The first quote came from Sam Chand and picked up speed at Leadership Network's i3 conference in Dallas. The quote is "Toxic Culture Trumps Vision" Listen to Sam's fantastic podcast related to the subject here.
The second quote is from Dave Gibbons who spoke at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. His quote is "We need more relationaries not visionaries."
Both of these quotes are profound partial truths. In their context, these statements bring helpful insight. For example, Gibbons is really against the role of a visionary who is disconnected and out of touch with their followers. He is not against being visionary.
But as stand alone statements they reveal a subtle but powerful dynamic in church leadership circles today: Our concept of vision is so weak and outdated we tend undermine and downplay it because all we have left is a "strawman." Instead of living with a weak and outdated vision, I suggest that we need to define vision correctly.
Fixing Quote #1
The problem with Sam's quote is that we are left asking, "How do you fix a toxic culture?" Ironically, the answer has to start with vision! Therefore it is more accurate to say real vision shapes culture. And what Sam should have said is "Toxic culture trumps the results of our poorly conceptualized visioning processes" (Like borrowing a mission statement from North Point, or doing an old-school strategic planning process.)
Fixing Quote #2
Again, Dave's statement that we need relationaries not visionaries is itself a statement of vision (ironically). Imagine for a moment where the church would be if we had all relationaries and no visionaries. Now, I do get Dave's point as stated earlier. But why not statement the real truth: We need visionaries who are strong relationaries. The first person who comes to mind now is Jesus not Mister Rogers- imagine that!