does that mean? The next year meant that our budget went up 25%. And we had  a whole finance committee quit. But the leaders were saying, Nope, we're going to 2000. And  we began to engage the reason that God wants us to go there. And the church came along  and voted for relocation, etc. So here you go, you explain the problem. That's here, we're  going there. This is why the solution, and here are the reasons this is the difference is going to make for our children or our young people, we should attempt this because it's going to bring  glory to God. So God is in it. And this is how he's in it now. Now, when you communicate, roll  out your vision, you don't just tell everybody at the same time you roll it out. When we were  talking about relocation we engaged a professional fundraiser Christian for a fundraiser from  Resource Services Incorporated, based in Dallas, Texas. We talked about how do we do this?  So how do we how do we get more people buying in financially to sacrifice for this vision to  become a reality? And what he said was clear so you don't tell everybody at one time. You  don't try to get them all to sign on the dotted line at one time. Said what you do is you get the leaders involved, the elders, the deacons, those people that influence within the  congregation, and you have them make the commitments first to financial giving. And then  when you go public with it, you say we've already got out of the out of the $3 million. We  need whatever number you have, we've already got 1.2 million committed from the leaders of this church. And so you parcel out the vision stuff, you roll it out in a way that says, here's  where we're going. And you get leaders on board. In my church in California, there were a  couple of people, they were church fathers, they've been there since the beginning. And they  just had their pulse on the church, in many ways, and I knew that if they were against  something, it wouldn't fly. And so when we were going to change something, I would always  take you know Hubert was the one guy's name, and say, can come out for lunch with me, and I would share with him what we were talking about. And would try to get him on board to see  if he was on board, because I knew he had influence with a bunch of different people. And so  you communicate to the leaders first. And then you go out to the rest of the people now want  to close this session simply by saying, vision is powerful. We're going to talk later on about  the fact that people can kill vision easily. But vision is powerful for forming a life. I began to  experience the first sense of a call to ministry not when I was in high school. But when I was 

in the sixth grade. I grew up in a family, I had no models of people. My father wasn't a pastor,  he worked in a factory. I had no professionals, my older brothers, of which there are many  professionals who are committed themselves to Christian ministry for their life, no examples  like that, that were coming forward. And yet, I was in sixth grade, and my name is Ballast.  And so in my class, I was first in the alphabet in sixth grade. And my teacher was a woman,  they Mrs. Friends is now with the Lord. And she announced on the first day after talking all  morning about how hard it was going to be in sixth grade, she talked about the fact that, you  know, if we were going to survive sixth grade, we would have to be doing one hour of  homework every single night. And that took the whole morning and at lunch time, it was my  responsibility as first in the alphabet in this Christian School to give devotions. And so I did.  And I think what a snotty little kid I quoted from Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 12, some books,  Solomon wrote, wise man, and he said, "of making of books, there is no end and much study  is a weariness to the flesh." So I read that verse, And I prayed, and I thought, Oh, I'm in  trouble now. And sure enough, you know, as we began eating our bag lunches, here comes  Mrs. Friends down the aisle of desks, I was seated about three quarters of the way back in the room. And I thought, I'm going to get it now. And she leaned down, I thought, what a woman a vision. She said, Have you ever thought of going into the ministry? And I hadn't, I hadn't even  thought about it. But that idea planted in me bore fruit later. And I've had 39 wonderful years  of ministry, and I look back at that moment to say, that's when God began to plant a vision in  me of what could happen in my life. Visions are powerful. They're powerful for your  organization, where you are now may be a place of trouble. It may not, it may be just that  there are new opportunities to arise, as we were going from 1000 to 2000. But the power of a  vision to pull an organization forward is great. And so learn well, how to craft your vision  statement, how to create the vision in the first place, practice it, and then roll it out with  confidence and with joy, being able to announce it in such a way that the people say in  response, well, let's start building and you'll see God do marvelous things.