A suggestion to leaders:

When you’re trying to motivate the people you lead, motivate them with the vision, not the strategy.

At Elevation, our vision is fixed: So that people far from God will be filled with life in Christ.
More specifically, our vision is to Dominate the city of Charlotte with the Gospel and the grace of Jesus Christ.
One level deeper, our short term vision is to reach 10,000 people by the year 2010.
I talk about this vision almost every Sunday. My key leaders can repeat it in their sleep. This vision will not change… come hell or high water.

But the strategy? Well, that changes all the time.
Because the strategy is not sacred.
It is only a vehicle for the vision.

When you motivate people according to the strategy, what happens when the strategy needs to change? Infighting, disillusionment, and a thousand cries of: “that’s not the way we used to do it.” The net result is paralysis and division.

When people are motivated by the vision, strategies can come and go, and it’s all good. Life goes on, because the vision is the constant and reliable.
If a church is galvanized by the vision, it won’t be polarized by ever changing strategies.

As long as God is moving among a people, the strategy will be a moving target as well.
It is the job of the leader to keep all eyes on Jesus and His ultimate vision in every season of shifting strategies.