Here is a quick lesson for any Church Revitalizer about making it all worth it for you, your church, and your community as you build value.

Your Vision Must Be Compelling

You cannot build value for church members, prospects, volunteers, lay leadership, or the community without a compelling vision and values for your new church.

Become a Significant Leader in Your Community

You build value by becoming the leader in your community, the church that everybody wants to attend, work for, grow from, or support. It takes tremendous confidence to stake out the territory and to lead others toward it.

Withstand the Loneliness of Leading Lay People

You have to withstand the doubts and loneliness of pastoral leadership. At the same time you have to acknowledge to yourself and others that you don’t always know how you will reach your destination.

Trust Your Laity First, In Time They Will Trust You

For others to follow you through times of uncertainty requires mutual trust and faith.

That is what clarity of vision and commitment to values can bring. I once thought that the test of personal leadership was the number of people that follow a leader. But what is more rewarding is to look across a church and see the number of leaders in place, people who share a common aspiration and have the tools and wisdom—the vision and values—to achieve something great. That is any church revitalizer’s greatest legacy, to make “IT” all worth it for everyone. Then you know your vision is on right track.