Today we welcome Jaime Hlavin back to the blog. For the past two years, the majority of church leaders have been “playing defense.” Visioning, strategizing, and team-building took a back seat to . . . survival. Our sense at Converge Coaching is the pendulum is swinging toward “playing offense.” And in today’s post, Jaime gives further clarity and strength to that notion. Enjoy ~ John

My husband is the leader of a Christian denomination in the state of Michigan—which is organized into “sections” in accordance with our organization’s governance. Each March, the sections come together for an annual meeting to discuss and celebrate the previous year as well as nominate individuals for the various leadership roles in our fellowship. As the leader—or Superintendent—my husband makes a point to attend as many of those meetings as possible in an effort to connect with the ministers and churches around our network.

Last week, we traveled all over “The Mitten” (what we as Michiganders affectionately call our state) to attend as many of these meetings as possible. In addition to this tour, we’ve had the opportunity to connect with leaders and churches in our network in other ways as well: A statewide Fine Arts Festival of teenagers in our network the previous weekend and a women-in-ministry conference led by me the weekend before. I say all of this to contend that we have a pretty good sense of the pulse of what leaders in our state our feeling right now—and it’s very encouraging!

And to improve matters even more, establishments with drive through windows are keeping longer and more reliable hours! So, when we needed a little caffeine jolt for the road, we didn’t have to stop at sketchy gas stations in the middle of nowhere. That was pretty crazy there for a while—nothing was open. Ever. It felt a little apocalyptic.

Anyway. Back to the topic at hand.

There is excitement. People are healing from the hurts of the past two years and creatively forging new paths in their churches and organizations.

Back in December, John and Jim did a podcast on “The Great Resignation” and how pastors and ministry leaders were succumbing to it as well. There were two action points within that particular episode:

1. Get a fresh start in a new place.
2. Stay in the same location and jump in with both feet—which included casting vision, creating strategy, making disciples and inviting others to join you.

What we are seeing as we toured the state are that both of those things are happening: new leaders in new locations as well as veterans who decided to stay and jump in with both feet. The results feel like a fresh start and there is an exciting sense of momentum within our network.

As vision is reinvigorating churches and organizations, it’s important to keep in mind some guiding principles to remember if and when things get bumpy:

• Vision creates a clear picture of where you want to go as a church and/or organization.
• Vision helps create simplicity and avoids overcomplication.
• Vision creates energy and momentum.
• Vision requires ongoing strategy.
• Vision will guide you to putting the right people in the right places.

We have several recent podcasts you can listen to for more insight on this topic. Feel free to give a quick listen:

• Episode 127 – Getting Back to Vision
• Episode 128 – A Playbook that Moves Your Organization Toward Its Vision
• Episode 129 – The Right Players With the Right Stuff

Not only are we rooting and praying for you as you take steps either toward vision or continue down the exciting path you’re already on—we are excited about what God has in store for each of you personally as well!

Cheering for you,

Jaime