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    Execute Your Vision: The Practical Art of Ministry Leadership
    Execute Your Vision: The Practical Art of Ministry Leadership
    Execute Your Vision: The Practical Art of Ministry Leadership
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Execute Your Vision: The Practical Art of Ministry Leadership

    By Bill Easum and Scott Musselman

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    About this ebook

    Dreams and visions are amazing gifts from God. They are at the heart of God’s plan for our lives. Anyone can have an idea, but not everyone will experience that vision come to fruition. This book explores how to turn visions into reality in a fast-moving world that is changing at an exponential rate.

    A lot of books have been written the past few decades on how to lead in a rapidly changing world. So why should you read another one? That question deserves an answer.

    This book focuses on the obstacles that keep most leaders from turning their visions into reality. In consulting with over 700 churches in the past 25 years, one problem clearly stands out above all the rest. Pastors find it hard to execute a vision. Ideas aren’t hard to come by; making them happen is another thing altogether.

    This book will note how the Church missed out on prime opportunities during the middle of the 20th century in the United States when our culture went through a significant transition. Pastors, especially those who are younger, would do well to learn from these past lessons and apply that to a similar moment of transition in our contemporary society.

    As you read, you will find Reflection Points. They will help the you apply the concepts to your situation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateOct 4, 2016
    ISBN9781501819001
    Execute Your Vision: The Practical Art of Ministry Leadership
    Author

    Bill Easum

    Bill Easum is President of The Effective Church Group, a church consulting and coaching firm. One of the most widely sought advisers on congregational health and vitality in North America, he has over 30 years of congregational experience, with approximately 25 years' experience as a pastor. One of the most respected voices on emerging forms of ministry and congregational life, he is the author of several books, including Unfreezing Moves, Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First, Go Big!, (with Bil Cornelius), and Ministry in Hard Times (with Bill Tenny-Brittian), and Preaching for Church Transformation, all published by Abingdon Press.

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      Book preview

      Execute Your Vision - Bill Easum

      9781501819001_Cover.jpg

      Half-Title

      EXECUTE

      YOUR

      VISION

      Title Page

      15187.png

      Copyright Page

      execute your vision:

      the practical art of ministry leadership

      Copyright © 2016 by Bill Easum and Scott Musselman

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Permissions, Abingdon Press, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., PO Box 280988, Nashville, TN 37228-0988, or e-mailed to permissions@abingdonpress.com.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Easum, William M., 1939- author.

      Title: Execute your vision : the practical art of ministry leadership / Bill

         Easum and Scott Musselman.

      Description: First [edition]. | Nashville, Tennessee : Abingdon Press, 2016.

         | Includes bibliographical references.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016017625| ISBN 9781501818998 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781501819001

         (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Christian leadership. | Church work. | Pastoral theology. |

         Leadership.

      Classification: LCC BV652.1 .E1795 2016 | DDC 253--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016017625

      Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.Com monEnglishBible.com.

      Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

      Contents

      Contents

      Introduction: Executing Your Vision

      Chapter One: The Key to Everything

      What the Past Tells Us about the Future

      Jumping the Curve

      The Importance of Intuition

      Chapter Two: The Art of Execution

      What Is Execution?

      Holding Staff Accountable

      Priesthood of the Individual

      Chapter Three: The Role of the Leader in Execution

      Be Focused on the Vision

      Learning to Develop Intuition

      Where Power Resides

      Leaders Must Lead

      Addressing the Leadership Vacuum

      Managing through Transitions

      Chapter Four: The Effect of Radical Change on Organizations

      Church as an Organic Metaphor

      Decentralization Is Fundamental

      The Core Vision

      Chapter Five: Seize the Moment

      For Further Reading

      Introduction: Executing Your Vision

      15197.png

      After that I will pour out my spirit upon everyone; / your sons and your daughters will prophesy, / your old men will dream dreams, / and your young men will see visions. (Joel 2:28)

      Dreams and visions are amazing gifts from God. They are at the heart of God’s plan for our lives. Anyone can have an idea, but not everyone will experience that vision come to fruition. This book explores how to turn visions into reality in a fast-moving world that is changing at an exponential rate.

      A lot of books have been written the past few decades on how to lead in a rapidly changing world. So why should you read another one? That question deserves an answer.

      While most church books on navigating change deal with tactics like my (BE) book, Unfreezing Moves, this book focuses on the obstacles that keep most leaders from turning their visions into reality.¹ (Note: Specific references in this book by Bill Easum will be notated as BE; those by Scott Musselman will be SM.)

      It takes leadership for a vision to come into being. Before going any further, let’s define how we use the terms leadership and leaders. Leadership is the art of helping others achieve their potential. Leaders don’t coerce someone to do their will; instead they invite them to join them on a journey of turning a vision into reality. A wonderful metaphor for leadership is that of a spiritual midwife. As a midwife assists parents in the birth of their child, leaders assist others in the birth of their God-given gifts. For more on this, see my (BE) book, Leadership on the Other Side.²

      In consulting with over 700 churches in the past twenty-five years, one problem clearly stands out above all the rest. Pastors find it hard to execute a vision. Ideas aren’t hard to come by; making them happen is another thing altogether.

      This book will note how the church missed out on prime opportunities during the middle of the twentieth century in the United States when our culture went through a significant transition. Pastors, especially those who are younger, would do well to learn from these past lessons and apply that to a similar moment of transition in our contemporary society. If you have any comments about concepts in the book and how you experience them in your particular setting, we would love to engage you in conversation. Just send us an e-mail at this address: http://effectivechurch.com/contact/.

      As you read, you will find Reflection Points. Take time to actually do the exercises. We know the tendency is to ignore such pieces and continue reading. Don’t shortchange yourself. Do the exercises. They will help you apply the concepts to your situation.

      So read away and put one word on your refrigerator—focus.

      1. Bill Easum, Unfreezing Moves: Following Jesus into the Mission Field (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001).

      2. Bill Easum, Leadership on the Other Side: No Rules, Just Clues (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000).

      Chapter One: The Key to Everything

      15210.png

      We live in a time when it is easy for a dream to become a nigh tmare. Why is that so? Because we’re living in a world where most things that will be important over the next twenty years have not yet been invented.

      Few thinking individuals would deny that we’re living in a time of radical change. We describe it as one of radical discontinuity. But no matter what we call it, our world is going through a seismic shift of epic proportions, which makes it even harder to turn a vision into reality.

      I (BE) first wrote about this upheaval in my book, Dancing with Dinosaurs, where I noted the crack in history into which the old world is disappearing, leaving us in a constantly changing world without any rules.¹ Even though the book became a bestseller, and all but one of the predictions came true, few leaders adapted to the new world that I described. That begs the question: Why do so many churches continue to minister as if nothing has changed?

      The church is burying its head in ostrich-like fashion because even though people know something is happening to their way of life, they haven’t fully embraced it. They know it in their head but not in their heart. They are like the people who are told by the doctor they are so overweight that if they don’t do something about it they will die. Yet they still go out and eat a big bag of french fries. That kind of behavior is deadly, and that is what is happening in the church today.

      So what’s a leader who is aware that something radically different is happening in the world and wants to help the church grow to do? To respond to this question, let’s explore the key to everything.

      The One Key That Unlocks Everything

      There is one key that must be addressed before the average leader and/or church can thrive. This concept is so pervasive to all of life that every chapter in this

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