About a year or so ago I noticed one of my tires had gone flat, so I put on the spare and took the original tire to my local tire shop. I assumed as before that I had picked up a nail on the road (this seems to happen to me FAR MORE OFTEN THAN MOST). Upon looking at the tire, the mechanic pronounced, “there’s nothing in the tire, you may just have a leak.” When I pressed him on how this happened, he stated that tires just get old and start leaking.

In several conversations over the past 2 weeks inside and outside the church, I’ve heard the phrase “vision leaks”. To step away from the cliche for a moment, what actually happens is that the structure or vision that was originally created or cast rallied people together but eventually, without proper care, reinforcement, etc the original motivation is lost. Usually it’s because people can’t remember why they are doing what they’re doing. They signed up to teach this class on recruitment Sunday or joined a small group at a GroupLife event or pledged to support a missionary after watching a video or started attending the church because they loved the intentionality of ministry here, or…

…but now they can’t remember why.

Sometimes this can look like:
- discord and discontentment among staff and volunteers
- new, “alternative” systems created
- lack of energy and excitement
- or a million other things

So what do you do?

Don’t panic and change the vision, charge after new endeavors, or placate to people just to generate new excitement.

- Go back to your original answer to the question “why?”
- Look for ways (new, creative, or otherwise) to communicate that.
- Be consistent in your language. (for a great example read THIS POST from Kevin Lloyd)

Things may not be as bad as you think. You may just have a leak.