Your church doesn’t need a vision statement (Do this instead)
For decades, every church consultant told churches “you need a mission statement and a vision statement. And a statement of values.” It’s become a cliche. It sounds like an odd mix of insider jargon mixed with advice from the business world.
I want to propose a new, simpler way to think about this.
The purpose of a “Vision Statement” has always been to get your entire organization to pull in the same direction. You know what you’re all aiming at, so you program, you create strategies, you do everything you do…to accomplish that vision.
Here’s the thing: there’s a more intuitive word for that: A Goal.
Your church doesn’t need A Vision Statement, you need A Goal.
To be honest, that’s what A Vision Statement always was: a goal your church wanted to accomplish in, say, five years. I think it’s much more intuitive if we just call it that!
So how do you set a helpful goal for your entire organization?
Begin with who you are, and why you think your organization exists. This is often encapsulated in your Mission Statement.
Look at the needs of your community (whatever you think that means). From the perspective of your mission, what are the needs of your community?
Given the previous two statements, what would be a bold goal you could set for addressing those needs in a specific period of time (like, say, 5 years)?
Cool. Now you should come up with a few ideas. Dream! Talk for a few weeks as a team about what this might mean! You’ll come up with a few options.
Figure out which of these potential goals meet all of the following criteria:
They meet all the criteria named above. They are faithful to your mission. They address real needs in your community.
They are specific. “We want people to know the love of God” is not specific.
They are measurable. For a goal to work in an organization filled with dozens or hundreds of people, it simply must be measurable.
They are time-bound. You have decided when your goal should be accomplished.
They are not permission-to-play goals. That is, they are not the sort of thing every single church should do because…that’s what churches do. For example, “We want to be financially solvent,” or “we want to worship God” are both permission-to-play goals. You can raise your sights.
When you have found a goal that meets all these criteria, you have a useful goal.
One More Tip
A useful goal should be polarizing. It should clarify what your church is doing in a way that not everyone wants to do. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature. You want a vision that is polarizing enough that it excites some people, and makes a few people think, “you know….this church has been going in this direction for years. It’s just not for me anymore.”
That scares some church leaders. “We don’t want anyone to leave!” I disagree. You don’t want anyone to leave Jesus. You don’t want anyone to leave the faith. But that’s not what is happening here. Help these folks find a church that fits what they want their church to be. They have a sense of what they’re looking for in a church that differs from your own? Sure. So do millions of other American Christians. Help them find where they fit.
You want to be able to mobilize the people who believe in this new Goal, and this natural sorting only enhances that.
