Pastors have heard people talk about the importance of vision so often that we almost roll our eyes at the word now.

“How important is it? Do we really need to do it? Isn’t it something borrowed from the business world?”

These are all questions and misconceptions often raised whenever others talk about vision. But I want to highlight a crucial way vision can be used to help your church find the direction it needs to accomplish your mission.

The Mountain

I’m currently coaching a pastor and we’re talking about this very subject. The question I asked him is this: what is the most important mountain top for your church to climb right now?

There are endless mountain ranges your church could run after. The task of the leader is to determine which one our church needs to climb at this moment.

Identify the mountain. Develop a plan for scaling it. Execute it.

I believe the most important use of vision in a church is figuring out what short-term actions and goals need focus and attention. Figure out what objective, if accomplished, could make the biggest impact on the church.

I’m not talking about a 3-year plan or a 10-year plan. I’m talking about the next 6-9 months or 18-36 months.

1 Actionable Tip

Take some time to ask and answer the question: what is the most important objective we can accomplish in the short-term that would make the greatest difference?

Being able to answer this question will provide clarity and direction.

My church currently has around 1700 people in weekend worship. I remember in 2014, when we had around 300 in attendance, we worked through the question: what is the most important thing we can do over the next 6-9 months that would help us go forward?

At that moment in our church’s history, it didn’t make sense for us to answer, “Plant 10 churches” or “Relocate to a larger facility.” Those are great things, but they weren’t things we needed to pursue at that time. We weren’t ready for those answers.

How did we answer that question?
Position TJC for exponential growth.

We believed that in addition to our existing ministries and worship gatherings, we needed to put an emphasis on positioning ourselves for exponential growth.

We believed if we did each of these things over the 6-9 months, we would be able to handle growth as a church. Notice that our goal wasn’t to grow. We weren’t in a good position to do that in healthy way. We needed to prepare for growth by solidifying several other things.

The work we did then has allowed us to be in the position we’re in now.

What is the most important mountain for your church to scale in the short-term? Answering this question, and casting the vision for this amongst leaders, is crucial for taking the important strides for moving your church forward in faithfulness and fruitfulness.

Take a Next Step to Keeping Growing

Whenever you want to take a next step of growing in your leadership, there are lots of ways you can do that.

1. Individual Coaching. For those who want to get a more tailored coaching experience, this option helps you grow in church leadership skills and solving your church-specific challenges. Sign-up soon, limited spots.

2. Church Consulting. If your church needs revitalization and desires assistance in developing a vision and strategy for going forward, this option can be great for you. We not only help diagnosis issues but work with you to create a plan and coach you on execution.

3. Student Ministry Leader Lab. Join us in Nashville August 3-4^th for coaching and practical help for leading an effective student ministry. Register here.