Building from your church’s vision
In my last blog I wrote about
change management and how it takes leadership and determination to motivate a
church's staff to change. Experience and research teaches us that people have a
difficult time changing unless confronted by one of two scenarios - the first
being that of a "burning platform." The term 'burning platform' is used to
describe a situation where people are forced to act because the alternative to "do
nothing" will result in foreseeable doom. The second compelling scenario that
motivates change is the desire to realize a compelling vision of "The Promise
Land" that is strong enough to energize the staff to take the risk to move
forward. Whether change is simply a desire to improve or is caused by a burning
platform, one of the best foundational steps to motivate change is to build a
vision from which to rally the staff around.
The role of the vision is to
inspire and guide future staff decisions.
If an organization is to constantly improve, then the basic dynamic of a
visionary church is to preserve the core and stimulate progress - the vision
determines the context and sets the direction for the change to happen.
So how does a church go about
building its vision? One of the first places to start is to determine and
document your church's core ideology. In other words, what are the church's
purpose and core values? This core
ideology is what helps decide what direction to take as other more tactical aspects
of the church's existence are discussed.
The church's core purpose is in essence the church's reason for being
and should reflect the staff's idealistic motivations for trying to be the
church that they want to be a part of. The church's core values are guiding
principles that have intrinsic value and importance to everyone on church
staff.
One of the most important aspects
of your church's purpose and core values is authenticity. They need to really reflect how the church truly
behaves? You should not confuse values that you think the organization ought to
have - but does not - with its actual core values. Your set of core values is part of your
vision that cannot be faked; they have to be real or over time their impact
will get watered down and become meaningless.
Once the core ideology is
established, it can be incorporated into a strategic plan or vision document that
outlines the church's organization and governance structure, staff behavioral
guidelines, the target demographic market, as well as programs, ministries and
services definitions that are or will be in place to support the target
congregation. From this, the strategy can set forth the activities, timelines
and major deliverables for the next 12 to 18 months that include the metrics,
measurements and methodologies which will be used to determine the plan's
success. A church's information systems, as well as its process and
organizational infrastructure, are a key component to tracking many of these
metrics and measurements.
Grace
to you as you go create vision,
Jhook