VISION AND STRATEGY

by Stephen L Dunn

"A vision is useless without a clear path to follow." - Chad Chute

The Holy Spirit is in the vision-casting business.  The Spirit helps us seek the mind of Christ to know what the will of God is for a specific church.  This vision is rarely vague or generalized; only our perception of it, and then, only at first.  It then becomes the job of the church's leadership under the guidance of the Spirit to clarify that vision.  And with clarity comes strategy.

A strategy involves goals-specific and measurable.  To be specific and measurable it is drawn from the resources that God has gathered together in a specific church.  Those resources are the gifts of its people, their skills, passions, experience and relationships.  But most of all those resources grow from the commitment of the people to be authentic disciples of Jesus Christ on mission for Jesus in a specific mission field.

A strategy is a statement of faith. It is a declaration of what we are committed to do, how we are to be known, and what we believe glorifies God. Without a strategy a vision can easily deteriorate into wishful thinking with no one taking responsibility to see that vision realized.

Most churches have a vision, but do you have a strategy that supports that vision?