Making Vision Stick

At the close of each year through the first few weeks of the following year, I prayerfully seek God's will and desire for our church. I find myself reading through the Scriptures with an intentionality of understanding what God has for the church in general as well as our church specifically in where we are located. God brings along books to me as well that are priceless. The latest book is Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley. Having only read one other book by Stanley (Visioneering) -- and that was years ago -- I approached this book without much bias or even expectation. Yet I would highly recommend this short book. He recommends three ways to help vision stick: * Cast vision strategically: defining your vision * Celebrate vision systematically: regularly rejoicing in the successes * Live your vision continuously: putting your vision into practice in your own life. He goes on to note how the vision statement for the church must be simple and memorable. He notes how it is better to have vision statement simple and incomplete rather than complete but too long to remember. It is up to the leader to help those following him to see the vision the leader has embraced.

This is a great little book. It has plenty of punch for it's size. Get it and apply it to your church.

This is a short and very practical look at how to cast a vision that people will catch and adopt with their lives. For a more in depth look at some of the concepts discussed in this book you should check out "7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by Stanley/Joiner/Jones. This is a must read even for the busiest of ministers because you can immediately put into practice the concepts you read about and it does not take but an afternoon or a couple of nights to read.

I saw reviews of this book on various lead ministers blogs that I read and decided to give it a shot. After you've prayed and prayed and prayed and God has worked in you to reveal the vision of your church or ministry then is the time to pick up this book and quickly read through the how to's of vision casting and making it stick. With great illustrations and to the point ways to help your people understand the vision this is the best book I've read on vision and recommend it to any minister in any position in the church or para-church organization because we all cast vision and we can all use the help to do it better.

A few years back, we established a Biblical purpose for our youth ministry. It has been our guide to stay focused and on track to do the work of God. This year, we had a youth leadership retreat to plan and evaluate. I read this book before the retreat and it helped me communicate better our purpose and gave many ideas to continue the process. As Andy says, "Vision does not stick without constant care and attention." I would highly recommend this book! It gave me renewed passion about our purpose.