“Strategy is only as meaningful as the vision that gives it life; but a vision is only as effective as the strategy that gives it legs.”
What? I couldn’t believe my professor from Minneapolis knew about First Priority and what we were up against as leaders! I heard this in a class lecture I was listening to by Justin Irving, who is in charge of the leadership doctorate at Bethel Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. I guess he must have lived in Birmingham two decades ago when Mark Roberts helped start it there. He went on to share the ABCDEF’s of Vision Casting as:
- Appropriate: it connects in a meaningful way to who you are
What is more appropriate than for Christian students to share Jesus with their peers?
- Bold: it challenges things and asks for more than what is presently given
FP extends your student ministry (not just you) to the school.
- Clear: immediately understandable
FP helps students reach students at school. Clear enough?
- Desirable: immediate value
Students who begin a relationship with Jesus do need a place to be followed up with and discipled. How about your church?
- Energizing: simple and satisfying; challenges and motivates; helps everyone say ‘ME TOO!’
How about when a student hears about Jesus at school and takes his whole family to church? Happens every year multiple times.
- Feasible: Continuity with reality. It separates wise leadership from the dreamers.
First Priority is possible. It happens all over the country for the first time every month of the year in cities, suburbs, counties, small towns, and villages. It can happen in the school closest to you too.
“A vision with feasibility is more than a pipe dream… Strategy provides both a logic and a first level of detail to show how a vision can be accomplished.” John Kotter Would you take a look [again] at our First Steps guide to see how our strategy can help you see “The Hope of Christ in Every Student” in your school this year? With 300,000 churches and close to 69,000 public middle and high schools in America, together we can reach them all.
