How To Clarify Your Vision & Purpose

How to Clarify Your Vision and Purpose

Organizations often enlist outside help with this process, but it is not always necessary. In some instances, I would recommend this is a good idea for a few reasons.

First, if there is not much agreement on where the church should be headed, sometimes it can be useful to have a professional outsider facilitate the process to maintain focus on the important issues.

Secondly, an impartial outsider will remain neutral in the process, providing expertise and best practise recommendations which should help you resolve issues of dispute.

Shared Vision Begins with Leadership

The initial vision has to come from somewhere. So, where does it come from? Often ministers, but certainly other leaders from the church or organization should be involved in the crafting of the sense of purpose. Historical information needs to be heard and respected, particularly if not included moving forward.

Shared vision presents a clear picture of where you are going and how you intend to get there. A shared vision is an expression of direction and hope. But, if there is no hope, it is difficult to create a shared vision.

A shared vision provides a framework that guides all decision making, planning, and action. It must be well understood and shared by all in the church or organisation.  Shared vision provides motivation, meaning and direction. 

A shared vision connects people to an important undertaking and gives them and the church something for which to take a stand.  It provides focus and energy to what the leadership wants the church or organization to be and inspires a commitment from everyone to achieve it.

It is a compelling portrait of a promised land that inspires enthusiasm and excitement in people when they come to work and worship.  It’s a collective action working together for a greater good.

Leadership needs to drive this process. They need to make a commitment to following through with the process and the ensuing plan moving forward. Or the vision will just become another document lost in someone’s laptop and nothing will change or get done. 

Remember, shared vision drives purpose and engagement.  

Congregational Survey

Once you have a good draft of the strategic vision statement, it is extremely important to get grassroots input from your congregation into the purpose formulating process.

Why? Because it will exponentially broaden the ownership of the overall process and acceptance of the strategic vision itself. In addition, it demonstrates transparency and accountability. This is important to your followers, remember!

A congregational survey is a fast and effective way to get as many people involved as possible.

Developing a good survey is not always easy, but necessary. Online survey tools make this easier today than it has ever been. I would suggest offering a few different formats to accommodate your congregation’s preferences.

Survey results will always vary, and you will always have a certain percentage that will just not commit to ‘filling anything out’ but the anonymity of the online surveys helps!

There are several platforms you can use to do a digital survey and many of them are free. Probably some of the most recognizable ones are Google Forms, Survey Monkey, Mailchimp and Constant Contact. Not that these are any better than the others, but recognizability and familiarity will help people to trust filling out the form.

Congregational Approval

When there has been a good process of communication and discussion about the purpose of the church the leadership should be able to craft an inspiring and effective purpose statement. This statement should then be put forward for congregational approval.

This is the most important part.  It is then up to your senior leadership to make sure the plan is put in place and the process is followed. It should be a measuring stick for all that you do. And if you really stick to it, you will find your ministry more focused, efficient, and effective.

You will probably go through some tough times and disappointment but aligning your congregation and leadership to a shared vision is incredibly inspirational.

The vision and purpose of the church should be a driving force for leadership. You really can’t have one without the other. All good leaders will have a vision and strive to achieve it. And every great organizational vision has the driving force of a great leader.