Be Mean About the Vision by Shawn Lovejoy

Author:Shawn Lovejoy [Lovejoy, Shawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2016-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

VISION MAVERICKS

Some hitchhikers are just up to no good. They are going the direction they are going because they like calling their own shots. They drift from one place to another, looking to stir up some action and adventure. Some hitchhikers have a rebellious streak. They get used to their own way of doing things. They are lone rangers. They are what I call vision mavericks.

The scariest thing to me about vision mavericks is the fact that they tend to be some of the most gifted people you’ve ever met. They’re intelligent. They’re extroverted. People love talking to them. Vision mavericks stand out from the rest of the crowd. They usually have highly charismatic personalities. They are natural leaders. When they join an organization, they build friendships quickly. They build circles of influence. When they speak, people tend to listen. Mavericks have usually been leaders or have led people and initiatives in the past. They may have even been successful in the past in some sort of leadership, and often in a high-level career. They can tell a good story. They can make a good first impression. They can be convincing. We tend to be impressed by vision mavericks.

At first, vision mavericks don’t seem like mavericks at all. They make us laugh. They’re good with people. They tell us they love us. They tell us they love it in our organization—that they love where we are going. They say they are glad to be along for the ride, and they are on board with where we’re headed. But the longer we listen to and observe them, the more we grow concerned. The longer they are around, the more we recognize we might not all be reading from the same page of the playbook.

Vision mavericks have lots of ideas and suggestions. Some of them are good ideas, and well . . . you know what I mean. Remember that there’s a difference between a good idea and a God idea. Some ideas serve the vision, and some don’t. Vision mavericks often have ideas that have agenda attached to them, but that is hard to spot at first. This is one of the reasons we should be slower to place people into leadership positions in our organizations. Mavericks want to lead. They want a platform. They want to teach something—as soon as possible.

1 Timothy 3 cautions church leaders about putting people into leadership too quickly, without knowing their true character and reputation. We can filter out some vision mavericks by slowing down our leadership placement process. For years at Mountain Lake Church where I served, before anyone could lead a small group Bible Study, they had to have been in a group as a participant for at least six months. Most of the time, it was for a year or more. We rarely placed someone into an influential role without allowing some time to pass to test someone’s character. Vision mavericks usually want to lead but cannot follow. The kinds of leaders we are looking for must know how to do both.

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