Originally written for TonyMorganLive.com

I’ve noticed a common trait among many pastors and leaders. I’m no exception. Every one of us wants to be right.

We don’t want to waste others’ time making up for our mistakes. We’d rather not disappoint our staff, elders, and congregation. And we certainly don’t want to send our churches racing toward the wrong target. So when it comes to setting vision, we often take our time to ensure it is bold enough but not unreasonable. When it comes to clarifying our strategy, we consider every option and then create a few more, all in hopes of not missing the “right” answer.

All of this effort and thought is intended to protect our churches from our own wrong decisions. Unfortunately, in our attempts to lead correctly, we end up doing something worse than being wrong:

We end up doing nothing at all.

Without a clear mission, vision, and strategy, a church generates much activity that yields little to no progress. People stay busy maintaining too many ministries that have little impact. Eventually, and often too late, leaders realize they are stuck.