Buy-in: Bridging the vision gap

The Importance of Buy-In

You can have the greatest vision in the word. The most God-given vision…the most inspiring vision! Without buy-in, it will never come to pass.

And the buy-in of the leaders in this room forms the bridge that ensures the vision reaches the entire body.

IF the people in this room don’t buy-in, the Sunday morning church attendee will not buy-in…the average church member will not buy-in…for sure the guest that is new to the church will not buy-in…As important as vision may be…it is the buy-in that bridges the gap and makes vision a reality.

If we look at the sports world, probably the most prolific coach of the 2000’s would be bill Belichick of the dynasty, New England Patriots. In a 17 year stretch, He guided the Patriots to 9 Super Bowls, winning 6 of them.

But prior to his prolific reign with the Patriots he was the failed and fired coach with the Cleveland Browns. After 5 season, making the playoffs only once, and only one winning season, he was fired from leading the franchise.

Perhaps the greatest difference between the two experiences, all comes down to buy-in. In Cleveland, Bilicheck failled to get the buy-in from former 1st overall pick in the NFL draft, Bernie Cosar. The franchise quarterback revolted agains Bilichecks coaching style and refused to buy into his vision.

Contrast that with the Patriots where he won the buy-in of 6th round, 199th overall pick Quarterback Tom Brady. Brady bought into the vision of his coach and formed a nearly unstoppable offense.

Wether it be in business, sports, government or the church…Anywhere that there is leadership and vision…buy-in is critical.

Biblical buy-in miracles

When you read these stories through the lens of a leader, these are as great of miracles, as water being turned into wine, lepers being healed and the dead being raised.

Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:1–6 KJV 1900

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

According to Rabbinic tradition, Babel is known as the “land of Nimrod”. It is believed that Nimrod was the leader that led the movement to build this tower that reached to the heavens.

There seems to be no division among them.

- The idea is introduced to make bricks out of mud and burn them thoroughly

Everyone believes that their next best move is to make bricks.

There is not once dissenting opinion. Not one person is saying…I think that we should be focused on farming the land. Or I think that we should build the tower out of wood, or some other material. They are all united on the vision of building a tower that reaches to the sky. There is no second guessing. No alternate opinions. Everyone is on the same page.

To the point that God himself comes down and confuses their language.

The bible doesn’t say a lot about this man named Nimrod. And while we can’t definitively determine that he was the leader in charge of this incredible operation…Nimrod, or whomever it was, is without a doubt an incredible leader. Misguided in purpose, but an incredible leader nonetheless.

Building the Tabernacle in the wilderness

Exodus 29:42–45 KJV 1900

42 This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. 43 And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. 44 And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office. 45 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

Exodus 36:5–7 KJV 1900

5 And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. 6 And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. 7 For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.

Again it kind of just glosses over what an incredible miracle this is.

This has to be the only Time in the history of humanity that a leader has had to restrain the people from giving.

Never, as a pastor…have I every had to get up and say…please everyone…I am going to have to ask you to stop giving. WE have way more than what we need and there will be penalties for those of you that continue giving.

The people are so bought-in, that they have to be restrained from giving!

Joshua 6:10–16 KJV 1900

10 And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout. 11 So the ark of the Lord compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp. 12 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. 14 And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days. 15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times. 16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.

not just while they walked around the walls. Vs. 10 said, until the day that I tell you to shout. That was the 7th day.

Anyone ever tried the quiet game with your kids? How does that go for you? We are lucky to make it 7 minutes.

These are miraculous occasions of incredible buy-in.

Principles of buy-in (from these passages:

1. There has to be a compelling cause!

Tower of Babel —> Tower that will reach the heavens

Tabernacle —> Build this tower and God will meet with us there and dewll with us.

Jericho —> The walls are going to fall down flat

2. 2. There has to be opportunity for others to get involved

Make bricks from mortar

A call to bring an offering toward the building of the temple

March together around the walls

3. There has to be an end in sight

When we reach the heavens

Enough resource for the temple to be built

Seven days

Many today are moving in the opposite direction…we believe the solution is to present a sensible cause…something that isn’t going to require too much out of those that we are leading. We want it to be practical…and easily obtainable. But buy-in is created by a compelling cause.

A tower that reaches the heavens Building the temple Conquering Jericho

Five Pillars of buy-in

(5 Pillars of buy-in) 5 commitments we must make if we are going to buy-into the vision of the leader and bridge the vision gap.

1.Pillar #1: As leaders, we must buy into the leader, before we buy-into the vision.

John Maxwell in his book 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, the 14th law is the law of buy-in…he states that leaders always buy-in to people before they buy into vision.

The quote that encapsulates this principle is:

“People don’t at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote causes they can believe in.”

how can we do that?

I believe the people bought into Joshua for several reasons.

They watched him first faithfully serve Moses They witnessed God’s hand upon him…before they were willing to walk around Jericho and remain silent for 7 days, they had walked across the dry river Jordan, (Read Joshua 3…powerful chapter on God elevating leaders in the eyes of people)…They had precedent. They had watched him serve first

As “following leaders” we must buy into the man that God has chosen to lead!

2. Pillar #2: We must buy-into the vision

Receive the vision as being from God

I do believe that God entrusts his vision to man. But we will never fully buy-into the vision as long as we see it as a man’s vision. We must trust that it is God’s vision that he gave to man.

Engage at the conceptualizing stage.

This is why it is important that we buy-into the man first. Leaders are hesitant to invite us into the conceptual stage if there is not strong trust.

- I am very, very careful who I allow into the newborn phase of the vision God has given me. It doesn’t take much to kill vision. And there are some leaders that I know have still not bought into me, and so I know they will be careless with my vision (God’s vision that he gave me).

Share ideas! Invest yourself into what it can be!!

So, 1…Buy into the leader, 2…Buy into the vision…

3. Pillar #3: Invest your passion

There is nothing more difficult than leading leaders that aren’t motivated. They aren’t excited. You feel like you are inconveniencing them and having to continually get them on board.

As a leader, leading leaders…it takes the energy that I should be using to move the organization when I am feeling challenged by a leader. That they aren’t bought in…but when a leader is beside me…with passion and energy, I can invest my attention to leading the organization forward. The engineer that is overseeing the building of the bridge is not serving the project wisely if he is calling the guy who is tightening bolts and convoking him to show up to work tomorrow…no his energy and focus needs to be on the big picture.

4. Pillar #4: Question privately, affirm publicly

Secure leaders aren’t afraid of questions.

But there is a right time and place for questions.

Nothing can halt momentum and tear down trust, than questioning publicly.

5. Pillar #5 Speak faith!

Joshua spoke faith as a follower before he spoke faith as a leader.

- First as a following leader At kadesh Barnea…

- Then leading leaders

Before they crossed the Jordan

Before they marched around Jericho.

You will lead how you follow. You can’t be skeptical and cynical as a follower and expect to be filled with faith as a leader.

If you are negative as a follower, you will be negative as a leader.

Armchair quarterbacks…if I was the leader I would…No you wouldn’t. Your sitting on the couch with a bag of Doritos and a Dr. Pepper…you wouldn’t have outrun that linebacker. You wouldn’t have thrown that football 50 yards into the wind!!!

Speak faith as a following leader and you will speak faith when you are leading followers!