Video Transcript: There's a Price to Pay

Welcome back. As I said, you know, we are talking about leadership. And as I mentioned last  time, in this session, I want to just talk about for a moment, the fact that there is a price to  pay for living out a vision and leading people in a vision. And the price to pay is real. And so I  want to talk about it a little bit, just the reminder, when that area of leadership, the leader,  interacting with the culture, to define a preferable future, and then later, we're going to get  into the planning, and the impetus for the planning and prayer that needs to happen to make  the vision a reality. But the vision is that star that's going to lead us it's a star, that's going to  leave the thing we keep in mind as all the other stuff goes on down here. It's the one that's  going to be the thing we steer by like a North Star. And so as we talked about that vision, last  time, I talked about vision killers. This time, I want about to talk about the fact that when you  are trying to fulfill a vision, there's going to be a price to pay for you personally, not just for  the people. But for you. Personally, this man has been one of my mentors. His name is Harold  Korver. When we were looking at relocation, I remember calling up Harold, he lived about 40  miles from me in Southern California, which means anywhere from a 40 minute drive to a  three hour drive, depending on the time of day. But I called Harold and I just said I want to  have lunch with you and just bounce some ideas off from you, I could do that on on occasion.  And so I began to share with him, you know, the fact that we had gotten this visions change  vision from building where we were to a relocation to this new local area, where there was an  expected 150,000 people moving into that community. And so we had this opportunity, and  we got this great vision of reaching them in the name of Jesus Christ. And, and, wow, it was  exciting. But I just wanted to bounce it off for him, because I was in that thing of fear. You  know. And so he was one of the people I consulted. And so I shared with him. And together,  we started to look at all the variety of costs that there were going to be for this, you know,  there were financial costs, of course, that, you know, the expansion that we're looking at  where we were was going to cost somewhere around 2 to 3 million, whereas the relocation  was going to cost who who knows, but it was going to be upwards, far above 10 million, we  could accurately predict that. And so, wow, there's going to be that cost. But then there were  going to be the costs for people that were rather significant as well. And that, you know, as  we talked about, with the whole idea of vision killers, they were going to have to change.  People who are used to walking to church in our our neighborhood church before we're now  going to have to drive. It wasn't far it was only three or four miles, but they were gonna have  to drive on Sunday morning. And that would upset their normal routines. And we've talked  earlier about how important routines are. And so that was going to be a price to pay. And then he talked about the fact that the program was going to be different just because it was I  mean, we this time, we were in multiple services. And as we built this new building, which  was going to have seating for 1,500, and was going to have a youth area, it was going to have a children's area, large children's building, and there's going to be a preschool with it, that the patterns were going to change worship times were going to change, some of our worship was  going to be tweaked differently, because now we have the stage with a large auditorium. And  that was going to affect the kind of band we would put on stage or the kind of music we would have and a discussion about whether we'd have an organ or not, and etc, etc, all of these  kinds of things that were going to be upsetting to people that were going to be need great  leadership in order to keep the vision going, especially the idea that we were going to  relocate twice, we are going to move from our building the original building of the church,  we're going to sell that and move into a temporary housing situation. I've talked about that  before. And so that was a cost and a cost and history would tell us and people's experiences  would tell us that there were going to be losses each step of that way. And so we looked at  each of those and the conversation and just remember him looking at me and saying Bruce,  you better not do this, unless you have a fire in your belly for it. Unless you are are passionate about this, because otherwise, this is going to burn you out. Now, I've shared earlier about  some of my reactions to that time, fulfilling this vision but today I want to talk about what are  some of those prices that you have to pay for the vision to become reality. They are your  prices. Nobody else's everybody else has a price to pay as well but these are going to be  yours. The first is going all in. John Maxwell is somebody who is known in leadership circles  and he He puts it this way people buy into the vision. After the leader buys into it, I began to 

realize the truth of that very soon, people were looking to me now in the tradition I come from the pastor, they try to protect a little bit from things like raising money, you know, so we  aren't identified with raising money. And so we had, as we built the whole process, we tried to  make my job, the vision, and somebody else the asking for money. And so I would go around  and some of the fundraising things we were doing, we did small groups, in houses where  various people would gather together and have dessert together. And then I would show up,  and I would show up with other church leaders and the consultants, then, and my job would  be to give the vision to talk about the difference this was going to make in the lives of  children, and youth, and adults. And the fact that this was going to bless this community and  the fact that God was going to use this powerfully My job was vision, then they would come  and say, You know what, this is going to cost a lot. And this is what we want you to consider  how can you sacrifice in order to become a part of this great vision that we have for the  future? You know, what are ways you can sacrifice gave ideas to them gave guidelines to  them about how much we were going to need, etc, etc, etc. And so I didn't talk about the  money at all, but I was the vision speaker. And on Sundays, when we would talk about it, we  did series of messages. You know, I did one from Nehemiah did one from Ezra about the whole the whole idea of relocation of building with a rising bill, I was the one identified it was my  thing, it was my thing. And there's a price that comes with that, that I can't do as I mentioned  last time, I can't talk negatively about it, even though I want to identify with those who have  have questions or concerns and are are traditionalists or complacent or are fearful, I can't  identify with them publicly. Because people have to see me bought into the vision. In fact the  consultant recommended very quickly that I and my wife make a very big sacrificial pledge,  three year pledge to this building program. So that when people saw that I was bought in,  they would buy in to people be are buying into the process, after you buy into it. And so that's a price you're going to have to pay. You're just going to have to pay it. That's all there is to it.  Another price you're going to have to pay is physical, emotional, spiritual, financial. I put  down there the example of Karen Bennett, I was rereading in preparation for this class. Andy  Stanley's good book on this called Visioneering, in which he covers all kinds of topics around  visioning and envisioning, but as he tells the story of Karen, Karen Bennett, Karen Bennett  was a member of his church in Atlanta, Georgia. And she was somebody who was in her 20s  and was living as a fairly typical 20 year old but she had gotten involved with a ministry that  was an inner city ministry in Atlanta. And as a result, she began to get a vision for what could  possibly be there, they began taking their care kids that was their ministry down there in the  inner city. And so as she began to look at her life, he realized that, you know, before this, her  goals were kind of as he says, you know, the next purchase of the Gucci bag and something  greater than the Honda that she was driving that's the way Stanley put it, but the emptiness  she saw in the eyes of those children was something she could not ignore. As their big vision  began to take shape, she became convinced that there should be a safe place for children in  the middle of what was and continues to be a drug infested warzone. So Karen and her friends decided to plant a children's church in the inner city. After allowing the idea to incubate for  several months, they began looking for a site. And now here's Karen's reflection. "Month after  month, we kept going down there until we felt like it was time to have a church building for  those kids. We started looking at old warehouses and old buildings in downtown Atlanta.  Finally, we found this one old nightclub that sits right in the middle of 25 major inner city  projects. I called the owner up and I said, Well, how much do you want for this place? And he  said he needed $2,000 A month rent. While he could have told me it was 2 million. I didn't  have that type of money. I was on a church salary living in an apartment in the suburbs. But  on the way home, we each stopped by our bank and cleared out our checking and savings  account. We looked for every nickel and dime we could find that night. We dumped it all into  one pot. And between all six of us we had $52." She began contacting other churches that  maybe would support her the process and nobody seemed interested. So now she started to  pay the price. It's one thing to get the vision with her and her friends. But now the price  comes. This is how she describes it. "It ended up that my staff and I got together that night  and we just talked about it was one of those nights that we just had to be honest with  ourselves, is this what we were going to do? Or was this one of those things that we were just 

going to talk about until we were 40 or 50 years old. So we decided that we were going to  take a chance. Because every once in a while, you've just got to do that. The next day, we  went to our landlords and we handed in our notices to the leases on our apartments. We  couldn't afford to have our nice apartments and have a church for those kids at the same  times." And two weeks later, she and her friends moved into that nightclub. She described it  this way. "I remember that when we moved in, it was 20 or 30 degrees outside and it was  about 20 or 30 degrees inside. We forgot to check if the building had heat before we moved  in. It didn't have heat, and it didn't have air conditioning. It didn't have a toilet or a sink or  shower didn't have anything. We had to drive down to Hardee's fast food place to use the  bathroom. Our new home came complete with cement floors and 17 inch sewer rats. We call  them gophers up our way cuz they go for you. We kept on trying to get the building upgraded. But nobody believed in us. Our parents thought we'd lost our minds. Sometimes you wonder if you really heard from God or not." And they continued to each week dump their paychecks  from their other jobs into a pot. And they would take 20 bucks a week each out for their own  personal expenses. They had a vision, they had a dream and began living it out. And as  Stanley says at the time to this writing. Today, Karen and her 16 member staff have  ministered over 3,000 children every week, in multiple weekend services. They sponsor a  youth service that draws over 200 teenagers, they established a private school in the  community. Tuition is $20 per month, they have 125 students enrolled in over 500 on a  waiting list. Now when Karen talks about those times of is this going to be real or not? Am I  willing to pay the price or not? She says she really feels like it was a test from God, was she  really willing to go forward. So that's a price you're going to have to pay. A third price is  simply this. The critics will come. Now I've shown you this bell curve before, of how people  respond to new ideas and how they respond to visions. I'll just run through it again, to remind  you that 2.5% of the population are considered to be innovators. In other words, if there's a  new idea, they'll grab onto it. They are the ones who are waiting in line for the new iPhone.  They're the ones who are buying the new product. They are ones that are checking out this  new model of automobile. They're innovators, they want what's new, and advertisers know  this group wells because they they advertise everything is new and improved. Right. And so  they want what's new, there's a new kind of soap, I want to try that innovators, the early  adopters are close behind them at 13 1/2%. These are the people who are saying, okay, yeah, yeah, I heard about that. I really want to do it. You know, I remember, you know, when the  internet was being developed, I'm old enough to remember that, and how quickly my children caught on to this whole stuff. And how quickly they adopted they were early adopters, I was  probably part of the early majority, or maybe even a late adopter, a late majority. But they  grab on to it because Oh, hey, it's new. And look at the needs and look at how neat this could  be. The early majority of a new idea are those ones that will come on board, when they  understand why something is being done. When they understand your vision. When they  understand the vision of your organization. They'll be on board they'll give financially they're  early adopters. Late Majority are those people 34%. Again, who will come in, but only after it's proven. You know, that's why the short wins are so important as we're going to be talking  about as we have talked about and going to talk about in change theory to have short wins.  These people when they see short term wins. When people see that it's working, the late  adopters will come on board then there's the laggards. 16% Maybe will come on board maybe not. And a percentage, which nobody has put on them that I've seen are going to be critics.  These are people who are going to look at what you're doing that and their response is going  to criticize it. Now, criticism hurts. It just does. Now you've seen the interview A little while  ago, of my good friend Frank Weaver's. And how somebody said that they, in effect said a  wish you were dead. Saying this is a coffin for our pastor, as a church was going to the  dramatic changes of a relocation that that cuts deeply I remember the day when one of the  critics had spoken to someone else who felt like they had to share it with me? Now I hear my  heard my heard my critics fairly often and fairly well, you know, through email, through mail,  etc. But it still would cut deeply. And this time, the critic said, as we were looking at  relocation, looking at building a large church facility. The critic said to someone else, says  Bruce is just trying to build his own kingdom. Wow! Now, the person who felt like they had to 

share that with me, I don't know why sent me into a tailspin for a while. Because as with any  criticism, you, you try to identify Is there a nugget of truth here? Is there some truth that I  have to be aware of some truth that I have to address here? And so I had to look at that  carefully. And I had to say, am I? So am I, because of my baggage because of my personality?  Because of my need to succeed? Am I Am I really about building my own kingdom is this  God's vision, but I've been through a lot of that. And so very quickly came to the, the idea  that No, that's not who I am. That's not what I'm trying to do. I firmly believe that Jesus Christ  is calling us to take these steps now, so that we can reach more people for him so that we can make a greater impact among the poor of our community so that we can affect the character  of our community by having Christians who are growing in their faith engaged in various  ways. But then it still sits there. Now one practice I tell you if you're in a church or an  organization, some people will try to send you letters. And they will be unsigned, because  they don't want to own it, I'm very, very quickly developed a pretty sharp principle. And that  was, if the letter is unsigned, I would glance at a letter. If it was unsigned, it went into the  trash, I would not give it the time of day. In fact, just an aside, that was when I quit having  evaluations of staff contain anonymous statements by people I used to send out for staff, you  know. And so and so we're looking at making them as efficient as they can be. And as great as they can be for the kingdom of God. Can you give some response about what their strengths  or weaknesses and suggestions for them, and it was anonymous. And after that, they don't  need to know who said it, but I need to know who said it. It cannot be anonymous, people like  to own their critique. That just seems to be a principle in the kingdom of God. We're going to  talk about that when we talk about conflict later. Conflict, it's a reality. Now it's fascinating  when you look in Scripture, that Nehemiah becomes an incredible model of this. Remember,  in chapter four, he's his plan of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem are seen as a threat  Sanballat Tobiah, the other people around there, begin to see this as a great threat. And so  they're even suggesting that they're going to sneak among them, they're going to attack and  they're going to kill it and destroy the people who are rebuilding the building. This is after  mocking them and saying, Yeah, building such a fragile thing, it' will fall down. If even a fox  would run on top of it, it's just gonna, it's just gonna fall apart. And so all of those kinds of  things, how would Nehemiah respond? He even got a letter one time saying, I want to meet  with you in such in such a place and, and, you know, Nehemiah was able to sense that this  was a not of God, first of all, but that they were actually going to try to harm him. They they  were that seriously threatened by the new vision of this walled city that was going to exist in  Jerusalem. And so how did he respond? Well, first of all, he prayed, he remembered the source of the vision and he revised his plan. He prayed, this is his prayer. "Here, oh our God, how we  are despised, return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land  of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before you for they have demoralized the builders." Now, that's a powerful prayer. I don't think we pray that in  New Testament days. God, don't ever forgive them for what they're doing here. I mean, we're  to be people of grace and were to respond to critics with grace as well. And certainly mercy  and forgiveness and all those good things. But he is identifying here a very real thing about  this kind of price to be paid. And that is, it can demoralize people. It can demoralize you, but  it can demoralize the people who are involved sacrificing. The people who are working hard to make the vision a reality. When they hear the critics, they're going to look at how do you  respond? And so I find it a real powerful thing that he responded with prayer. He did not  defend himself. He didn't go to these people and say, Oh, no, you've got it wrong. We're not  just, I'm not, you know, I never took that chance to get up in front on Sunday morning. So you know what, somebody has accused me of trying to build my own kingdom. No, you know,  that's not true. didn't defend themselves, he went to prayer. And he let God be the one who  was going to determine how that price was met. But he was going to pay the price of dealing  with the fact that the critics will come, then he spent time remembering, remembering the  source of the vision in fact, this is the way he put it. "So when I saw their fear, that is the  workers I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who was great and awesome and fight for your daughters, your  sons, your daughters, your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses. 

Remember, remember, God is in this," he had previously recited all the wonderful things God  has done and out of the hand of God had been with him as he walked this way to create this  vision for a new wall around Jerusalem. And God supplied through the kings. Not only are you  letting him go to be the leader in this, but paying for it as well. So you remember, when the  price starts coming home in any of these ways, it's a time when you remember, you reflect on the vision God has given you. You think about is this really God's vision? And the answer,  almost always will be yes. And then you say, Okay, Lord, I am your servant, I think of Paul  having done it, my wife and I are reading Acts right now in our devotions. And as he's going to Jerusalem, God has told him, he's going to testify in Rome, as he's testified elsewhere. And  the prophets are coming as he's getting closer and closer to Jerusalem. And Agabus in  particular, becomes one who ties up his hands with Paul's belt. And said the Spirit says, the  one owns this belt is going to be tied up like this. And that's a huge price to pay, right? I  mean, Saul has been, Paul has been traveling all over that area of a world sharing the good  news, he's been faithful in his mission, to be the great evangelist and, and now he's looking at imprisonment. But what he said was, whoa, I'm ready to give my life if that's what's required.  I met Jesus. And he gave me this vision of a church that would begin expanding throughout  the world. And I'm willing to do anything for it. So I remember. That God called me remember  that first thing. In fact, he recites that often the time when Jesus met him on the road, and he  started to get a vision. What God told Ananias was, Jesus said to Ananias, you know, I am  showing him how much he is going to suffer for my sake. He knew it going in, there was a  price to pay. But he was willing to give himself entirely. So remember the source, of division,  and then choose your pain. I like that phrase, just because that's comes from a friend of mine. They were going through changes the church he was part of had been on decline for many  years. And so they were instituting changes. As he came there. And they were changing  worship, they were changing times, they were changing, or even talking about changing  location, a variety of things. And one time talking with him, we would meet for prayer  together at that time, he and I bought a variety of things. And so we were praying about this  one time, and I said, but how are you doing? you know, how are you doing with all of this? He  said, Well, he said, I realized I get to choose my pain. He says my pain before was people  leaving the church. And they were leaving because we weren't relevant. And we're leaving,  because you know, the music didn't meet their expectations. It wasn't relevant. And so it was  very traditional music that they were leaving for a variety of reasons. He said, I could live with that pain. Or I could choose the pain of making changes that will allow them to be retained  and more like these people to be coming in and making a greater impact to the kingdom. But  the pain is still there, because the critics are there, choose your pain. And then Nehemiah  revises plan,"but we prayed to our God. And because of them, we set up a guard against  them day and night." Okay the plan going along to get the rebuilding teams but now there's  this glitch, there's this threat to what they're doing. So he says okay, we've got to set a guard  now. So they changed things and some of the people were working some were standing  guard, and they revised their plan. So be open to change. Don't confuse your plan. With  division. Sometimes you're going to have to revise it. And that's the price you're going to  have to pay. So, just want to conclude with words of Robert Schuller, our longtime leader  builder of the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California. He was often criticized, criticized within the church criticized by Christians. He just dealt with criticism almost all of his life. But he  responded once I was in a seminar where he was speaking and somebody asked, How are you dealing with this? Because the church community in general was condemning how much it  cost to build that Crystal Cathedral, etc, etc, etc. And his response was, "I would rather  attempt something great and fail, then do nothing and succeed." Let me say that, again,  there's a price to pay, but it's a worthwhile price. I would rather attempt something great, and fail, or do nothing and succeed. Now, in our contexts, whatever yours is, attempt something  great. Yeah, it's going to cost something from you. It will. It's going to cost something. But the  reward is going to be incredible as far as living out our vision God has given you in building  his kingdom. And so much so that you can look back when you end your life and you meet  Jesus Christ and hear him say, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in a 

few things, and it was costly. I'm going to put you over many. That's what I'm looking forward  to. That's why I'm willing to risk