Picture of the Future

A month ago this morning the University of Kentucky was celebrating their national championship. UK won mostly because they were clearly the most talented team in the country.

Back in 2003, Marquette went to the Final Four. They had one extremely talented player in Dwayne Wade, but no one else even a hard-core college basketball fan would remember. They were nowhere near being one of the four most talented teams. So how did they get to the final four?

Part of it was that their coach, Tom Crean, set a crystal clear picture of the future. To create this picture he used … a picture. Early in the season Tom Crean got a picture of the New Orleans Superdome, where the Final Four would be played, blew it up, and had everyone on the team sign it. That picture was at every practice. It traveled with them to every game. It provided a crystal clear picture of the future – their season would end in the Superdome, playing in the Final Four. And it did.

There are churches that have staffs so talented it seems like they can’t lose. Then there are the rest of us. Our churches have some talent and abilities, but we’re going to need more than that. What we need is vision clarity. A clear picture of who we are, what we’re doing, and where we’re going. Without that, who knows where we’re going? And maybe we’re all going in different directions?

Does your church have a crystal clear picture of the future? Maybe you need some help with that? If so, I know of no one better at helping churches develop vision clarity than Auxano. That’s why I joined their staff last month – same weekend as Kentucky won the championship. If we can help your church develop your picture of the future, let me know.