There has been a lot written about the importance of “casting a clear and compelling vision.” Leaders often invest a lot of time with their leadership teams crafting words, figuring out the best way to capture the direction they sense the Lord is leading the church they serve.
And leaders often invest far too little time re-declaring the vision and continually aligning actions to the vision and values they have declared.
Jim Collins spoke of this same reality in organizational leadership:
Executives spend too much time drafting, wordsmithing and redrafting vision statements, mission statements, values statements, purpose statements, aspiration statements and so on. They spend nowhere near enough time trying to align their organizations with the values and visions already in place.
In other words, most leaders fail at the discipline of reminding, repeating and re-declaring. Great thinkers and leaders have reminded leaders of the importance of reminding.
a. Max Depree said, “Leadership is like the third grade, it means repeating the significant things.”
b. C.S. Lewis said, “People need to be reminded more than instructed.”
c. Of constantly reminding people of the gospel, Martin Luther stated, “Most necessary is that we know this article well, teach it to others and beat it into their heads continually.”
d. The apostle Paul wrote to believers in Corinth, saying, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand” (1 Corinthians 15:1).
Leaders often fail to remind because they “don’t want to say the same things.” They feel they need to bring something fresh, something new. This is a mistake. We all need reminding. We tend to forget. We tend to drift from what is most important. We tend to drift to activity while lacking the heart behind the activity.
