Vision That Works:

Turning your Church's Vision into Action

David Collins

• Publisher: Castle Quay Books
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781894860383
• eBook ISBN: 9781894860956
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Business Strategy

If your church seems to be "stuck, " this is a book you need to bring to your next leadership meeting. Vision That Works follows the journey of a pastor of a plateaued church as he struggles with stagnation and discovers the importance of his churches "mission, vision and values" and their ultimate impact on church health and relationship to planning. In the course of the story the reader is introduced to a 5-step process that has revolutionized this church and has the potential to change your church from a vision into action.

1. Time to Ask Why

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Prov. 19:21

“Our church,” John thought, “…interesting how one little phrase can say so much.” People who had been part of the core group were saying, “It doesn’t feel like ‘our’ church anymore.” At the time, they were reacting to all the new folks of course, but after a while the “our church” no longer referred to the invasion of new people; instead it became the unspoken value that seemed to dominate all of the activities of Woodridge Community Church.

“Where did we ever get the idea that this thing we call church is ‘ours,’ that it somehow belongs to ‘us?’” wondered John. “No one would actually say that of course; if asked, we would tell you we are about winning the lost and bringing them into the church. In truth, however, we like things just the way they are.”

“Maybe,” John thought, “that’s why my attempts to reach out to the community always seem to meet with such resistance. In reality we don’t want to grow, we don’t want new people to come to the church. We are comfortable serving ourselves.”

As John reflected on these things he found himself wondering if it was time to revisit why the church even existed.

•••

Why does the church exist?

It’s a question I believe every pastor, every church board or leadership team, and every church member should ask on a regular basis. I say this because I don’t believe for a moment there is a church in North America, or anywhere for that matter, that sets out to be self-serving. No one starts a church with the idea that it will only meet the needs of those who are part of the planting group. Just the opposite; church planting is always undertaken with a view to winning the lost and bringing them into the body of Christ. This being the case, how is it that churches go off the rails so quickly, generally within one generation?

I believe the answer is tied directly to how we respond to the question, “Why does the church exist?”

You see, when a church is young, when it is in its infancy, the people who make up the church are close to the action. They have a clear sense of calling. When they say “our church,” they really do mean God’s church and they really do want to accomplish His purposes. As time goes on, however, something happens to those who started the church. You might say that they get moved to the back row to make room for the newcomers. When this happens, the founding congregants can easily become disconnected. The our in “our church” becomes more about what they want, what makes them comfortable, than what God might want.

At the same time, those who join apart from new believers, tend to also move into the back row. These folks often come from other churches and bring with them a mixed bag of ideas about why the church exists, most of which have to do with meeting their needs. As a result, they seldom hold the same passion for the ministry or the same desire to be involved in reaching the lost. Failure to focus on why the church exists or to teach about the mission of the church only enhances this self-serving mindset.

It’s also a question to which there are two potential answers. The one is a reflection of how we are in reality functioning and the other a reflection of what Jesus intended His church to be doing.

Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Church, does an excellent job of identifying the biblical mandate that God gives the church and appropriately points out, “It isn’t our job to create the purposes of the church but to discover them.”⁴

It would seem to me then, if we are all using the same Bible to discover these purposes, we should all in fact have basically the same purpose or mission and therefore the same mission statement.

It also follows that as long as the Bible remains unchanged, the purposes of the church will also remain unchanged.

Simply put, the mission of the church is what God tells us, in the Bible, we should be doing. This mission doesn’t change from one church to another, nor does it change from one generation to another.

This is important to realize, because in my own journey and in many of the churches I have been asked to consult with, there is a lot of confusion around the idea of mission and what exactly a mission statement should be. This is especially true when the concept of vision is introduced into the mix.

So, for the sake of clarity and for the purpose of this book, I am going to define “mission” simply as “what we do as a church.”

At Carruthers Creek Community Church, where I pastored for 21 years, we came up with the following mission statement, after a number of rather wordy efforts:

“The mission of Carruthers Creek Community Church is to enable people of all ages to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.”

This is in fact a condensed contemporary statement of the “Great Commission” of Matthew 28:19-20.

Any mission statement that fails to include some form of the Great Commission has missed the point of church. I believe one can convincingly argue that to make disciples covers every meaningful activity of the church. To make a disciple, one first must evangelize—whether locally or overseas. It further implies that when someone is a disciple he ia growing in his own spiritual understanding of God, and that comes at least in part through the teaching ministries of the church. Being disciples means being like Christ in the way we care for and minister to one another, both in and outside the church. And being a disciple of Christ means being a worshiper of God.

Apart from these kinds of ministries, in 21 years of pastoral ministry I haven’t been able to think of anything else that we should be doing as the body of Christ.

So what’s the problem?

Exactly what Pastor John concluded: we don’t visit our mission often enough. I don’t mean we need to preach from Matthew 28 more often, although for some it might not be a bad idea to include it at least once a year. Rather, we need to teach the relationship or connection between the topic or passage of the day and what it means to be a disciple of Christ. This has to happen on a regular basis; after all, this is our mission.

A word of warning: should you choose to remind people of the mission of the church in this manner and with any frequency, you will come under criticism. Do not let this discourage you. Stay the course; better to be criticized—and I say this from experience—for preaching too often on this topic of disciple making than not enough. Sooner or later people will catch on and get involved in the mission.

A Mission Statement for Your Church

The question might well be asked, “If all churches have the same purpose or mission, what’s the point of a mission statement?”

The value of a mission statement for your church lies not in its uniqueness but in its function. It serves as a rallying cry for the troops. That’s why I believe it should be short and to the point. At Carruthers Creek we would often use an abbreviated statement that simply read “Making fully devoted followers.”

I appreciate that this may differ a little from what a number of the books on this topic say. Rick Warren talks about a “Purpose Statement” and includes in it a rather lengthy list of what the church does to make disciples. In doing so, by his own admission, he tends to combine or tie together the ideas of purpose and vision. I’m not suggesting this is wrong. However, if we accept Aubrey Malphurs’ definition of vision as “a clear and challenging picture of the future of a ministry as identified by leadership,” then this approach runs into difficulty.⁵ Making disciples is what we do; it’s not a picture of the future. How we go about making disciples in a given time and cultural context—that’s a vision of the future.

So, “mission” and therefore a “mission statement” is what we do as the church of Jesus Christ, and we do it no matter where in the world we are, until Christ returns.

The value of this approach lies first in its simplicity. It allows us to state in a very concise way what we are about, even to the point of creating a memorable phrase that captures the imagination of the congregation. More importantly, it provides us with an evaluation tool by inviting leadership to ask the question of any ministry undertaken by the church. “Does this contribute to the making of a disciple?” If we cannot easily see the connection, then maybe it is something we shouldn’t be doing.

Aubrey Malphurs, in one of his latest books, Advanced Strategic Planning, points out that a mission statement should help you personalize the Great Commission for your particular church.⁶ In this way people can more readily identify with it. Thus, including the name of your church in the mission statement adds strength to it.

•••

John had no idea when he embarked on this journey how difficult it would be. He could still see the looks on the faces of the board members when he first presented the idea of drafting a mission statement.

“Why would we do that?” responded Paul, the board chairman. “We already know what we are supposed to be doing. The Bible is clear; we are here to worship God!”

“Now wait just a moment,” said Anne. “I’m not so sure there isn’t more to it than that; what about prayer and caring for one another?”

“And don’t forget teaching the Bible,” added Ralph.

It was clear John had his work cut out for him and it took several meetings before they finally settle...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Dedication
• Introduction
• 1. Time to Ask Why
• 2. Does Anyone Know Where We’re Going?
• 3. Show Them the Model
• 4. Who Are Those Guys?
• 5. Getting Started
• 6. The Plan
• 7. One Step at a Time
• 8. The Plan Takes Shape
• 9. Sharpening the Focus
• 10. A Time for Action
• Epilogue
• Appendix
• Endnotes
• More from Castle Quay Books