man of vision sharing

For those who watch Naruto, you probably know who this person is. He is considered to be one of the strongest and greatest leader of the ninja world, Minato Namikaze, the 4th hokage (leader of the Fire Country). He is really cool and ownage.

In the very first chapter/episode, it is told that he sacrificed his life to protect the village from a fox beast. So we don't get to see much of this cool guy. 

What is really cool is this idea of the "will of the fire". Since the first hokage, there is a vision for the ninjas to use their strength to protect their village. This vision is pass on to all the ninjas of the Fire Country. Therefore, even if the cool 4th hokage died, the "will of the fire" continues with the remaining ninjas, who will fight to protect the village.

In a similar way, leaders gets a vision from God, and needs to share this vision to the rest of the Christian community because:

• a vision from God deals with people (convicting people of sin, challenging people to mature, encouraging more prayer and outreach, etc)
• a leader cannot make a vision happen by him/herself
• Christian community can confirm the vision

I mentioned that a leader's role is to influence people towards the direction of God's vision, therefore a leader has to share this vision to convict people that God is calling them. Let's look at Nehemiah:

"The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work.

 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.”  I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me.

   They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work." 

- Nehemiah 2:16-18

Nehemiah tells them "let us rebuild the wall" because this is the vision God gave him in chapter 1. He also shares that God has shown him grace (gaining king's favors) which confirms that testifies that God is in his side. This encourages the Jews who readily agreed and began this good work.

Vision sharing is quite key in a fellowship, because in order to improve the current state of things, to move towards where God wants, the leader(s) alone cannot take the whole job, but it is also everyone else. Therefore, the vision needs to be communicated in a way that impacts everyone. If everyone "catches" this vision, then everyone will participate in being used by God to move this fellowship to where God wants. Even if the leaders are to "disappear", the rest of the fellowship will be able to continue the good work.