Throw the Fishing Pole Away
When I was a kid, my older brother used to take me fishing. He loved it…I hated it. It was incredibly lifeless, especially when the fish weren’t biting (which was most of the time). I think I’m too ADD for fishing.
People often look to the top leader in any organization for vision casting. Casting is a fishing term. It’s when you throw a line out in the water with hopes that a fish will take the hook. As a lead pastor, vision casting is one of my primary roles for the church. I am expected to receive vision from God and then” cast” it to the church. But one thing I’m learning as I grow as a visionary is that I must impart vision and not simply cast it.
The difference between casting and imparting is paramount.
Anyone can cast a vision, but not anyone can impart one. To impart is to take a piece of something in you and put it in someone else. To impart vision, the vision must be genuine and really in you.
I went through a six-month period of time when I was so desperate for God’s vision for our church that I fasted and prayed almost every day for it. I lost about 25 pounds that year through much angst and internal turmoil. I was so desperate to see a clear vision from God. If I didn’t, I was going to quit the ministry. I remember praying, “God, if something doesn’t change within a year…I’m done.” Through that broken experience God ignited a red-hot vision inside of me. It wasn’t any different from the vision we set out to accomplish, but it was now alive in me, and that made all the difference.
It can be so easy for a pastor to grab another person’s vision and try to cast it in his church. I have seen that fail. But if you own your vision, believe it and truly receive it from God, then it will come out of you with fervor and zeal. It won’t be a lifeless cast, but something communicated with passion and desperation.
People want an inspiring vision to follow. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Yet many are not inspired because they are given diagrams and five-year plans on paper rather than receiving the vision through impartation.
If you want people to truly be passionate about your vision, impart it, don’t just cast it.
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This guest post was submitted by Tim Moore, Senior Pastor at Crossroads Church in Lithopolis, Ohio. (He also happens to be the pastor for my wife’s mom and dad.)
