Creating Vision Statements

Think about how to access pastors' and teams' passions. Whatever is in their hearts, regardless of limitation, that pastor can lead that. He or she has been designed to lead it, and there are people who will surround the leader and facilitate that vision.

Facilitators should not be content with clever phrases don't seem to resonate with what is in their hearts. If it’s not there, it won’t move them forward.

Vision leaders are adept in raising an army and moving it forward that they work through this process in a natural way, but four out of five in the room are not that person. You might consider encouraging them to bring a report of their Amanda game to their team meetings. How many times did you play it? What kept coming up?

Somewhere in the collective sense of what’s in their hearts, they’ll discover God’s vision for their church.

Don’t settle for cool statements. It’s not the words in the statement; it’s how they say them. When a church says, “Here’s our vision,” the A2J facilitator should ask, “Why?” If they find that answer, the next steps are much easier and they build a strategy toward a future they’re meant to live out.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the leaders in front of you function like you do. They can’t run with what you’ve run with.

This isn’t about a single individual hearing a voice; it’s about a group getting a collective sense of what God has for them. It’s possible to arrive at a vision statement too quickly. Vision statements should contain more than just internal language. The goal should be to craft a vision statement that unchurched people can hear and say, “Yeah, that sounds like what a church should be about.”

Again, because churches often rate evangelism is the weakest of the five functions, challenge teams to consider the role of outward focus in the vision statement.