But, the specific vision that each church, congregation, and community holds dear can vary quite significantly. So, whether your primary goal for your church this year is to help the homeless or improve your children's ministry curriculum, having a vision that you can bring to life is a great way to motivate your people to do good and see the results.
Why is it important to have a unified vision?
Having a clear and concise vision for your church is a great way to build unity and motivate people. If everyone feels like they are working toward the same goal, a sense of community is built, and people feel empowered to work together on a unified mission.
Plus, it helps to keep pastors and church leaders motivated by reminding them in real terms why what they are doing is necessary for the world. We can pray all we like, but without a sense of purpose, it's easy to stagnate and not achieve anything of real significance.
What is your church’s vision?
Many people recommend having a church vision that is so simple that every member can recite it off the top of their heads. The vision shouldn’t be too complex, but instead it should be a simple sentence or two that summarizes the core values of your church community.
It could even read like a slogan or a tagline and be featured on your website or church logo! Many church management software providers will help you build an online presence if that’s an area you struggle with. There is a lot of room to get creative when honing in on the core of your church’s vision, so you could even spend a meeting discussing the possibilities with all the church leaders.
How to actualize your church’s goals
It's easy to fall into the trap of setting vague, generalized goals for our church. Choosing missions like "Share God’s Grace" have no real-life end-goal, making the journey to reach this even harder. Instead, transforming your vision into objectives with tangible outcomes can make them feel much more achievable.
So, whether your church’s vision is already set in stone in your congregation or you are still unsure of where your church ultimately wants to go, you can reignite your vision by setting achievable church goals. Even better, why not break this ultimate goal into smaller bite-sized pieces? It will help with your organization and time management too.
How can I spread the church’s vision?
Transforming your church’s goals into reality is highly important, but vision casting is vital too. Helping to recruit more people as helpers in the fight for good is a central role of churches, and talking about your vision loud and clear can help in this regard. The more potential volunteers hear about a goal or mission, the more inclined they will be to help!
Pray
Take some time every single day to pray for your church’s mission. This can be slipped into the end of a Sunday service, encouraging every member to take a moment to connect with God and help the mission succeed. Praying like this can also bring to light any potential issues with your vision. God will be sure to highlight the direction needed for your church.
Influence
If you have a new idea for your church’s vision or think it should go in a new direction, getting others on board with it is a process that requires tact. Share the end of the vision in concentric circles first to gently see if they are on board. People are very passionate about their ideas surrounding God and what He wants us to do, and disagreement can cause unneeded conflict.
Plus, slowly sending the idea out, group by group, will enable you to edit and modify the vision as needed. Your staff and volunteers will likely highlight potential issues they have with it, enabling you to find solutions. That way, when you are ready to share the final vision with your congregation, it will be solid as a rock.
Announce
If the vision is new, you will need to announce it, and why not include biblical references when you paint the scene for your congregation? Use examples to show them how others in the Bible have done what you are now aiming to do, and compellingly align your vision.
Embed
Keep the vision alive every single day at your church by discussing it frequently, holding bake sales and fundraisers to support it, or even developing a logo for it! Remember: When you are feeling sick of talking about the vision, others are only just catching on. If it isn’t discussed every single week, its light will fade, and motivation to help will dwindle.
If you don’t yet have a vision for your church, don’t worry. Dig deep into the Bible, spend time with God praying, and let the vision come to you. And, you can reach out to other members of the church, volunteers, and friends for discussion and inspiration. Everybody has great ideas, so don’t feel afraid of opening the question.
Once you have it, be sure to discuss its implementation at every board meeting. Leading your church with a sense of real purpose will help boost motivation, encourage participation from the community, and bring your congregation closer to God.