Church leaders face many challenges in the 21st century. With religious affiliation and church membership declining in recent years, pastors must continue to foster their community in a growing relationship between God and followers of Christ.
Every church and religious organization needs to communicate what it stands for and where it sees itself in the future. Busy calendars, events, and small group options are not enough to keep your church moving forward. Creating a clear and compelling church vision statement can help convey the calling of your ministry so that others can join you in it.
Influential organizations and churches use mission & vision statements and other critical pieces of culture-building communication like core values to articulate why they exist, what they want to accomplish, and how they function.
Crafting church vision statements is a helpful exercise for pastors and leaders. It can be a unifying experience for your team and church. Keep reading to learn how to write compelling vision statements to help guide you.
What Should Be In A Church Vision Statement?
Church vision statements define the spiritual purpose and aspirations of your organization. A vision statement for a church articulates how you desire to function in the future and summarizes why you exist.
A church is different from a business and different from a school. The church is distinct because of its efforts to encourage and support people’s relationship with God. Therefore, you should craft your church’s vision statement with spiritual intent.
Many corporate and religious organizations use vision statements. Businesses, non-profits, the PTA, and churches use clear, memorable, and concise vision statements to equip their teams and remind everyone of the overarching goal they aspire to achieve.
Amazon prides itself on meeting every type of customer’s needs and wants, which is why its vision statement is the famously bold, “the Earth’s most customer-centric company.”
Just as Amazon’s vision statement expresses what the company does and, more importantly, what it strives to become, your church’s vision statement should:
- A Church Vision Statement describes an idealized picture of the future
- Church Vision Statements use core values to shape the target goal
- The Vision Statement of your church communicates who it exists to serve and reach
What Is Your Church’s Goal?
Your church is a house of worship and community center, so your vision statement needs to go beyond these basics. While every church offers worship services, a spiritual leader, and – in many cases – a space for wholesome community events, your vision should highlight the unique goal that connects these functions.
Every church aims to strengthen its members’ connection to God and Jesus Christ, but can you clarify how your church strives for this goal.
Another element relevant to forming your church vision statement is the community you serve. Has your church been a staple of the community for over 50 years? Does your church see itself as a spiritual “home away from home” for undergrads in a college town?
Maybe your church envisions itself as an organization that reaches people in-person and online, offering dynamic and engaging spiritual services and connections via an online platform. A compelling vision statement will detail how your church helps form Jesus’ followers using biblical values in today’s modern culture.
What Makes Your Church Unique?
Crafting a meaningful and concise vision statement for your church means being aware of its unique giftings or calling. Are there specific areas where your church provides clear leadership? Is it gifted to minister to the next generation, or do you have a voice with the businesses in your community? Maybe the church seems to have a remarkable track record of community service over the years.
According to Outreach Magazine, three factors make a church unique:
- The local community
- Passionate leadership
- The congregation
Church vision statements should speak to its community, it’s gifting, and those they desire to reach in the future. Church leaders can invest in the church’s well-being by prayerfully envisioning where they see things going 1, 2, or 5 years later.
Examples Of Church Vision Statements
Red Church: To be a church of passionate, committed disciples devoted to Christ’s alternative for the world.
Hillsong Church: The church that I see is committed to bringing the love and hope of Christ to impossible situations through the preaching of the gospel and a mandate that drives us to do all we can to bring help and solution to a needy world.
Passion City Church: Our church is more than a place; it’s a people in every place living for the One whose fame outshines every name.
Transformation Church: We exist to Represent God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We are a multi-church. Meaning we are a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-plying, and multi-campus.
How To Write The Best Vision Statement For Your Church (Step By Step Guide)
To write the best vision statement for your church requires intentional effort, setting aside time, prayer, and consensus among a small group of leaders. Below is a brief six-step guide to help craft a vision statement for your church.
1. Involve The Leadership Team
Be sure to involve key leadership roles, especially the lead pastor. It can be tempting to allow others to craft a message or undervalue the importance of creating a vision statement without keen oversight from top leaders. Involving the most influential leaders in this process will help ensure that communication is consistent from the top-down.
2. Evaluate The Top Messages You Already Communicate
Ask each member of the vision casting team to make a list of the top three messages they see already communicated throughout the organization.
Jeff Henderson suggests the following:
Look around as if you’re a stranger by walking around your facility and visiting your website. Write down the top 3 messages you see. Then, ask a few people to do the same and see if what they see matches up with what you wrote down. – johnmaxwell.com
What messages is your church consistently sharing, and can you use them to clarify the vision statement?
3. Consider The Needs Your Church Focuses On Serving
How does your church serve the needs of the community or broader world, for that matter? Jot down a few sentences about what your church does.
4. Discuss The Unique Value Your Church Seems To Add To The Body Of Christ
Some churches have a gifting to teach or lead worship. Others are evangelistic or tend to equip and send out missionaries. Is your church heavily involved in church planting or training pastors?
The unique contribution that your church provides to the body of Christ at large can be a good indicator of the areas your church can focus on or support with a strong vision.
5. Craft Several Church Vision Statements As First Drafts.
Brainstorm keywords that you associate with your church. It is also helpful, if not more crucial, to come up with words that highlight the unique characteristics of your church.
Use the following three guidelines to create the initial drafts of the vision statement.
- How can you express the type of church you want to be in the future?
- Does the statement incorporate values that are central to your church?
- Can someone who does not attend your church understand who it serves and desires to reach?
The idea is to get several statements to choose from and revise them as a team.
6. Refine The Vision Statement
A good vision statement is concise, memorable, and repeatable. To help with the revision process, ask yourself these questions:
- Can an outsider understand the vision we hope to accomplish?
- Does it accurately reflect the church’s role in the community and values?
- Can others easily remember and share the statement with their friends?
Your team can craft a vision statement for your church that helps align your team and direct your congregation—the Life.Church Open Network describes the vision statement as words that articulate the focus and perspective of their values.
What Is The Difference Between A Mission And Vision Statement?
Church vision statements express what it hopes to become in the future to serve the greater good of congregants and the local community.
In contrast, a mission statement focuses on the present and how work gets done. What is the current state of the church? Its organization and membership? What are the present goals? The mission statement should accompany the vision statement; clarifying both is helpful.
The critical difference between a mission statement and a vision statement is beautifully summed up in one Tweet by the author Britt Skrabanek:
“Your mission statement focuses on today; your vision statement focuses on tomorrow.”
There is a fine line between a mission and a vision. It is tempting to treat both statements as the same thing. The vision statement is value-based, similar to Oxfam’s “A just world without poverty.”
This statement is concise and expresses the non-profit’s overarching mission to serve the greater good – eliminating poverty. It focuses on the future and represents essential values to the organization.
Church Vision Statements Conclusion
The church’s work is too vital to communities and the world to lack vision and passion. Church vision statements are helpful tools that can unify your team and inspire your congregation toward action.
When writing church vision statements, remember that they should convey how you envision the church in the future and describe the unique calling of your ministry to meet the needs of its surrounding community.
Could you use more help in crafting and creating compelling messaging? Including your weekend sermons? Check out the following posts:
How To Clarify Church Mission Statements In 5 Easy Steps
How To Define Your Church Core Values In 5 Simple Steps
How To Prepare An Effective Message In 7 Steps
How To Prepare An Engaging Message (Sermon) Series In 4 Steps
