Developing a compelling church vision and mission

Many churches have failed in casting good vision and have not fully understood their mission. Either that or the people have struggled to buy into the leaders vision and things have stagnated in our churches. Why is that? Would a compelling vision and mission actually lend towards the success of the church and provent apathy in our people? The following 5 keys are ways I believe we can hone in on what are mission and vision are for the church and how we can thrive as a whole family.

1. Defining your vision and mission
Every leader should have a clear mandate and we should never begin a mission without the end in mind. It’s important to realise that this does not mean you are putting God in a box or limiting Him, but rather this enhances our relationship and connection to Him while empowering you to do what you are called to do.
While vision and mission work in tandem they are of course not one and the same. A vision is what we can see in the future and a mission is what we can do to get what we want to see. Or another way of looking at it would be to defining what you want built (vision) and then defining the pathway(s) to fulfilment (mission).
Another key is learning to establish the stepping stones to get you towards your goal. Remembering that while you have people helping you to build your mandate, they probably have their own individual purposes and mandates. As a leader you will need to minister as much to their personal mandate as to their responsibility in fulfilling yours. Showing interest and empowering them in their own mandate will keep them interested in serving the big vision you have.

2. Developing the right motivation
All leadership is about people movement and not just geographically although sometimes that is the case but rather moving people developmentally. Motivation is the ability to get people to move forward. We need as leaders to figure out ways of creating incentives. In fact Bruce Wilkinson did a study of the entire scripture to see what God’s motivations were. His findings showed that in the Old Testament God motivated people primarily by reward. Secondarily by fear and ultimately or the least percentage wise by love. The interesting discovery he made was that his New Testament findings were the exact same. In other words God wired people to be motivated by reward. Especially in this generation, we as leaders need to think of different ways of motivating our people. In previous generations people were motivated by duty (“Do this because I said so”). Sometimes we can use stress, pressure, guilt or shame to try motivate our people but these are all poor motivators. We need to move from duty driven motivation to delight driven motivation. People need to have a ‘joy’ set before them that causes them to endure the cross of true discipleship. Helping people within our church fulfil their destiny is the way we can keep people motivated.

3. Mobilising and moving people
How do we actually move people? Sometimes people can feel so paralysed that it’s just easier to stay in the same place. We need to become great coaches as church leaders asking our people what they want to do. By helping them identify their personal goals, we can then make space for that to happen in our church.
When talking about movement we also need to establish a pace of movement. A church needs to be paced carefully so we can achieve the maximum output without burnout happening. This allows a church to have sustainability and scalability for the long term.

4. Generating Momentum
Every church needs to get to a place where momentum is happening. Can we create movement that sustains movement. The goal with momentum is getting to such a high speed that it can carry itself for a bit so we don’t have to push it forward all the time. When we have momentum we don’t need to micromanage anymore. Having achievements and victories build upon each other create great momentum, whereas failure upon failure can kill momentum. Leaders need to be aware of this when planning. Also remembering that we are a family and sometimes superficial momentum can actually mean we lose momentum. We want to again cultivate something that is sustainable and long term. That is why culture is so instringacly attached to positive forward momentum.

5. Multiplying leaders and ministries
One of our primary mandates from God as people is to multiply. We see in Genesis the words “Be fruitful and multiply”. Sin entered but God’s redemption plan was still in place through the likes of Abraham having a son. The mandate hasn’t changed as Jesus said “Go therefore and make disciples”. Multiplication has always been part of God’s plan! So how do we continue to raise up new ministers in our church? Perhaps we need to rethink the way we do church. Are we doing anything that shuts down gifted people in our congregation? We need to take risks as pastors and not panic when messes and mistakes happen. Parents raising children expect their children to make mistakes but it’s part and parcel of human development. For our people to develop we need to get comfortable with the idea that as we move forward mistakes will happen but the lasting fruit will make the journey worthwhile. Our goal should not just be to have children, but also to raise them!! Lets make our churches leadership incubators where people can grow up and thrive into everything God has created them to be.

Keys to building a thriving church

You may be a church leader who is asking the question 'why are we not seeing growth in our church or why is our church not thriving?'. Perhaps at one point in time you experienced great growth and then things began to stagnate. I believe the following 5 keys will help you see fruit and success in your church again.

1. Spiritual life
Taking time to foster and cultivate our spiritual lives individually as leaders is crucial. Corporate success begins and starts with us individually. How can we expect to have a thriving church if our own lives are not thriving. Spending time in the Word of God and letting truth impact our lives, even the more difficult and challenging scriptures can mould and shape us into being better people and leaders in our spheres of influence. Making sure we have regular focused prayer time. The Lords prayer gives a great framework for focused prayer and yet our prayer lives should not be separate to every other area of life. The goal should be whatever we are doing in life we should be in constant communion with Him.

2. Community
A thriving leader often can mean a thriving church and that begins in the home. How are we as leaders thriving in our home environments. If you are a single man or woman in leadership it is important to recognise the need for healthy community. Practical things to consider when setting yourself up for success are not living alone but living with housemates. Having great friends and disciplines are vital for singles in leadership. A good discipline may be to limit your time spent watching television for instance. Learning to use your time wisely will set you up for success in your present and in your future.

There can also be challenges for married couples in ministry. Ask yourself 'how am I doing with my spouse?' It can be easy for your marriage to take a back seat to all the other pressing issues and yet your ministry is first to your family. For those with children remember there is no higher ministry calling for you than that of your children. Include them in your life and ministry and don't use them as a trophy to show off how spiritual your family is. Some fall under the pressure of this but your children need to grow and mature in a guilt free environment so they don't later grow to resent the church and the Lord.

3. Lifestyle
You're lifestyle is a sure indicator of whats really important to you. It is of paramount importance that you recognise potential distractions and pit falls to you thriving in life. Healthy boundaries are important so that our lives are not compartmentalised between 'ministry' and 'our time'. Our goal is to live Kingdom lives and all our decisions to be ones that reflect Jesus. In everything we do in word or deed, it all belongs to Jesus! A good way of knowing if you have a compartmentalised lifestyle or not is by asking yourself the following question, 'Are you able to express the natural lifestyle of the Kingdom even if there is no ministry programme in place?'

Also some real practical ways you can thrive are to get plenty of sleep, and exercise regularly. An unhealthy body can affect your overall lifestyle.

Your emotional health is also very important. Are you filled with anxiety and fear? What are you doing do cultivate fun in your life?

Finally many people can fall into the trap of making everything in life about ministry. Make sure you have some good hobbies which don't all relate to ways to reach the lost or potential sermons you could preach.

4. Destiny Synchronisation
You are unique and for this reason God has a unique calling and destiny on your life. It's really important that both you and the people you lead are synched up and doing the thing that you are wired to do and not something that your not called to do. Ask yourself 'Is this something that truly gives me life?'. Not everything you do is going to be fully life giving but the balance of time should be spent on life giving work. At least 2/3 of your life should be spent doing things that are life giving. If you are not spending most of your time doing life giving things, make a few adjustments and start investing in those areas of your life.

5. Mentoring
We all need mentors in our lives. Listening and learning from other leaders is crucial to our development. Even ones we disagree with can actually stretch us and help us grow and refine who we are. The greatest leaders recognise that they never stop learning. Having older brothers, sisters and spiritual parents keeps us accountable and doesn't allow room for pride to creep in. The old way of viewing mentorship was that of having one key mentor in your life whereas in the modern age we have whats known as constellation mentorship. This means we have many mentors and resources speaking into our lives to help us grow.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of ways to have a thriving church but there is a great likelihood that with success in these five areas, it will spill over to your ministry and church life too. John 10:10 says that Jesus came that they may have life and life abundant and my prayer for you as you read this post is that in every area of life by the power of the Holy Spirit, you experience life abundant.

Leadership styles

We often view leadership through the worlds broken lense of 'the senior person' or the one 'in charge' and yet it's important to remember that true leadership has very little to do with titles and positions but everything to do with function and fruit. There are so many resources available to us today to help us discover what kind of a leader we are. Resources such as the Myres Briggs test and the strength finders test can be very useful tools in helping us hone in on our leadership style and yet we must remember that human psychology can get us so far but the best framework for leadership can be found in the Word of God and the example of Christ.

In Ephesians 4:11 we can see some of the gifts that were given from Christ to the church and again it was never purposed to exalt the gifts in people but to exalt the gift giver. In fact the real emphasis should not be placed on verse 11 but rather on verse 12 where we see the purpose of the gifts being given... "to prepare Gods people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up".

So what are these gifts of Christ given to the church? In verse 11 it says some in the church are to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. It's important to recognise that Jesus was all of these things and we all reflect different parts of his personality. So lets look at these distinct gifting's and explore why each are significant for the body today.

Apostles
Apostles in the church look different to the Apostles in scripture and while todays apostles are significant and crucial to a healthy church they do not carry the same weight as those ordained by Jesus or who wrote scripture. Apostles are builders and if you have an apostolic calling the first question you need to ask yourself is 'what are you called to build?'. For the advancement of the church we need your gifting and yet there are some things that apostles need to be aware of that could hinder them from progress. Apostolic people can often be so driven to perform or achieve that they can prioritise the work and lose their peace along the way. They can also lose sight of their need for other people and it's important for them to remember that in order to achieve success, they need to recognise their need for the other gifting's too.

Prophets
Prophetic people are usually very intuitive and creative. Because Prophetic people are often thinking outside the box sometimes the people you are leading may find it difficult to follow you. It's vital therefore for prophetic people to surround themselves with people with other gifting's such as pastors and apostles so they can be somewhat grounded in their ministry. The prophetic gift can be very evident in the market place through people who are on the cutting edge of innovation and/or research development. As prophetic people we need to be very careful that our passion for justice does not make us self righteous and alienate ourselves from people and lessening our impact.

Evangelists
Evangelists tend to be extremely positive. They love the good news!! You have an incredible ability to propel people forward which can be of huge benefit both in the church and in the market place. You are wired to want to see change. You're boldness can often trigger people in the wrong way and yet we as the church need your boldness and need to recognise the gift of God on your life. Something to be aware of as an evangelist is that sometimes your boldness can stretch people too far and you can make people feel embarrassed and not cared for.

Pastors
The pastor means shepherd and your primary focus is on people and you are driven by compassion. You don't want to see anyone left out and you love to see people cared for and walking in healing. You have a strong emphasis on inner healing and pastors make great counsellors and mentors. You create an environment for people to thrive and yet you are not the main driving force of the church. The mistake we can often make in the church is to over emphasise the role of the pastor in the church and forget that its not all just about care for the flock and community focused but that there is also a mandate given to advance the Kingdom on earth.

Teachers
You care about truths, facts and accuracy and yet the goal is not the expression of information but to see real transformation. In a postmodern day your gift is crucial to the body of Christ. Pastors can sometimes fudge the truth because of their focus on people and so they in particular need your gift. It's important to recognise potential downfalls if you are a teacher. Pride can rob teachers of their influence as sometimes they can be condescending and appear to be 'know it alls'. Humility in your teaching is of paramount importance for you to have the greatest impact in your leadership.

In summary, it is important in our churches to recognise that everyone is unique and has different styles of leadership. None is greater than the other as all styles in one way or another reflect the leadership of Christ. Learning to work together appreciating the gift of God in one another will see the most fruit in our churches as we lead and advance the Kingdom of God.