by Greg Anderson
As a church prayerfully wrestles with its future, it is wise to ask and answer two very important questions:
- What is our church’s vision?
- What is our church’s mission?
If no one in your church can answer those questions, then you have some serious work to do. Why are vision and mission important? As simply as I can state it, vision is where you are going, and mission is what gets you there. If you lack clarity on either, then adding a new ministry team member, incorporating a new program or strategy, changing worship styles, etc., may exacerbate existing problems and potentially make matters worse. As Stephen Covey wisely noted many years ago in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” That is vision. Once you know what the end state looks like, then decide which values, ministries, and mechanisms get you there. That is mission.
Crafting vision and mission can be a lengthy process. The journey involves hours of prayer, dialogue, dreaming, processing, and deep immersion in and reflection on scripture. Many church leaders are unwilling to do the hard work of casting vision. Those who do often revert to the way things have always been done. As a result, vision is reduced to a slogan and mission is more likely to become a mess.
The purpose of this article is not to provide a step-by-step template for creating vision and mission for your church. There are numerous resources out there for collaboratively developing, staying on, and tweaking vision and mission. Here are a few I recommend:
- Visioneering by Andy Stanley
- Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley
- Christian Coaching by Gary R. Collins; chapter 10
- Legacy Churches by Stephen Gray and Franklin Dumond; chapter 5
- Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger; The whole book is great, especialy chapter 5 for vision/mission.
- Storybrand by Donald Miller
- Innovating Discipleship by Will Mancini
- Look Before You Lead by Aubrey Malphurs
As you launch the vision/mission journey, here are a handful of questions that may help you think through the process.
Vision
- Where do we believe God wants us to be as we prayerfully discern our future?
- When do we want to experience that future?
- What strengths will help us realize that future?
- How has God uniquely equipped us to live into that future?
- What weaknesses may create bottlenecks or roadblocks?
- Can our members articulate our vision?
- Is our vision inspirational and aspirational?
Mission
- What do we do today?
- Why do we do what we do?
- How do we do it?
- Who benefits?
- Do our ministries, plans, and actions move our vision forward?
- If not, what needs to change to make us more fully aligned?
- Do our members know the role they play in our mission?
- Do our elders and staff know the role they play?
I cannot overemphasize the importance of prayerfully processing these types of questions. If you do not know where you are going and how you are going to get there, then you are a ship without a rudder; carried here and there by the winds of whims, territorialism, anecdotal evidence, and other unhealthy systemic forces.
A more God-honoring approach is to take the heart the teaching of Jesus in John 15:1-8. To “remain in Christ” is to allow both personal and congregational pruning (which is simply another way to say “focus”) so that the fruit we are designed to bear can flourish. The hard work of vision and mission casting will contribute to a flourishing church.
Your friends at Hope Network Partner stand ready to coach you through that process. Please do not hesitate to reach out for a conversation on first steps.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Dr. Greg Anderson
President, Midland Christian School
Co-Director, Lipscomb University Doctorate of Ministry Program
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