Vision is something that is constantly spoken about in both business and church circles, but there isn’t a real clear definition on how do you articulate your vision. How do you know if it’s a vision or mission statement? How can you be sure the it is based on what you see and not patching together what others want?

The reality is that many leaders do have a vision, they just don’t know how to get it out, how to articulate it. In my years of ministry I know that I struggled with this. No one had ever taught me how to effectively do this and I hadn’t seen it modelled really well either. Failing to do this vital thing makes vision very hard to communicate and then catch. Andy Stanley, in his book Visioneering, says that

 

A God-given vision becomes a ‘moral imperative’

— something you have to do.

 

Now, I want to give you 4 basic steps to get you thinking in the right direction.

1. Do you believe that this is something you absolutely have to do?

Ultimately when people have a call or a dream that God has given to them then it becomes an obedience issue. For you to not do this means to dishonour God and be unfaithful. If this is something you cannot shake or dismiss, something that hasn’t gone away after much prayer and confirmation then it’s time to strategically move forward to obeying God’s desire for your life. This will become the passion for everything that you do, no matter the challenge or season.

2. What is inspiring this idea?

Be clear about whether this idea is coming from the Lord. If you are being driven by emotion, failure or pride then you seriously need to reconsider what you are doing and bring your focus back on God’s will for your life.

3. Is it future focused?

Vision is about being able to see something today that doesn’t exist yet. Do you have a picture in your mind of where you’re supposed to be going? Do you know what your purpose it?

4. Do you know what the next step is?

Thinking of vision is great only if it leads to action of some kind; making the dream become a reality. If you are not sure of where to go next, whether you have a vision or not, be proactive and intentional.

For this, we at Springboard Consulting have developed a module that will allow you to answer these questions right now and get some feedback. Or you can start by filling in your answers from the form below.

Challenging yourself to do this in a safe environment is a great step forward in shifting from being need or program driven to being vision driven. When you have a clear vision then you are chasing something specific instead of playing catch-up all the time for an uncertain future.

I would like to encourage you to bring someone else into this conversation who can actually help you move forward. We would love to journey with you in this at Springboard, but if not us then get someone. Take this as an ordained moment of choice and be intentional about being better.