Vision

Vision – More Than Just Hope

by Andy Wood on January 6, 2009

in 100 Words, Exploring the Possibilities, LV Cycle

There’s more to vision than hopeful daydreaming about a desired future.

Yes, vision sees the goal, but it is aware of much more than that.

Vision sees the path from here to there.

Vision recognizes the need for decisive action.  It has a bias toward making the jump.

Vision also recognizes the risks and potential dangers that lurk on all sides, and prepares accordingly for them.

Vision then sees beyond the goal.  It recognizes the larger community, and the visionary’s place in the larger world.

Yes, vision sees the goal.  But true visionaries recognize that success is more than the perfect landing.

(This extraordinary picture of Oberstdorf, Germany as reflected in the goggles of Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai is one of many that can be found here.  PHOTO:  Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach)

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Leading the Broken Organization: Seven Strategies for Healing and Renewal

by Andy Wood on September 10, 2008

in Leadership, Life Currency

“We have a problem,” Perry said.  Thus began the conversation the led to my first senior pastorate.  The problem he alluded to was an open church conflict that led to a lot of angry words at a time when the church Perry attended was without a pastor.

He was asking me to come and preach (I was the associate pastor at a nearby church).  I did, and the rest, as they say….

As long as businesses, churches, and other types of organizations are comprised of humans, they will eventually experience setbacks, upsets, dysfunction, and problems.  Nobody gets it right all the time, and even healthy organizations must confront serious problems.

Broken organizations, however, are different.  [click to continue…]

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15 Gateways to Your Future

by Andy Wood on August 31, 2008

in Exploring the Possibilities, LV Cycle

My friend Kevin, who is also an elder in our church, is a professional idea generator.  He drives a “Dream Taxi,” whose mission in life is to help individuals, couples, ministries, and organizations achieve their goals with excellence and bucketloads of creativity.

While I can’t hold a candle to his idea-generating genius, I thought I’d take a stab at it.

In the previous post, I looked at the first stage of the LifeVesting cycle, Allocate your Resources.

Here’s the second:

2.  Consider the possibilities.

Back to the farming analogy, take a look at this familiar verse:

“He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:6).

Interesting promise.  Especially when you understand that first-century agriculture was done in a way that we would consider backwards.  In those days, the farmer would cast his seed first, then plow it in and cultivate the ground.  Not very efficient by today’s standards, but the spiritual image is compelling.  Once the farmer had a vision of what he wanted to harvest, he was prepared to start casting the seed.  He didn’t do a lot of computerized soil samples.  He didn’t analyze it to death.  He walked to and fro, looking for opportunities to cast!

This stage of the cycle asks you to consider the kind of results you want to have by doing what our farmer did here. [click to continue…]

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Time for a New Vision (or a new Leader)

by Andy Wood on June 26, 2008

in Exploring the Possibilities, Following Your Passion, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Waiting

VisionWhen vision becomes a cliché (President Bush-the-first once famously referred to it in an off-the-cuff remark as “the vision thing”), it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When yesterday’s vision no longer aligns with today’s brutal facts or tomorrow’s possibilities, it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When vision becomes first and foremost an act of congratulating ourselves for what we or our predecessors have accomplished, it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When “vision” becomes the mandates of mountaintop or ivory-tower elitists who have no clue what life in the cubicle, the pew, the kitchen or the stew is like, it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When vision becomes the stuff of detached, bored, or mechanical position holders, it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When vision is no longer met with resistance from the mediocre majority or the limits of human ability or imagination, it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When “vision” is presumed to emerge from the latest committee meeting, conference, book or fad, it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When vision no longer bridges the gap between what is and what should be, it’s time for a new vision – or a new leader.

When “vision” is here today and gone tomorrow, it time for a new (true) vision – or a new leader capable of seeing beyond his/her own attention deficit.

When “vision” no longer needs the God who holds the future in order to create the future, it’s time for a new (true) vision – or a new leader.

Exceptional leaders are first led themselves.  By their vision – and by the source of their vision.

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Tuning In To God’s Voice – Peter’s Object Lessons

by Andy Wood on May 9, 2008

in Insight, Life Currency

Casting netsHow do you learn best?  Mark Meadows used to amaze me in third grade.  He’d just sit there.  Never write.  Never raise his hand to answer a question.  Just sit and listen.  And make “A’s.”

Cameron Walker?  Never stopped moving.

Me?  I don’t think I ever stopped running my mouth.  (Hey!  I heard that!)

We all learned.  We just did it in different ways.

The same is true of people in the Bible.  Guys like Paul could go off into the desert for three years and think about stuff.  Analyze things.  With the Holy Spirit’s help, rehash everything he’d ever believed (incorrectly) about the Law.

Our buddy Peter was different.  From the day He met Peter, Jesus began transforming him from a “man of fish” to a man of God.  Like Moses before him, Peter learned with pictures and visual objects.  Things like coins and nets and fish and swords.  I’d like to show you a few objects Jesus used to teach Peter to hear God’s voice.  I think you can learn, too.  Even if you learn best by talking or sitting there listening, I’ll bet you can pick up a few important lessons from Peter’s experience.

[click to continue…]

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Transforming Your Painful Experiences

by Andy Wood on April 4, 2008

in Life Currency, LV Stories, Words

Trailer ThiefKinetic Church was robbed.  I don’t mean by the refs in the church league basketball tournament.  I mean a thief (or thieves) stole a trailer containing 75% of the Charlotte area congregation’s equipment in early March, leaving the portable church with virtually nothing.

What would you do?  How would you respond?  How would you define your life if you discovered that three-fourths of your tangible assets – to say nothing of the hundreds of man-hours invested in labor – were instantly gone?

Can’t relate?  How about the time somebody stole your dreams or your hope?  Or your reputation?  Or your innocence?  Or your marriage?

You won’t believe what these guys did.

They went on the offensive.  They started a billboard campaign with five different messages, as well as a YouTube video aimed directly at the thief.  Check out the video below.


Kinetic Church’s response illustrates some powerful lessons in transforming painful experiences into remarkable opportunities:

[click to continue…]

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How’s THIS for a Tip?

by Andy Wood on February 20, 2008

in Consumers, Gamblers, Hoarders, LV Alter-egos, LV Stories

MarvinThen there’s Marvin Burchall.

Two years ago, Marvin is on the job in his native Burmuda, waiting tables at a resort. And from his perspective, that’s all he was doing. His job.

Lynn Bak saw it a bit differently. She saw an outgoing, approachable young man whose impeccable service and attention to detail revealed a professionalism way beyond his 23 years.

Lynn Bak is paid to know these kinds of things. She coordinates the School of International Education in Bermuda for Endicott College, whose main campus is in metropolitan Boston. She travels to the Elbow Beach Bermuda resort every three weeks or so. And a couple of years ago, she got to know Marvin.  You won’t believe what happened next.

[click to continue…]

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The Waiting Seasons

by Andy Wood on January 26, 2008

in LV Cycle, Waiting

HourglassHad lunch with two good friends this week. Both have lives that, if they were airplanes, could best be described as being in a holding pattern.

They’re waiting.

Knowing there’s more to come.

But it ain’t happening yet, and neither of my friends was particularly thrilled by it.

[click to continue…]

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Roaming Through Fields of Dreams

by Andy Wood on October 12, 2007

in Exploring the Possibilities, LV Cycle

first-weekend.JPG“What road are we on?” Frank asked.

“1585,” I replied.

“Wrong!” he said triumphantly. Look at the sign.”

“Whoa! When did they do that?” [click to continue…]

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