A Grand Vision or Near Term Priorities?
Perhaps you, like I do, take some time to reflect at the start of a new year. What is going on in my life? What are the good things? What things need to be improved? Is there excess baggage or other garbage that should be jettisoned?
Similarly, perhaps you are asking those questions about your congregation or other organization. What difference are you making in the world? In the lives of your members or associates? Your family? What good stuff are you contributing? How are you a drag on life?
I devote Chapter 8 on discerning a vision for your congregation in my book, Entering Wonderland: A Toolkit for Pastors New to a Church. Discerning God's yearning for your congregation is really, really important. If you haven't taken time to review and clarify your sense of God's mission and vision for your congregation, I urge you to do so. In my book I spell out a process that has worked for congregations with which I've worked. If you haven't bought it yet and want a code to give you a 25% discount, email me.
Good mission and vision statements combine foundational elements common to every congregation (the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, etc.) with other ideas that are specific to your particular congregation at this time and place. So a congregation in Appalachia beset by unemployment and mine pollution would have some priorities that are very different from a church in an affluent retirement community. Further, the need for different priorities change dramatically over time. I think of city churches that in fifty years have swung from being in a well to do urban community to a racially segregated poor neighborhood to once again being solidly middle class as professionals of every ethnicity tire of commuting from distant suburbs. I have worked with churches in suburban neighborhoods that twenty years ago were middle class Caucasian that are now filled with immigrants from Africa and Latin America. I think of what were rural family sized churches as recently as five years ago that are now surrounded by booming suburbs with children all over the place. Further, there are the major social changes like increasing secularization, digital instead of face-to-face communities, etc. Changing demography dictates changing priorities.
A clear sense of mission (identify and purpose) and vision (clarity about specific emphases for the next 3-5 years) helps you say "yes" to some ideas and "no" to others. Such clarity forms a foundation for staff appraisals and all congregational initiatives.
However, having said all this, sometimes it is enough simply to put the development of a grand vision aside and just get your priorities straight. What are the top 3-4 things you need to focus on in the next few months? What are top priorities for your congregation?
One interim pastor colleague was serving a church whose membership was aging and declining numerically. The building had numerous problems - no access for older members to an upstairs fellowship hall, water leaking through the foundation, etc. When she discovered that the congregation had some $700,000 in memorial funds and suggested that they use some of these funds for immediate improvement, several leaders responded "we're saving those for a rainy day." "Friends, it's pouring now!" she exclaimed. The board subsequently appropriated funds enough to do some major renovations and install a chair lift to the upper level.
She helped them get their short term priorities in order.
What might be some short term priorities? As I begin this new year, I have decided that it's time to go through some 50 years worth of photos that we have squirreled away, waiting to organize them when we retire. Oops, I've been "retired" for a while now! To be sure, I have a number of other priorities (like continuing my coaching and consulting and being a loving husband, father, grandfather, and good neighbor) but those photos need attending to.
What are the top 3-4 priorities for you and your congregation in the next six months to year? With whom do you need to have conversations about these possible priorities? What specific steps might you take in the next two months to begin tackling these priorities? Having a conversation might be the first step. Setting aside a block of time every week for study or exercise or family fun might be another step.
As you think about these top priorities, what clues do they give you about your real mission and vision? Sometimes you can back into understanding God's call to you.
I have talked with Mary Helen (my wife) and we've already started on those boxes of old photos. We're sorting and labeling the ones we think our kids and grandkids just might want. These are hardly part of any grand vision but they do fulfill a little vision of having our affairs in order for that final sort of our worldly possessions.
Here's to clearer immediate priorities even if we don't have the clarity of mission and vision we want.
If you would like some help to grow as a leader, I encourage you to consider coaching, either one on one or in a group. Most of my coaching is done by phone in order to minimize commuting but I make exceptions. Further, phone coaching makes it possible for me to have clients who live many miles away.
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