Some years ago a magazine pictured a man staring out the window with a caption that read: "Why does this company pay this man $100,000 to look out a window?" The answer is because the lifeblood of any organization lies in ideas and creative thinking.

The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, made the first flight of a power-driven machine at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Dec. 17, 1903. They flew only 120 feet and remained in the air for just 12 seconds. Later the same day they made three more flights, the longest of which was 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds.

The entire first flight of the Wright brothers' airplane -- take-off and landing -- was no longer than a Boeing 747's wingspan. But look how far their thinking has come in the 20th century. Today a jet airplane can fly around the world in approximately 48 hours. This week millions of people will be flying in airplanes at an altitude of 25,000-35,000 feet with a speed approaching 600 miles per hour because Wilbur and Orville Wright thought man could fly.

Nothing is as powerful as thought. Solomon wrote: "For as he thinks within himself, so he is," (Prov. 23:7 NASB). What goes into the software of our brain's computer controls what comes out.

The power of thought cannot be overestimated. Everything that now is, was at one time impossible. From riding a train to flying a plane, from air conditioning to heating, from cell phones to computer link-ups via the World Wide Web, from microwaves to an electric shave - everything was at once impossible, until someone had a thought. Everything that now is began as an idea, a thought.

Ideas are history's great moving force. For that reason, thinking is a critical need of leadership. We are never free to do what we cannot think. A leader must think.

How does a leader think? A leader thinks in terms of:

Vision: What is our dream? Vision has nothing to do with sight. It is a process of the mind. It is mental, not visual. It is seeing what everybody has seen but thinking what nobody has thought. Vision, in a biblical context, is to ask: What would God have me do? What would God want with our organization, our church, our ministry, our family? Where would God want us to go?

Someone has said that what is needed to build pyramids is someone who can think and 10,000 people who can grunt. No matter how many grunters there are, unless at least one person is thinking, no pyramids will be built - and neither will a church, business, ministry, or family.

Carl Sandburg was right, "Nothing happens unless it is first a dream."

Values: What is important? Values are the standards, the principles, the code of conduct that characterizes your organization. Values have to do with how we treat people, how we do our work, what is important to the organization.

Organizations don't dream up values; values already exist. Organizations give their values shape and form. It's like some universities that decide to pour sidewalks after students have first worn a path. Look at your organization. Where are the well-worn paths -- the actions, the beliefs, the attitudes -- that matter most? These are your values.

Venture: What are we willing to risk? The organizations that seem to make a difference are willing to think outside the lines. For example, I heard about a company that was in the business of digging wells. They hired a new president, and he told his employees on his first day at work, "Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are no longer in the well-digging business. We are in the hole-making business."

For years these people had thought only in terms of how to make better augers to dig wells. From that day on they began to think in terms of efficient and effective means of digging holes. They soon discovered that one could dig holes better with lasers than with augers. They achieved the same goal but accomplished it in a more efficient method. Their goal had not changed, but their process of getting there had.

Vehicle: What will get us there? In other words, once the vision, values, and venture is in place, we need to think about what steps we need to take to arrive at our objective. How can we accomplish our desired outcome? A dream without a strategy is merely wishful thinking. A dream with a strategy is powerful thinking.

Victory: What will the celebration be like? A leader thinks like a champion. A leader thinks in terms of winning, not just getting by. The leader has the ability to stir things up, to capitalize on a unique window of opportunity. The end result is to move to the top, to win big, to be the national champion.

If you are in a place of leadership, wake up and start thinking. Take off your nightcap and put on your thinking cap.

Rick Ezell, D. Min., is senior pastor of Naperville Baptist Church, Naperville, Ill. Ezell has written numerous articles and four books, including Cutting to the Core and Defining Moments.