Ah . . . the New Year. A brand-new Day Planner (if you’re old school and love the feel of physically crossing things off a To Do list) and bright, shiny pens and highlighters to fill that space with plans and dreams. An empty whiteboard just waiting for you to squeak those new markers across it. There is nothing that sparks optimism more than the start of a new year.

It’s also the perfect time to focus on what that means for the church you lead. The feeling of a fresh start is a suitable time to address the Mission, Vision, and Values of your ministry. Over the past few weeks, John and Jim have been hashing those items out on the podcast and will continue to do so in upcoming episodes.

In the Bible, God instructs His prophet Habakkuk to, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it” (Habakkuk 2:2). When vision is clearly articulated, it’s much easier to transmit to the church we lead.

Vision, in a faith community setting, can most easily be defined as the unique contribution your local church or ministry makes to the overarching mission of The Church as a whole. Essentially, the mission of The Church is to make God’s name known and glorified through making disciples. Defining how your body of believers makes that happen helps to define your local church’s vision.

John suggests working through specific exercises to help create and cast compelling vision. You can find out more about those exercises in Episode 270. Once those are complete, write the vision down.  Writing it down brings clarity and accountability. Once you as the lead pastor have about 80-85% of the vision comprehended, share it with your staff, with your leadership team. The leaders will help you fill in the blanks.

And then once you and your team have the vision fine-tuned, communicate it to your church family clearly and consistently. Because vision is always at the forefront of a leader’s mind and action, it is easy to assume the congregations we serve are eating, sleeping, and breathing vision as well. I can assure you; they are not.

My husband is a visionary personality type. So, all this vision stuff comes pretty naturally to him. When we pastored, he spoke to our congregation about the vision and direction of the church within our community constantly. He made it a point to preach about it at least once a year. Vision was splashed across our website and social media. Every event and program we ran tied specifically to the vision. It was sprinkled throughout his conversations. His sermons constantly pointed to it as well. His regular statement to our staff was, “Vision rules the house.”

At times it honestly felt like overkill. But every time he preached a series on our vision, without fail, a few longtime church-goer would reach out to him afterward and say, “Wow! That’s so cool! I didn’t know that about our church!” or “Oh . . . I just must not have been paying attention!” Frankly, about the time you’re sick of talking about vision, assume that’s when the people in the church you lead are just starting to get it.

Let me say it one more time: Intentionally and clearly communicate vision: the unique contribution your local church brings to The Mission of The Church worldwide. If the “vision thing” seems daunting, we’re here to help! Feel free to reach out to Converge today.

We’re rooting and praying for you as you develop and then cast your vision for 2025!

Jaime