The Bible on Vision
July 28, 2008
After working through the material these past few weeks, you still may not be convinced that vision is all that important. The Bible has some specific verses about vision and others that reveal principles about the power of vision. Let’s consider some of these to further reinforce the importance of casting vision in your ministry.
Vision provides limits. Prov. 29:18 is perhaps the best known verse on vision in the Bible. It says, depending on the translation, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” or “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.” Turning that to the positive, you might say, “Where there is vision, the people know the limits.” Vision provides limits.
As a church planter in Oregon, we dreamed of a church that reached Northwest people with methods connected to their culture. Soon after arriving, a group of “southern” Southern Baptists asked me to participate in an “old time tent revival” to reach our community. That approach seemed completely incongruous to me! There was no way I could envision that kind of approach reaching secular, professional, Northwesterners. So, we declined to participate. This didn’t mean it was an invalid method, but it would not help us fulfill our vision. Vision provides limits and helps rule out some strategies and activities.
Vision keeps people moving forward. In Phil. 3:12-14, Paul describes his personal pursuit of his life vision to be more like Jesus Christ. He uses strong phrases like “press on” and “high calling” to describe his earnest efforts. Vision keeps people moving forward.
As a father with younger children on vacation, being able to answer one question was paramount. It was not “are we there yet?” or “when do we eat?” The key question was “Daddy, what’s next?” I observed when I answered that question promptly and definitively, peace was maintained as our children looked forward to the “next.” When I didn’t have the answer, chaos usually ensued.
Churches and organizations are a lot like the back seat of our family car. When the leader knows “what’s next,” everyone stays focused on the future and on working to achieve it. When the leader waffles, organizational chaos breaks out as everyone starts going his or her own way pursuing individual goals, priorities, or visions. Vision keeps people moving forward and in the same direction.
Vision keeps problems in perspective. Throughout Acts, the church faced problem after problem that attempted to sidetrack it from its mission. Yet, through it all, church leaders kept moving forward. Why? Perhaps it was their compelling vision of the risen Lord and the church he had commissioned them to build. Perhaps it was their growing vision for actually fulfilling Acts 1:8, rather than remaining in Jerusalem and keeping the gospel within the Jewish community. Something inspired the early Christians and kept them going forward despite tremendous opposition. I believe it was their vision.
Every church or organization has problems. As the leader, you don’t get to avoid problems but you can decide the kind of problems you want to resolve. My experience has been the problems created by moving toward a compelling vision are more easily resolved than those created by other agenda. Compelling vision keeps problems in perspective. Followers fixate on the vision and notice the problems. Without vision, followers often fixate on the problems, and blame the leaders! Vision keeps problems in perspective.
Vision produces unity. Joshua 1:10, 16-17 records remarkable unity as Israel set out to fulfill their vision of conquering the land God was giving them. They were a diverse and populous people, brought together by remarkable vision.
When we launched the church in Oregon, we had many people who joined our initial efforts from many different backgrounds. After several months, a denominational leader asked how we were keeping it together, given the competing perspectives and agendas. My answer was, “When people join our church, they join our vision. If they can’t affirm our vision, they don’t join.” Vision produces unity.
Vision implies a commitment to change. Again consider Phil. 3:12. Paul was committed to “pressing on” and making whatever change was necessary to achieve his vision for personal commitment to Jesus. Vision implies a commitment to change. When you adopt a vision, you are agreeing you are not what you want to be and will change to fulfill the vision.
Do you know the seven last words of a dying Christian? I’ve never done it this way before. Do you know the nine last words of a dying leader? I did it this way in my last job. Vision implies a commitment to change, to become what we are not, and perhaps what we have never been. Vision is going someplace new, becoming something new. Vision implies a commitment to change.
<< Return to Archive
Developing Vision for Your Ministry
July 21, 2008
Last week we learned that vision is a God-directed perception of the future, that when written and communicated, draws people toward its fulfillment. A vision statement is a written description of what your organization will look like, at some specified time in the future, if you fulfill your mission. My experience has been that a good vision statement lasts for about a decade. This underscores the important of doing this well. Your organization will live with the results for many years. Since a vision is, by nature and definition, a unique and individual organizational experience, let’s consider the implications of the definition further by analyzing three key phrases.
God-directed. Strategic documents, including a vision statement, must be developed in an atmosphere of prayer and an attitude of submission. A vision is more prayed down than worked up. A spiritually relevant vision statement is more than a summation of what our best efforts can accomplish or our best minds can envision. It is a statement, supernaturally directed, of what God wants to do through an organization. Developing vision, in a Christian organization, is more about seeking God’s plan and direction than about creating grandiose man-made plans.
Perception. A good vision statement is a general perception about the future, not a rigid roadmap for the future. For example, in my former church’s mission statement, we envisioned starting ten new churches. We did not say when, where, or how. We simply believed, and recorded our belief, that God wanted us to be a church-starting church that reproduced itself. A vision statement is not a long range plan. It does not contain goals, objectives, task assignments, or budget allocations. All those come later as your organization adjusts itself to move toward the vision.
Draws people. A vision statement is a compelling document. My its own merit, it must enthuse people and compel them to initiate action to fulfill the vision. “En theos” is the root from which “enthusiasm” comes. “En theos” means “in God.” A good vision statement, with God’s empowerment in its creation, will inspire people to devote themselves to its fulfillment.
My friend Gary Franklin is a good example of someone captured by a God-directed perception of the future that compelled him to action. At the first official meeting of our church plant in Oregon, the Franklin family came to investigate what we planned to do. It was my first time to meet them. We were in a crowded family room of a friend’s home and the Franklins sat on the front row, right in front of me as I spoke. As I shared my vision for the new church, Gary became more and more visibly agitated. I was afraid he was going to make some really negative comment, so when it came time for questions, I braced for the worst.
Gary raised his hand, and when acknowledged blurted out, “Finally, a pastor with a vision!” He then sat back and smiled. He was captivated by what he heard and spent the next decade working to build the church. He made visits, helped set up the chairs, brewed the coffee, handed out bulletins, gave money, and did a thousand other things to help our church fulfill its vision.
Vision inspires people. It’s worth the time invested to cast vision well.
<< Return to Archive
Defining Mission, Vision and Values
July 14, 2008
One of the most written about concepts in leadership today is vision. Because it is popular, frankly, it has been overworked as a leadership concept. Just the mention of “getting or casting a vision” makes some followers flee for the exits. They have had the “vision thing” done to them once too many times by well-meaning leaders and they are tired of the process.
But just because it has been abused, misused, or overused does not invalidate the importance of properly understanding the concept. Let’s start with definitions.
My preference is to use the phrase “strategic documents” rather than “vision documents” to describe the written plan for an organization’s future. Strategic documents include three important concepts – mission, vision, and values. There is frequent confusion and debate about the meaning of these concepts, particularly mission and vision. These words are often used interchangeably, adding to the confusion. What one leaders calls a mission statement, another calls a vision statement and too much time can be wasted debating which is which!
The best solution to this problem is to define the concepts for your organization and then stick to the definitions. It isn’t important that your definitions match those of another leader or organization but it is essential everyone on your team be on the same page about the meaning of these words. Toward that end, here are my definitions and how we use these concepts at Golden Gate Seminary.
Mission. A mission statement is a one-sentence statement of the reason or purpose an organization exists. Writing a good mission statement is essential, and very challenging. It is hard to write succinctly without needing a paragraph or two to explain every word. When writing a mission statement, write it “without commas.” By “without commas,” I mean you should write one simple sentence without a lot of explanation or extra verbiage. Keep distilling the meaning until you can state your mission in just a few words. Here are two examples from my past ministry settings along with our seminary’s current mission statement.
(Church) We will tell the good news of Jesus Christ to all people everywhere and guide those who believe to full maturity in him.
(Convention) We are a regional network of churches working together to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.
(Seminary) We train effective Christian leaders to accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the churches of the West and the world.
Vision. A vision statement is a God-directed perception of the future, that when written and communicated, draws people toward its fulfillment. It is a narrative description of what your organization will look like if you fulfill your mission. It is a word picture, a picture of a preferred future. In our current planning process, we are using some “scenario planning” to facilitate writing a new vision statement. We are also asking contributors to limit their statement to 200 words. While this is an arbitrary limit, it provides a manageable length for adequate expression yet keeps it short enough to be practically useful. Here are the two scenarios we are using to prompt our thinking about the future.
(Scenario 1) Golden Gate Seminary will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2020. Describe the seminary you envision celebrating that occasion.
(Scenario 2) Imagine Golden Gate Seminary has never existed. You have been asked by the SBC to design a seminary for the West. Describe the seminary you would create.
Values. Value statements are short, one-sentence statements of the assets, convictions, or non-negotiables that guide the seminary in future decision-making. These are more than single words (like service or integrity) and can be stated as contrasting or ranking statements. In the following two examples, the second is an example of a contrasting or ranking statement (which was actually one of the value statements of the church we planted in Oregon).
Value statements function as signposts. When an organization makes strategic decisions about people, programs, or spending, the value statements can point the way to appropriate decisions to accomplish the mission an fulfill the vision.
(Example 1) We value biblical scholarship.
(Example 2) We value risk and failure over the status quo.
These are examples of definitions of mission, vision, and values. If you don’t agree with these definitions, write your own! Just be sure you adequately interpret them to your team and you have organizational agreement as you plan for the future.
<< Return to Archive
Strategic Planning Process
July 7, 2008
At the beginning of 2008, Golden Gate initiated a strategic planning process to facilitate significant decisions about our future. The process started with our senior leadership team creating a document called “The Planning Template.” In this document, we established our perspective on planning, key definitions we would use throughout the process, and a timetable for involving various constituents in the process. We will email a copy of the template to anyone who would like to use it as a model.
Creating a template like this is essential so everyone can be on the same page in the discussion. For example, people often define concepts like mission, vision, values, objectives, goals, long range, and short range planning differently. Rather than waste time arguing these points, our leadership team acknowledged the variety in understanding these concepts and made some arbitrary choices about how we would define them for our organization. That is key issue – not that you ascribe to a particular definition but that all the people in your organization are working from the same definitions.
Over the next few weeks, I will describe and discuss the various components of a strategic planning process. Let’s begin this week with the introduction which has an overview of our convictions about how Christian organizations plan. Christian organizations have two unique perspectives to include in their planning process – a spiritual perspective and a community perspective.
A spiritual perspective
We are instructed in the Bible to plan for the future (Prov. 6:6-8) while at the same time living in the moment (James 4:13-15). We are also expected to set a definite course (Prov. 21:5) while remaining flexible to God’s direction (Prov. 19:21). We are warned about presumption about the future (James 4:13-15) but also the danger of not planning for the future (Prov. 10:5). This dynamic tension will be evident in any plans we create.
Spiritual affirmations about our planning process include:
1. We will seek God’s direction for our future.
2. We will plan based on the information we have and the circumstances we currently encounter.
3. We will anticipate the future but not try to predict the future.
4. We will remain flexible – affirming the dynamic nature of following God as we move forward.
A community perspective
We are more than a corporate organization; we are a spiritual community. We believe in soul competency, the priesthood of the believer, and the collective wisdom of God’s people (Pro. 15:22, 19:20, 24:5-6). We also affirm authority and decision-making structures (Rom. 13, Exodus 18, Heb. 13:17). They are spiritually beneficial and practically necessary to finalize decisions and manage implementation of these plans.
Community affirmations about our planning process include:
1. We will involve our community – trustees, faculty, staff, students, and other constituents in appropriate ways in our planning process.
2. We will work collegially but accept the reality we will not have unanimity about every decision.
3. We will trust our processes to produce plans we can affirm and commit ourselves to accomplishing.
By establishing these perspectives, we have created a framework for planning that is distinctly Christian. We have done more than import a corporate model. We have positioned ourselves to work through a process that is both spiritually focused and communally engaged. The people of God – whether in a church, a seminary, or other kingdom enterprise – must remember our planning is in the context of discovering God’s plan. And that is a spiritual process that is lived in community.
<< Return to Archive