I’ve had a few people ask me my opinion on the presidential debate that took place this past Friday…so, I will share it here…and also be VERY transparent as to what God taught me through watching.
Honestly, both me drove me absolutely crazy!
I speak for a living…and so I pay close attention to communication styles and techniques. And NEITHER of these men went into the debate focused on the subject…because…
THEY LITERALLY WASTED THE TIME OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS because they were OBSESSED WITH TEARING EACH OTHER APART!
All they did was attack each other! They literally could NOT speak for more than two minutes without tearing the other person down.
Why did this bother me? Because NEITHER one of them took the time to actually focus on casting a compelling vision of the way things could be and should be.
I literally wanted to scream at the television, “I KNOW you don’t like the other guy…leave him alone! STOP trying to instill fear in me because of all you perceive that he wants to do! TELL ME YOUR PLAN…DREAM BIG…CAST VISION…LEAVE YOUR TALKING POINTS AND OWN WHAT YOU BELIEVE!!!” AHHHHHHH!
I honestly believe the first candidate that will stop trying to smear the other person and simply focuses in vision…the one who can simply share from his heart what he wants to see for the country and STOP being so freakin’ negative…that guy will win!
There needs to be a point of realization for both of these men that they SHOULD NOT try to define themselves by declaring who they are not…but rather who they are!!!
People are SO turned off to negativity…which brings me to my next point…which is SO convicting…
While I was sitting there steaming over having wasted time watching two grown men go “Jr. High” on one another I realized that, as a leader, I’ve been so guilty of the same thing…wasting people’s time declaring who we are NOT as a church rather than casting a compelling vision of who we should be and could be!
It is so easy as a pastor to fall into the temptation of defining yourself by declaring all of the things you are against…but what will truly impact people is when we begin to declare what we are for.
It’s a leaders job to cast vision and focus people on the future, not to be in a constant state of comparison. I wrestle with this—every leader I know does; however, I honestly believe that the more passionate and obsessive we become about VISION…the more of a difference God will allow our churches to have.
This is an area of my life I think I will always wrestle with…but I am in a constant state of prayer, begging God that He will guide me to lead with vision and not with criticism and fear.