An enormous, replicable lesson comes from the Wright Brothers’ story.

More than bicycle pioneers, they were problem solvers.

They alone discovered a powerful truth: mechanized flight could not be achieved without getting three things to occur at once:

Lift. Power. Control.

Other flight dreamers across the globe failed to become famous because they did not see the multifaceted answer.

I argue that if churches are not executing across multiple levels of the mission enterprise, the gospel impact of members will not get off the ground.

Church leaders have another practice that can deepen their leadership well.

The entire church benefits when a leader recognizes that vision must be pursued holistically and systematically.

Vision, training, and support systems must become integral to the mission.

This sort of leadership excellence is rare.

Partly because it is so easy to shortcut it.

It is easy to settle for less.

Bible-teaching leaders can be tempted to believe all anyone needs is their sermons along with their existing ministries.

It is understandable.

Bible teaching is critically important for everyone.

Still, the mission field is out there.

And it is increasingly diverse, distant, and difficult to navigate.

Specialized equipping and engagement learning are no longer optional.

Deep Well Development, Practice #3: Infrastructure

In evaluating the seven voices in Game of Pulpits, I make predictions about what will happen with church leadership.

I use a filtering grid:

Do leaders have the Wisdom, Will, and Wherewithal to respond?

I am delving into the qualitative dimension of vision, but also into how vision must be implemented at multiple tiers in order to work.

It is the deep well of the leader—the leader who passionately wants Christ’s glory to expand through the gospel—that leads them to build layered infrastructure inside their church.

It is the leader’s well that raises the levels of the entire body.

Wisdom. Will. Wherewithal.

When assessing wisdom, will, and wherewithal, church leaders can fall down in one, two, or all three.

They may fail to have the wisdom to envision Christ-like missional discipleship. It is not uncommon for the members to have a bigger vision for discipleship and mission-empowerment than their top leaders.

It’s natural to place focus on our services, getting people into small groups, serving, and giving. Yet, not develop members in the mission arena. 

This is when even faithful people become frustrated.

Healthy “keeper” folks leave. Out the back door.

Wisdom is the clarity piece who believes in a fuller discipleship vision. 

The leader buys into a dream for their people to become Christ-like in their love for the lost and the realization of their higher discipleship calling. 

In other cases, the proper vision exists at the top, but the will—the courage and conviction—or the wherewithal—the practical know-how—is missing.

We arrive at the place where the rubber meets the road. The leadership team must act courageously and develop training systems that support the gospel reaching beyond its walls. and through the members who have untapped spheres of influence.

In fact, with some redesign of mission training, I believe we could dramatically increase gospel fruit.

How about quadrupling the number of baptisms? 

How about tenfold?

But it takes leadership to buy into something different from the ministry mainstay.

It takes leadership to believe Jesus for more impact from every seated church member.

You can make your own diagnosis of your infrastructure.

But don’t miss my point: Gospel-mission can fall down at many levels.

View Leadership Vision in Tiers

Drawing on the Wright Brothers lesson, your church will succeed when three elements are working together:

Vision redesign + Supporting systems and structure + Effectual training and skills

The leader’s deep well must be deep enough to include everyone.

What the future church needs are pastors with huge visions for the empowerment of their people.

Not just greasing the skids on the attractional machine to offer inviting community services, but addressing how their people can play a significant role in the Great Commission of Christ.

The body must become engaged in developing a wide, culture-penetrating vision where each member learns how to become more effective in the disciple-making endeavor.

Vision-supporting structures and effective training draw out from leaders the stuff of greatness:

• Honest candor.
• Team collaboration.
• Expanding creativity.
• Training insights.
• Engagement experiences.
• Movement stories.
• Lavish celebration.

This is where vision becomes more than an idea.

It becomes a movement.

Building Structures That Empower the Whole Church

1. Visionary Leaders Need Complementary Implementers

Who are the key administrative and implementation-oriented leaders in your mix?

Who can organize?

Who can build systems?

Who can get things in place?

Visionary leaders need people who can translate vision into structure and action.

2. Develop Trainers from the Trenches

Your best teaching-trainers for your infrastructure often come from the trenches.

Fruit is evident.

They have insights because they are doing it.

Look for people who understand the value of building relationships outside the church.

You need to impart a relational model because it is doable for the entire body.

Aggressive, telling-style evangelism can be a turnoff for many people. It may not fit their natural relational patterns.

And when relationally cold, it does not position members to fulfill Jesus’ commission to make disciples who fold into the church.

A relational model gives ordinary believers a pathway to live out the mission within the relationships they already have.

3. Mobilize to Meet the Needs of Your Community

Mobilization to meet needs in the subcultures of your community is part of this infrastructure.

So is what we call Advanced Training.

This is where you teach members how to get alongside people who are more distant from faith and become effective in reaching them.

The mission field is diverse and challenging.

Consider the people around you:

• The irreligious.
• Skeptics.
• Indifferent secularists.
• People of other faiths.
• God-accusers.
• People turned off to church or Christianity by political perceptions.
• People wounded by bad church experiences.

These people require different forms of engagement.

The mission field is diverse.

It is challenging.

It requires specialization.

And when it comes to training your people:

You get what you aim for.

Praying for the Leader’s Well

May God do something fresh, deep, and powerful in you so that its wake moves through the whole church body.

May the depth of your leadership become a source from which others can drink.

May your vision become their empowerment.

May your systems become pathways for mission.

May your training become gospel influence.

Standing with you for His glory!

I leave you with a favorite Olympic illustration from gymnast Aly Raisman.

After winning team gold in 2016, she made a visually striking gesture: she took off her medal and placed it around the neck of her coach.

It was a beautiful tribute to the person who helped get her there.

That is what we need from church leaders today and into the future.

Pastor-teachers and their systems should work together to raise every member for gospel and disciple-making impact.

And then, the day will dawn when people will honor the equippers who got them there.

Ready to Deepen Your Leadership Well?

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Game of Pulpits: The 7 Voices Vying for the Kingdom: Who Will Win & Why?

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