Tag Archives: Vision
Be Strategic
Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Kenny.
From day one of engaging with Orange (more than 4 years ago), the word strategy was a word I heard often. It’s not a new concept, but it was something that was brought to my attention again last Friday and I’m glad it was. Reggie painted a clear picture of the importance of strategy. He described how many great churches have incredible mission and vision statements that never really seem to do anything. Many of those church’s doors are closed now.
Strategy – A plan of action with an end in mind.
I love it. I’m leading a breakout at Illuminate in Nashville in a few weeks titled, “What Matters Most.” In this breakout I’m going to speak about how sometimes we lose track of that particular “end” in mind or maybe the “end” we’re focused on really isn’t as important as it should be.… Read the rest
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Vision amnesia
Posted on 29. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
Is it just me, or have you ever stepped out of the shower and then wonder if you remembered to wash your hair? Sometimes I really can’t remember, so I jump back in again and wash it just in case. Don’t you hate it when you walk into the kitchen and as soon as you get there, you forgot why you went there in the first place. Usually, you don’t remember until you are comfortable on the couch again. We’re not stupid people, we just have an amazing capacity for so many thoughts, ideas and tasks that sometimes things get buried in all of that. Sometimes, the things that get buried are important.
Yesterday I spoke about how we often get so focused on our work that we can’t see the forest from the trees.… Read the rest
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How important is vision?
Posted on 28. Nov, 2011 by Kenny.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about vision lately. A couple months ago I heard an interesting story. I don’t remember who told it to me, so I can’t confirm it’s validity. However, I was told about a church that was given a significant financial gift. When I say significant, I mean in the multiple millions of dollars. How amazing, right? What a blessing! Unfortunately, it wasn’t for this church. Within a couple of years, the church was defunct, no longer in existence. Why? Because leadership didn’t know what to do with the money and fighting tore the church apart until nothing was left.
I don’t know the details of this particular situation, but if I had to guess, they had a vision problem.… Read the rest
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The Homeless Blogger: What matters in 100 years
Posted on 24. Oct, 2011 by Kenny.
My second post in the Homeless Blogger series was hosted at Jenny Funderburke’s KidminThoughts. Jenny’s a cool cat, she hosted the Illuminate Conference in Birmingham, AL. If you don’t read her blog, you really should. She’s really sharp… except when it comes to math.
This post was inspired by the talk by Dr. Lazarus at the Kidmin Conference. He spoke for a little while about the concept of a 100 year vision. Essentially, what will be different about the world 100 years from now because of something I did. Now, I honestly do believe that I’m making a mark. I believe that lives are being changed here and there by my family and ministry. However, I spend very letting time (if any at all) dreaming about intentionally changing the future.… Read the rest
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My big vision for volunteers
Posted on 20. Sep, 2010 by Kenny.
Let me tell you about the vision I’ve had. I actually just started communicating it about 5-6 weeks ago. In recognizing where we need to go as a ministry, I knew that we need significantly more help. As far as room coverage and functionality is concerned, we’re pretty good. However, to have a truly small span of care, we’ve got many positions to fill.
When I’m with or talking to Jim Wideman, I’m always challenged. He talks about develop his first, second and third string of volunteers and backups for his backups. Jim Wideman is an incredible leader and gifted in this area, but there’s no reason why we can’t have a similar experience in our ministry.
So, about a month ago I began telling my staff that my goal was to double our volunteer base in the next 12 months.… Read the rest
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Making Vision Stick: Book Review
Posted on 09. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Last year just before the Orange Conference I spent some time at North Point hanging out at both the Alpharetta campus as well as at Buckhead. I spent a small fortune at the bookstore. While there, I picked up this little book, “Making Vision Stick” by Andy Stanley. It’s small, thin and something that can be wholly digested in one sitting. All I can say is this. Thank you Andy Stanley for writing this little book. Let me share with you a few reasons why I like this little 74 page book.
- I’m not the fastest of readers. My life is busy, so I’ll sit down for an hour, read part of a book and then several days later I’ll sit down and read for another hour and over the period of days or weeks, I’ll finish up a book.
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Personal investment equals great influence: followup thoughts
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
Yesterday I posted about something Andy Stanley said in the first paragraph of the forward of Think Orange. Click here to read it.
Essentially, I wrote about North Point being so successful in their efforts to reach families. One of the driving forces behind their success was that most of the key leadership and staff had skin in the game. It was so important to be successful in this area becasue their kids and families were at stake too. It sounds selfish, but it’s the truth. We always show more interest in the things that are going to affect us most.
So, what if the average age of the senior leadership at your church is in their mid to late 50′s?… Read the rest
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Gutsy or stupid about your mission
Posted on 06. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ve been thinking a lot about mission the last few weeks. One of my goals for this year is for pervasive saturation of the vision and mission in the heart and minds of our volunteers and leaders. Actually, it’s not optional for our leaders. They have to know our mission… what we’re trying to accomplish. I’ve been talking with my team how we can continue to over-communicate our mission so that everyone will get it.
Just before Christmas I had to stop at a gas station to use the bathroom. I usually try to refrain from taking pictures in the rest room, but I couldn’t resist. Just above the dirty toilet was Tetco’s mission statement. What was especially ironic was their first line, “…by providing quality service in a clean and pleasant atmosphere.” I’ll give them the benifit of the doubt.… Read the rest
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Forget resolutions. How about vision maps and life themes?
Posted on 21. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
So we’re a little over a week from 2010. It’s going to be a big year… I can already tell. It’s got some nice even numbers. 2010. I like it. Let’s see… we’ll do another census here in the US. Those are always really exciting. I think the Winter Games are even scheduled for this year. Oh, I’ll turn 33. It’s even cooler than turning 22.
Okay, all that stuff isn’t really that big of a deal unless you work for the census bureau , unless you’re an Olympic athlete going to the games or you’re turning 33 as well. But the biggest thing I can think of about 2010 is the potential it holds for my life. I remember many years ago someone telling me that through this journey as a Christ follower, ever year should be better than the previous.… Read the rest
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Casting vision to your church staff (conclusion)
Posted on 11. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
Thanks for allowing me to crank out 5 or 6 posts all about a 90 minute meeting I had over a week ago. I cranked out a lot of words, but hopefully there was some stuff in there you found helpful. Enough teasing though.
- Here is the handout every staff member had.
- Here’s the same handout with the blanks filled in.
- Here’s my script. I tend to write out my talks rather than outline, so this is essentially everything I said.
So what did I learn from this experience?
- I’m disappointed that I haven’t done this before (at least to this capacity). From this point on, I’ll ask to lead our all-staff at least once every year.
- Although they didn’t know it, the staff wanted to hear about NextGen.
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