Legitimate vision

We know that leadership means movement and we have seen that there are three parts to this process of movement:

• The leader establishes the direction or vision.
• The leader aligns the people in that direction.
• The leader motivates and inspires them to move in that direction and keep moving in order to fulfill the vision.

Please note that every part of leadership revolves around vision. Vision is central to leadership. This means the vision itself must be right – or we could say it must be “legitimate” – or else it will ultimately be unsuccessful and even damaging.

Legitimate Vision

Legitimate vision means two things:

• The source of the vision is God.
• The purpose of the vision is to serve the people, not the leader.

First, the vision must genuinely be the will of God – consistent with the deeply spiritual nature of healthy leadership.

Apart from union with Christ, we can accomplish nothing of any value:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

John 15:4-5

A legitimate vision comes from God. Then it becomes the leader’s own vision – something he can share passionately with others, calling them to sacrifice and endurance in its pursuit. Without the divine initiation, man’s vision is mere human ambition.

Sadly, there is a great deal done today in the Christian world that is called “divine vision” when, in reality, it is mere human ambition.

Second, a legitimate vision will genuinely reflect what is good for the people, and not only what is good for the leader – consistent with the servant nature of healthy leadership.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant.

Philippians 2:4-7

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

1 Peter 5:1-4

The leader should first prayerfully determine what the right direction – the legitimate vision – actually is. As he determines the direction, a good leader will often not establish the direction unilaterally. He will listen to God but he will also listen to the people. What is God showing them? What are their needs, hopes and desires? The leader is not the only one who hears from God! He must be a good listener and, often, a good consensus-builder.

Legitimate Implementation

Not only must the vision be valid, the implementation of the vision must also be legitimate. Healthy leadership is not just a matter of having strong convictions (a vision) and then unilaterally imposing them on a group of people. The leader’s course of action should not be selling the people on his vision, and then using his personal powers of persuasion (or coercion) to get them to follow it.

Even when the vision itself is right, the exercise of leadership to fulfill that vision can be terribly wrong, resulting in damage to the people. History is filled with examples of leaders who had high and ethical intentions but whose stubborn pursuit of a single, unchanging strategy deeply hurt the very people they were sincerely trying to serve.

The exercise of healthy leadership

The exercise of healthy leadership is not a simple adherence to a predetermined series of actions, but it is a continuously-changing engagement with emerging needs and opportunities. This process of reflection, learning and adjustment must happen in the midst of the action within the community of the people who are being served and led.

Thus, the healthy leader does not make the people move as they pursue the vision – he helps them to move. He helps them to learn, to grow, to respond, to think well, and to act well.

We short-change the idea of visionary leadership if we think it refers to big-talking, charismatic personalities who manipulate the people to accomplish their own predetermined and self-serving purposes. At its heart, visionary Christian leadership means union with Christ to know His purposes and then serving the people in the unfolding fulfilment of that legitimate vision.