Begin Again: Helping Other Leaders Join You on the Journey

As a leader, have you ever had this experience: The Lord places something important on your heart and you are ready to run the race for Him, but no one around you has developed the personal vision and conviction to run with you?

As leaders, you will find yourself in a place where you’ve thought long and hard about the direction your parish or ministry needs to go. When you are finally ready to share, for the majority of your parishioners, it will be the first time they are hearing your ideas or even encountering the thought that their parish needs to change. Often, we grow and develop personally and then are surprised when no one else has.

This process can take years for ourselves, and yet we expect it to take moments for others. So, how do you accompany people down the same pathways you were led without it taking the same amount of time?

1. Taste the fruit – When you are casting vision, also give your people an experience of what “the promised land” could be like.
2. Make your assumptions explicit – It took a long time for you to develop your thoughts and vision. Don’t assume people are in the same place as you. Name the things you’ve come to believe, and repeat them until people are finishing your sentences and taking initiative.

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