TAKE A RISK ON YOUR VISION

Take A Risk On Your Vision.

As a leader it’s important to know that vision is important to have, but what are you going to do with it?  This post is intended to inspire you to TAKE A RISK ON YOUR VISION!

Your vision is the thing that will propel you forward and draw the resources you need to live your dream.  One reason why it is vital to have vision as a leader is because your organization and at times your livelihood can depend on it.  I hope this true testimony encourages you.

About this time last year I had a vision to start a church.  I did not know how that would happen, where the resources would come from, or who would buy into the vision.  All I knew is that it was in my heart to start a church, and I believed so strongly in this vision I was willing to take a risk.  Well, I did just that.  What vision do you have? Are you taking a risk?  In college I was a business major and when studying the stock market there was a principle of “low risk, low reward” and “high risk , high reward.”  Your vision is a risk and at times the bigger your risk the bigger the results can be.

RISK 1 – DON’T BE AFRAID OF REJECTION IT WILL HAPPEN - We needed a space for our service on Sunday. So many hotels and banquet halls were booked or not open to us having a Sunday service.  I spent much time on the phone and emailing venues to no avail.  But one day I drove around the area of town I was lead to start our church and went to various hotels.  I went to one particular hotel and said I would like to have a church service here.  Although I had faced rejection I was not afraid of being told “no” by this point.  I had never been to this hotel nor did I know if they would be open to hosting us.  However, the risk I took that day lead us to a location to host our first service and the foundation of our church.  What if I let rejection stop the vision? Where would we be?  Rejection is not meant to stop you, but to lead you to the right place and timing for your vision to be birthed.

RISK 2 – DON’T FOCUS ON WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE TODAY, FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT TO HAVE TOMORROW. Now we needed the money to pay for the hotel.  I didn’t have a donor base or any funding from a support organization at the time. So what did I do?  I took a risk.  I put some skin in the game.  If you are going to take a risk be aware that you will have to put “your money where your mouth is”.  I did just that.  I paid for the hotel out of pocket for our first service and trusted that the resources would follow to reimburse me. Well, to my surprise that’s just what happened.  The risk I took on my vision lead to provision. The truth is most businesses start with a large personal investment of the visionary.   This is normal.  Just go with it.

RISK 3 – DON’T THINK YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE, WHERE GOD GIVES VISION, GOD GIVES PROVISION.  About the time I was ready to figure out how to pay for our next rental out of pocket I got a phone call out of the blue.  It was a call from a church planting organization that we were going to receive a large donation to start our ministry. Some friends of the organization saw I was starting a church on Facebook and a group of Pastors came together to donate financially to this great cause.  If God has conceived a vision in you trust that God will help you to give birth to this vision.

You may not be starting a church, but you do have a vision.  You are a leader, and leaders live, eat, and sleep with their vision.  Work your vision today and trust that the provision will follow.  TAKE A RISK ON YOUR VISION SO THE PROVISION CAN COME!

Jonathan Richardson, M.Div. is the Pastor of Faith Forward Church and CEO of

 Faith Forward Enterprises, INC. and Faith Forward Group, LLC.