Leadership

DISCERNING GOD’S DIRECTION FOR YOUR CHURCH

Do We Have a Vision?

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18 (King James Version)

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.”  Proverbs 29:18 (New International Version)

“What is that church about?” If a person from outside your congregation asks you this question, do you have a clear answer? 

Do your leaders share the same sense of direction from God, or does each leader have his or her own ideas of where the church needs to go?

Do the people who are active in the church know what they need to do to help the church fulfill your God-given mission, or do they look to the church mainly to fulfill their own various needs?

Why Do We Need a Vision?

What happens to the church that does not have a “vision”?  Without the “restraint” that arises from a common vision from God, each person has his or her own ideas for how the church operates, worships, and serves. These ideas are often based on past experiences (good and bad) with churches and personal preferences that people have come to believe are “the way things should be done.”

Without a shared vision, strong personalities try to set different agendas for the church, and there is division. Leaders become discouraged when they try to operate in this environment of chaos. When they try to do something, they get complaints from all sides. When the church doesn’t seem to be going in a clear direction, people get discouraged. Sometimes they leave the church.

The basic problem is that the people are asking, “What do I want for my church?” rather than “What does God want for God’s church?”

How Do We Discern What God Wants for God’s Church?

A congregation is most unified and effective when the leaders and members prayerfully seek and discern God’s vision for the future of the congregation and faithfully pursue that vision.

It starts with the leaders (pastors and lay leaders) asking God to reveal God’s desire and plan for the congregation.  Over a period of time, usually 3-6 months, the group of leaders listens together for God’s direction.  They also involve the congregation in this listening, but the leaders direct the process.  

The process results in the congregation having a Mission Focus Statement, a Future Impact Statement, a Plan, a list of Values or Principles for how the congregation will operate, and a statement of Basic Beliefs.

What are Some Steps in the Process?

1.What Does the Bible Say about Mission?

Read scripture passages concerning what Christ wants His church to be and do, such as Matthew 25:34-36, Matthew 28:18-20, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Acts 2:36-47, Ephesians 1:3-14; 2:8-22; 4:14-24; Colossians 3:12-17; 1 Peter 2:4-10.

Ask, “What are you saying to us, Lord?”  Record what people hear God saying through the scripture. Involve the congregation in praying with these passages and ask them to share with the leaders what they hear from God. Look for common themes in what people have heard.

Record these.

2. What Is God Doing Around Us?

Discuss these questions:  Where do we see God at work around us?  What is not being done that God may want somebody to do?

Record responses and highlight those responses to which the group most strongly agreed.

3. What Spiritual Gifts Are Among Us?

Look at scripture passages about spiritual gifts: Romans 12:5-8; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; Ephesians 4: 4-13.  List the spiritual gifts that are evident in people in your leadership group and in the congregation.  Ask the congregation for input here. You may wish to use a tool such as our free Spiritual Gifts Inventory or one that is commercially produced.

4. About What Human Needs Are We Passionate?

Discuss: “What are the needs in this area, our nation, and the world that people in this congregation feel passionately about?  The needs can be physical, social, or spiritual; most needs are all three. Ask the congregation for input. List responses and highlight those responses to which the group most strongly agreed. Narrow the list to no more than 3 needs.

5. What Should Be Our Mission Focus at This Time?

Look back over the work your group has done so far. Pray for God to bring a vision into focus. Just as an individual cannot do everything, but is gifted and called by God to do some things well, so also a congregation is gifted and called by God to focus energies and resources on particular needs at a particular time.

Ask:

From the answers to those questions, write a simple statement (only a couple of sentences) that describes your sense of God’s call. This is a draft of your Mission Focus Statement. Ask the congregation for their response to this statement, and then write a final version. Make sure that it is short, concise, and memorable. Every member and participant in your church should be able to recite it. Explanatory details can go in some of the other statements, but not in this one. This statement needs to express as succinctly as possible what God is calling our church to be and do, whom God is calling us to reach, and how we are going to reach them.

6. What Might Our Future Impact Be?

Dare to dream, and remember that God has big dreams for God’s people! Dream about what your congregation will look like 3-5 years from now as God empowers you to fulfill this mission.  This is where it really gets exciting!  Let the Holy Spirit bring pictures to mind of what your congregation could become. Share the words and pictures that come to mind.  In a few sentences, describe this picture of the future to which God is directing you.  This is a draft of your Future Impact Statement. Share it with the congregation for their response, then write a final version.

7. What Steps Should Be in Our Annual Plan?

Discuss:  What steps do we need to take in the year ahead to fulfill our mission and move toward our envisioned future?  List responses to this question.

Determine which of these steps are priorities. State the priorities as goals for the year ahead.  Develop a Plan for how these goals will be accomplished. 

This plan will help you stay on course and help the leaders be good stewards of the congregation’s resources of time, energy, and money. As people have ideas for what the church should do, leaders can determine whether those ideas fit with the plan or not. Just as an individual Christian cannot do everything that seems like a good idea, neither can a congregation. There need to be guidelines based on the particular call of God that has been discerned by the leaders.  Share this plan with the congregation.

8. What Principles Will Guide Our Work Together?

Discuss:  What are the Principles or Values that will guide our congregation’s life in Christ and our work for Christ?  List your responses and then narrow the list to not more than 5 principles.

Some examples of principles are:

When you come up with your own list of principles, these will be the guidelines the congregation follows to be a spiritually healthy body.  Share these with the congregation.

9. What Beliefs Are Essential to Our Mission and Fellowship?

Carefully consider and list the Beliefs that you together consider essential to Christian faith and life. The list should make clear what the church believes about who Jesus is and what salvation is. The list should cover the basics about the church’s sources of authority (the exalted Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the sacred scriptures, etc.).

Beliefs on this list will be supported in all the teaching and preaching of the church. Opinions on non-essentials will not become matters of central emphasis in the preaching and teaching of the church.  Once the essential beliefs are listed, leaders of the church need to hold each other and everyone in the church accountable so that opinions are not put forward as essentials. 

10. How Will We Celebrate This Vision and Commit to It?

You now have a Mission Focus Statement, a Future Impact Statement, a Plan, a Statement of Principles, and a List of Basic Beliefs that will serve as your compass and your map as you move toward God’s future. The congregation celebrates the direction they have received from God over the last months, and commit themselves to faithfully living out God’s dream for their future.

11. How Will We Keep This Vision Central to Our Life Together?

Leaders continually keep the mission focus, the future impact, the plan, the principles, and the beliefs before themselves and before the people through prayer, teaching, sermons, banners, printing these on cards that are given to everyone in the church, etc.

12. How Will We Update These Statements?

The above statements are all flexible and should be reformed as we grow and learn through attempting to live them out. The Plan needs to be reviewed at least annually, and the Mission Focus and Future Impact Statements need to be reviewed at least every three-to-five years. The Principles Statement may need to be kept up-to-date with the Mission Focus. The Essential Beliefs Statement should be more enduring and should be amended only when it becomes apparent that a change is needed.

What Difference Will Vision Make?

“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves, but when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.”  Proverbs 28:19  (The Message)

With a vision, the people move forward together, make the life-transforming love of Jesus real through how they live and act, and fulfill God’s purpose in their place and time!