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| Diagram courtesy of Pinnacle Leadership Associates |
In a previous blog post, I introduced a new process for churches titled Crossing Thresholds developed by colleague Mark Tidsworth (see diagram). One of the steps is “Aligning Church Expectations.”
If you think that the context in which your church ministers has not changed in the last 10 years, you must have been of the country for an extended vacation or work assignment. The opportunities and challenges that every church faces today are vastly different than they were just a short time ago.
Without belaboring the point, there have been social changes (such as the COVID pandemic), technological changes (hello, social media and Artificial Intelligence), economic changes (and lowered expectations among young adults for a life even as good as that of their parents), and political changes (provide your own comment here).
If we are realistic, our cultural context impacts the vision if not the mission of our church. Perhaps some definition of terms is needed here. I am using “mission” and “vision” in this way:
Mission for the church is the purpose for which it exists. It is the big picture goal that we will probably not achieve in this world, but we aspire to. A friend recently shared with me the Mission Statement of the United Methodist Church: “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world by proclaiming the good news of God's grace.” As long as the UMC exists, this is unlikely to change.
Vision on the other hand states what we seek to do within our context, the desired outcome of our existence. It paints a picture of the desired present and future. Here are some examples:
- "Knowing Jesus and Making Jesus Known"—City on a Hill (Melbourne, Australia)
- "GLIDE is a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization."—GLIDE (San Francisco, CA)
- "Helping people find their way back to God."—Church of Christ the King (Brighton, England)
This not a theological endorsement of any of these churches, but the statements do give some indication of intent and perhaps the contexts of the churches.
The key idea here is that part of the process of discovering the thresholds we must cross for effective missional ministry is to have a clear-eyed view of who we are, where we are located, what our resources are, and what God has uniquely called us to do now and in the immediate future. That’s where a prayerfully developed vision for the church comes into play.
In a future post, we will delve into the pros and cons for church members of developing such a vision!
(Diagram courtesy of Mark Tidworth and used by permission. Please contact Mark for additional information.)
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