Creating a Vision Together By Andrea Leigh Capuyan

The Power of a Shared Vision

The new year marks a time for leaders to focus on future vision and further organizational growth. This means we spend time cementing our vision, imagining, and forming plans for the year ahead. It is a cultivating process—tending, pruning, shaping. The best ones are crafted collectively. It is work done together, not in isolation, with leaders sharing their hopes and including others’ desires. It’s a process that requires us to remove communication barriers and widen our horizons.

The Imagination of Many

Much of the work of leaders, pastors, and ministry founders occupies the creative realm. Like writers looking at a blank page, it is the art of birthing a story. My husband and I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy fiction. Some of our favorite stories are those of J.R.R. Tolkien. His books capture the imagination of many, so much so that others have expanded on them.

What Tolkien accomplished prompts me to ponder: When does a story no longer belong to its author? When we offer our stories and art to the world – how does the “owner” expand beyond a sole creator’s mind? How does our creation take on a life of its own? Likewise, how can a leader inspire a collaborative process? Vision creation includes others and depends on multiple perspectives and dreams mingling and merging. It is a marriage. The outcomes can no longer be MINE; instead, they are OURS – shared.

The Danger of Single Ownership

The danger is we often hijack a vision for our ends. The ministry or church we lead becomes our “intellectual property.” We claim rights to it. We do this to our detriment and the detriment of the organization. I am not suggesting that our individual, unique voice is irrelevant. Indeed, today’s technological advances challenge the boundaries of copyright and definitions of plagiarism. Stealing someone’s work is a serious violation of trust. Yet, if we view our work as “personal property,” we strangle potential. Our story is short-changed.

Creativity and imagination are gifts entrusted to our care. God places these gifts in our care to hold and share. It is a tricky endeavor, and we must loosen our grip, allowing these gifts to rest lightly in our open hands.

The Beauty of Co-Creation

I am fascinated that God chose to incorporate human beings into the revelation of his story. For example, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John convey the story of Jesus Christ’s life through four unique perspectives, intentions, experiences, and goals—their similarities and differences envelope mystery and beauty. God invites us—His Church—to co-create with him. God’s creative work is communal, collaborative, and expansive.

Following his pattern requires humility and courage. Inviting others to co-create is risky business; perhaps we fear distractions, imprecision, and indecision. In God’s work, his Spirit brings focus and prompts forward movement—growth. As leaders, we offer discernment, which helps filter and focus effort. Yet, there is an important caveat—we are not the Holy Spirit, and we do not hold the market on His voice.

Our understanding and interpretation of God’s activity must always be held loosely because we are fallible and limited. And God is okay with our inability – He will still inspire and work through us. Likewise, as leaders, we welcome the collaborative vision process – inviting creativity AND mistakes from others – a messy endeavor. We create and birth a vision together through highs and lows through missteps and mountain tops.

The Open Posture

I believe a vision is meant to evolve. It is constantly being defined and refined. It is responsive and dynamic, not static. This requires that we prioritize evaluation. Curiosity and wonder allow us to maintain an open posture as we hold the gift of a vision before us. In my experience, ministry visions are often born from our personal history. The joy and pain of our journey are seeds for future hopes and dreams.

The challenge is that these seeds can often become weeds. We become trapped in what was, desiring to “fix” what will be. In this way, our past controls us and impairs our vision. Breaking this cycle requires leaders to cast their vision before others for their input – for correction and revision. We lose wisdom and insight if we are unwilling to examine our motivations continually. We must constantly confront our deeply held beliefs about who we are if we don’t want to be sidelined by idol worship. Without personal reflection and accountability, we stifle the story God is writing.

Always Stronger Together

Take time today to gather with your team and co-create for this year. Invite differing perspectives and questions, and even invite difficult personalities.

What voices are missing from your vision table? How is your ministry’s story expanding?
Where is it stunted or retracting?
What lessons were learned in the past year?
How does that impact your direction for the future?
Where are you stuck in your past? What needs to be grieved?
What needs to be celebrated?
What do you wish was different?

Listen and learn. Let others write the vision. Your story is not your own – you are not crafting an autobiography but contributing to an unending adventure.

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Andrea Leigh Capuyan serves on the Center for Steward Leader Studies board and is the executive director of the LPC. This local ministry helps individuals impacted by unintended pregnancy, reproductive loss, and post-abortion recovery. She also provides coaching and consultation, assisting others in experiencing abundance as leaders. Andrea is a Credentialed Christian Nonprofit Leader (CCNL) with the Christian Leadership Alliance and holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership from York University.