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So You've Got A Vision—Now What?

By J. David Schmidt

When pastors simply tell their people about the vision and their people have little opportunity to participate in shaping it or talking about it, they may comply, but they may not buy into it.

Each year my wife and I attend a friend’s Christmas party. We always exchange white elephant gifts. We spend a hilarious hour watching mostly junk emerge from beautifully wrapped boxes. One gift—an ugly china hen and rooster—has been circulating for years. There are usually moans from the couple who gets them.

WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS THING?

Vision, for some pastors and churches, can be like that pair of china chickens—you own the vision, but wonder what to do with it. Perhaps you and your church are one of the thousands of Assemblies of God fellowships that are participating in the 2000 Celebration vision discovery process. You are holding your meetings and are delighted and challenged by the visions God is placing in the hearts of the people in your church. You are working to coalesce those visions into one statement that will guide your church’s ministry. But you may be wondering, What will I do with this vision our church is creating?

PEOPLE NEED TO BUY-IN TO TIE-IN

The single biggest challenge that most churches face, and the step most often skipped, is that of communication. Most churches and pastors who develop a vision move immediately to turning their vision into action. But a vision that is moved too quickly from idea to action dies because few people understood the vision.

When people don’t understand the vision, and don’t buy into it emotionally, they don’t tie their lives to it. Therefore, it is important that you develop a plan to communicate to the entire church, and keep it in front of the church until it is owned by a broad majority in the church. This is a fundamental and critical step a pastor, staff, and leadership team must take.

Vision teams and pastors who leave out this communication step risk alienating people; or, worse, seeing those who weren’t directly involved in the process shrug their shoulders and say, "It’s fine for you, but I don’t have anything to do with that." It would be disappointing to hear from God, develop a vision, and then have people in your church say: "What vision? I didn’t know our church was working on one"; or "You may have a vision, but I have my own"; or worse, "I don’t want any part of it."

VISION GROWS IN STRENGTH AND GAINS MOMENTUM AS IT IS SHARED

Communicating the vision is the first and most essential step in turning vision into action. There is no right way to do this. Every leader and church has their own pattern for how ideas are shared. In some churches it is assumed the pastor will announce to the church what will happen. In other churches more laity are involved. You need to understand how your church best accepts new information and fresh ideas. Communicate on their terms, not yours.

Increasingly, people want to have a say in the future of their church. As pastor, you can share your vision from the pulpit, have the whole church applaud and nod their heads in seeming agreement, and then see nothing happen. When pastors simply tell their people about the vision and their people have little opportunity to participate in shaping it or talking about it, they may comply, but they may not buy into it.

A church needs to have the experience of looking to the future together. This shared experience builds community and builds a common appreciation for the vision. For vision to take on energy, it must be shared. Shared vision gains momentum as individuals talk about it, discuss it, refine it, and add to it. Your job as pastor is to facilitate this talk-about-it phase.

John P. Kotter, in his book, Leading Change, states, "A great vision can serve a useful purpose even if it is understood by just a few key people. But the real power of a vision is unleashed only when most of those involved in an enterprise or activity have a common understanding of its goals and direction." That shared sense of a desirable future can help motivate and coordinate the kinds of actions that create transformation in ministries and people.

EXPECT A BUMP OR TWO

A fresh vision for your church will almost always mean change. Developing a vision opens our eyes to programs that have lost their impact. A ministry or program that God blessed in the past may now be something the church maintains but is no longer effective.

Oftentimes ministries continue to outlive their usefulness because no better idea has come along. The point of your church participating in the vision process is to help your church hear from God, identify those ministries that are no longer effective, and with the Lord’s leading, determine new ministries to reach people.

When people see a fresh vision, there comes a greater willingness to let go of the old and the comfortable. This isn’t to say that simply communicating a fresh vision will make change easy. People develop deep loyalties to ways of doing church. They will resist changing them. But we are at a difficult time in local church history. We have come to the end of one era marked by certain tools and strategies, and have launched into a new era where new tools and strategies are needed to reach the unchurched and to make disciples.

Many churches seek to blend the past with elements of the new, and find it difficult. God can use a fresh vision to help people make the transition; but clear communication in words, pictures, and images is necessary. It is hard work, and a certain amount of emotional work—that of letting go of what used to be and taking steps toward what might be.

Many times people who participate in the vision development process have already done this emotional soul-searching and are prepared to enter into a new future for their church. But the rest of the congregation hasn’t had the opportunity to look at alternatives and let go of outdated programs. Yet this same journey must be offered to the congregation. They, too, must see the need and discover the new ways God is working. This will help them be challenged to join Him rather than stay behind.

HOW can YOU communicate the vision?

Here are some steps to consider:

1. The primary vision communicator must be the senior pastor. Prepare and deliver a compelling statement of vision to your church. At Willow Creek Community Church, Pastor Bill Hybels conducts a Vision Night twice a year. He reviews where the church has come from in the previous 6 months; lays out a vision for the church’s fundamental mission, vision, and calling; and shares the specific details of where the church will be headed. This approach shows that the senior pastor is behind the vision.

2. The senior pastor cannot be the only vision carrier or vision champion. Ask the vision planning team to communicate the vision, perhaps over dessert in homes, in Sunday school classes, or in visits to small groups within the church.

Equip vision-planning members with tools. A PowerPoint® presentation or video is ideal in certain settings, but printed copies of the vision are also helpful. Vision planning members can share copies with people they talk to as they communicate the vision. The more they share it, the more they own it.

These meetings will need to allow for dialogue. The vision may not be clear to everyone the first time he or she reads it or hears it. There may even be conflict over certain points. But the key is that more than just the pastor is carrying the vision to the congregation. He or she is not alone, but is one of many people who are committed to a new future for the church.

Vision team members can return from these meeting and dialogue about what they have heard. In some cases what is shared in these meetings may alter the vision. Certain points may need to be refined.

There is a key difference between listening and leading. The process of listening to the congregation’s reaction to the vision is critical. But at some point the listening and the communication process must end and the implementation of the vision must begin. Don’t get sidetracked by endless cycles of dialoguing with one or two people in the church who resist change. If this happens, send these people to the church board, where differences can be ironed out in a way that is honoring to God and to everyone involved.

3. Keep communicating the vision. Nehemiah clearly and frequently articulated his vision. He repeatedly announced that the wall needed to be rebuilt. The king, the religious leaders, and the workmen knew his vision. Eventually his prayers and proclamations resulted in many people sharing the vision and carrying out the task. That’s a key lesson. The vision needs to be communicated regularly, even after the initial communication process.

Use a church newsletter to communicate a certain aspect of the vision and how it’s going to be worked out. If your church chooses to have a Vision Night, invite vision team members to prepare a testimony of parts of the vision they are particularly excited about. These testimonies will authentically communicate the vision through those who helped shape the vision.

4. Help people sign up for the vision over and over. Some studies show that in a typical organization, only 0.25 percent of all the communication is devoted to vision. Fully 99.75 percent of communication is devoted to everything else but vision. These proportions are not healthy in a church, which is a volunteer–intensive organization. If anything, vision communication in the church must have a higher priority because people do not have to attend your church. They can attend any church they like. Keeping them encouraged by giving them a clear picture of the future is an important part of assimilating people into your church.

In our postmodern world, loyalty to institutions is at an all-time low. Even in the most loyal layperson’s heart, the struggle occurs: "Is this the church my family really needs? Are my needs being met? Do I want to keep attending here?" When loyalty lags or discouragement sets in, vision can help bring people back into alignment with their local church. But that takes intentionality.

Where possible, mention the vision in your sermons. At least one or two times a year recalibrate the entire church through a reiteration of the vision. Make it a part of new-member orientation. People need to hear ideas repeated before they sink in. Run the risk of being too repetitive about the vision of your church rather than assuming everybody got it in one Vision Night.

Cut the happy talk

People need to know two kinds of information when it comes to evaluating your church’s vision:

1. Where is God working that is worth celebrating? Where is there evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit outside of church services? Where are people’s hearts getting softer, marriages being preserved, people avoiding sin, the fruit of the Holy Spirit being manifested? Illustrate the evidence of vitality.
2. There must be diplomatic candor about what’s not going well in the church. Tell how many people in your church came to faith in Christ last year. If it’s a number to rejoice about, rejoice. If it’s a number to weep about, weep.

Adopting the Vision

The greatest keys to the vision being adopted by a congregation include: giving people the opportunity to participate in shaping the vision; giving them an opportunity to embrace it; and letting people hear their peers endorse it.

Don’t develop a vision for your church only to have it languish in a file drawer or on a computer hard drive. Develop a communication plan that allows you and key lay leaders to speak regularly about your church’s vision—its strength, value, and impact on the church and community.

Your church’s vision will light the dark path God’s people must travel in today’s world. To hide vision from the rest of the congregation is to make the vision useless. Develop a communication process that allows an ever-increasing number of people in your church to understand the vision and talk about it. This will set the stage for action. A greater number of people will be able and willing to throw their weight into the vision’s activity.

J. David Schmidt is president of J. David Schmidt & Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm that has served Christian organizations, denominations, and local churches for 23 years. He lives in Wheaton, Illinois.