LESSON TWO

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADER ABRAHAM Leading Through Vision and Risk

Where there is no vision the people perish. Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a ditch. Matthew 15:14 I came. I saw. I conquered. -Julius Caesar I. THE ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADER I A. What is an entrepreneurial leader? A person who organizes, manages, and assumes responsibility for a business or other enterprise. The Random House Dictionary B. Who is the biblical model of the entrepreneurial leader? Abraham: Abraham took significant risks in leaving the security of his homeland, leading his family from Ur to the Promise Land on the basis of Gods vision for his life. In this action, he modeled the principles of entrepreneurial leadership. C. Where do entrepreneurial leaders lead? 1. Entrepreneurial leaders are the innovators of society, transforming the world as it is into a New World order, as they perceive it. 2. The entrepreneurial leader is the pacesetter in culture being the first to introduce what becomes a fad, then trend and ultimately an icon of the new culture. 3. The entrepreneur is the man or woman with a dream that against all odds builds a new business that accomplishes all he/she dreams and much more. In the process, they introduce new technologies, products and services into the world in which they live. 4. The entrepreneur is the inventor who sees a problem as a challenge and finds a workable solution others failed to see.
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5. The entrepreneur is the pioneer church planter who goes to a city and establishes a church, or the pioneer missionary who devotes his/her life to reaching an unreached people group. D. What problems are faced by the entrepreneurial leader? 1. They follow a vision others may find difficult to understand. 2. They may fail to secure a fellowship if they move toward their vision faster than followers can keep up. 3. They may at times be tempted to act in the absense of a clear vision of the next step. 4. They become the targets of criticism by the defenders of the status quo. 5. They face a variety of apparently insurmountable obstacles in their way simply because they are the first ones to cut a path along that trail. 6. They face the realization that no one else has ever done things that way before. 7. They experience the loneliness of leadership and may be overwhelmed by the immensity of their vision. E. What are the strengths by which entrepreneurial leaders lead? 1. The entrepreneurial leader may lead through his/her gift of evangelism having a clear vision of recruiting followers to the objective. 2. The entrepreneurial leader may lead through his/her gift of prophecy, having a clear view of things as they should be. 3. The entrepreneurial leader may lead through his/her gift of exhortation, equipping followers with clear directions and the steps they need to pursue the vision with him/her. 4. The entrepreneurial leader tends to use the Law of Dreams to communicate his/her vision to motivate others to follow. 5. The entrepreneurial leader is often Choleric in temperament. F. What dangers are inherent to entrepreneurial leaders? 1. 2. 3. 4. His/Her vision may be defective. He may take unnecessary and/or extreme risks in pursuit of his/her vision. The group culture may not be receptive to his/her vision. He/She may have difficulty raising the resources necessary to accomplish the vision. 5. He/She may lack the skills necessary to implement the vision. 6. He/She may be tempted to pursue the vision without followers. 7. Other group members may have alternative visions with greater appeal to a significant part of the group.

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G. Why does a leader need to learn vision? 1. Vision is part of what it means to be a leader. One of the early titles of the Old Testament prophet was "Seer." 2. Vision will give a leader direction. 3. Vision will give followers a dream to adopt as their own. 4. Vision will motivate us out of our complacency to achieve what might be otherwise beyond us. It stretches us to greater faith in God. 5. Vision will help us endure the dark hours and difficult days we will encounter in any leadership task. If you want to be a leader, vision is not an option; it is part of the standard equipment of a real leader. By definition, a leader has vision: what else would a leader lead people toward, if not to fulfill that vision? -George Barna The leaders job is to create a vision. -Robert L. Swiggett

The vision I believe is the key element. If there is no vision, there is no business. -Mark Leslie I have found that executive vision, or the ability to view scenarios in terms of extended planning horizons, is an integral part of the upper management psyche. Some top executives, for example, are capable of planning in 20-year time spans. -Elliot Jacques The best coaches know what the end result looks like, whether its an offensive play, a defensive play, or a defensive coverage. If you dont know what the end result is supposed to look like, you cant get there. -Vince Lombardi Leaders must obtain a vision. -F. Mark Cowherd

A leader must have a vision: he must see before others do, he must see what others do not, he must see further than others. Leadership usually begins with a vision of success; a glimmering intuition that solutions to problems are possible.

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II. HOW ABRAHAM MODELED ENTREPRENEURIAL/VISIONARY LEADERSHIP Some men see things as they are and say, Why? I dream of things that never were and say, Why not? -George Bernard Shaw A. Abrahams growing vision grew out of his _growing relationship with God. And he said, Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran. Acts 7:2 David later identified seven steps in discerning Gods vision for your life and ministry (Ps. 37:3-8). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Trust in the Lord. Do what you know is right to do. Count on _the faithfulness of God. Delight yourself in the Lord. Commit your way to the Lord. Rest in the Lord. Abandon anger, wrath and other attitudes which tend to distract you from Gods vision.

B. His vision of what God wanted to do in his life moved him out of _his comfort zone to take risks others may not have understood. And said to him, Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you. Acts 7:3 C. That vision required _a long-term commitment to the cause, even when it seemed little progress was being made. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. Acts 7:4 D. His vision called him to trust Gods faithfulness to accomplish _all He had promised.

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And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession and to his descendants after him. Acts 7:5

Who, contrary to hope, believed in hope, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, So shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarahs womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being full convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. Romans 4:18-21 E. Gods vision for his life required a trust and obey response even when he had _unanswered questions about the details of that vision. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8 F. Vision called him to make _significant lifestyle related sacrifices as he pursued a goal. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents . . . for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:9,10 G. Knowing Gods vision for his life _strengthened both him and his wife to accomplish more than they could otherwise accomplish. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Hebrews 11:11 H. Partial progress in the fulfillment for Gods vision for his life energized the process by which the greater dreams were accomplished. "Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude -- inumerable as the sand which is by the seashore." Hebrews 11:12
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I. Abrahams vision enabled him to take significant risks with confidence, knowing the vision would be realized.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son . . . concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Hebrews 11:17, 19

III. PRINCIPLES OF ENTREPRENEURIAL/VISIONARY LEADERSHIP George Barna identifies, The Nine Acts of Visionary Leadership which are the application of vision and entrepreneurial leadership principles in ones personal leadership style. A. Understand the Concept. Vision is a clear mental portrait of a preferable future, communicated by God to His chosen servant-leaders, based upon an accurate understanding of God, self and circumstance. -George Barna Vision is having an acute sense of the possible. It is seeing what others dont see. And when those with similar vision are drawn together, something extraordinary occurs. -Shearson/Lehman Brothers The most important role of visions in organizational life is to give focus to human energy. Visions are like lenses. They focus unrefracted rays of light. They enable everyone concerned with an enterprise to see more clearly what is ahead of them. - James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner To choose a direction, a leader must first have developed a mental image of a possible and desirable future state of the organization. This image, which we call a vision, may be as vague as a dream or as precise as a goal or mission statement. The critical point is that a vision articulates a view of a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization, a condition that is better in some important ways than what now exists. -Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus B. Understand the Content.
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It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. -K. Newcomger C. Own the Vision. If a man hasnt discovered something he is willing to die for, he isnt fit to live. -Martin Luther King, Jr. Habakkuk identified the steps involved in committing oneself to Gods vision for his/her life. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry (Hab. 2:2-3). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Record Gods vision for your life in a clear statement. Simplify the statement of Gods vision into an easy to remember maxim. Communicate that vision to others involved. Devote significant energies to pursuing Gods vision for your life. Keep on believing Gods vision for your life. Wait for Gods timing to accomplish all He intends to do for you.

D. Make it real. Write out your personal vision statement. 1. If you could do anything at all for God, and there were no limitations on you, what would it be? 2. How has God uniquely enabled you to accomplish that mission? E. Pass it around. The executive must find a way to communicate the vision in a way that attracts and excites members of the organization. -David E. Berlew In order to move others to share the vision, leaders (1) appeal to a common purpose, (2) communicate expressively, and (3) sincerely believe in what they are saying. -James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner F. Sell it. Leaders inspire a shared vision. They breath life into what are the hopes and dreams of others and enable them to see the exciting possibilities that the future holds. Leaders get others to buy into their dreams by showing how all will be served by a common purpose. -James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner G. Put it into action.

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The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

-Casey Stengel

Short-term goals also work to back companies into a mode of thinking that is based on forecasts (What do we think is going to happen?) rather than on vision (What do we want to happen?) -Robert H. Hayes

H. Refine the vision. If you want to be a leader of people, you must learn to watch events. -Benjamin Disraeli Lord give me eyes that I may see the mistakes of the past and foresee the answers of the future. I. Reinforce the vision. Barna suggests seven ways to reinforce the vision. 1. By expressing appreciation for their involvement. 2. By celebrating their successes. 3. By constantly recommunicating the vision in new ways, in unique but relevant contexts. 4. By providing them with insight into progress made. 5. By describing the growth of the movement or the effect of the cause. 6. By letting them observe, in unguarded moments, your genuine and unbridled enthusiam for the vision, the people who have caught and nurtured it and the forward movement that is evident. 7. By finding new ways to motivate people who are on the verge of burnout or loss of perspective.

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