Some of the language of “vision casting” makes me uncomfortable. It suggests that leaders are modern day prophets who receive some kind of unique anointing of the Holy Spirit and special revelation from God. I try to avoid such talk.

Nevertheless, leaders should be visionary. They must be visionary. Vision is the refusal to accept the status quo, but to always believe things could be better than they currently are. Perhaps one way to describe it is this: Vision is a desire and a plan to honor God by making things better.

Vision implies that you’re going somewhere. You’re “looking” down the road, off to the horizon, imagining what could be. It recognizes that you haven’t arrived yet. It is the ability to dream big and bold, to imagine, to mentally construct an alternate reality that, with God’s help, could become a reality.

Noah had a vision to build an ark — led by God’s specific instructions. He could see it in his mind’s eye long before he hammered in the final plank. Nehemiah had a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Paul had a vision to plant churches across the Roman empire. Vision is often a desire to build something or improve something that is currently broken or incomplete. It’s not necessarily a judgment that things are “bad.” Just that they could be better.

The motivation in any vision should be a genuine desire to glorify God — not personal glory or self-gratification. When you have a vision, you have a passion, a drive, a tenacity, and thirst for righteousness. One of the words the Bible uses is “zeal.” It was a zeal for the house of the Lord that drove Jesus to send away the moneychangers and re-establish the temple as a house of prayer.

Lastly, vision is not just a desire, but it has a plan. It is capable of breaking down a big idea into smaller parts. You have to think through possible solutions and outcomes, narrow down options, identify ways forward. A vision involves action steps, delegation, communication, establishing goals, and measuring progress in phases. If you’re going to be a person of vision, you must help people take ownership of the task and celebrate God’s work along the way.

Lord give us bold, visionary, humble, faith-filled men!