Developing a Positive Vision for Your Church

By Robin G. Jordan

In his article, “What Do You Do If Most of Your Church Members Do Not Live in the Community,” Thom Rainer describes the plight of what he describes as “ex-neighborhood churches.” However ex-neighborhood churches are not the only churches whose members don’t live or near the community in which the church building or other meeting place is located.

Since the 1970s a number of breakaway groups from the Episcopal Church have formed new congregations after leaving that denomination over prayer book revision, women’s ordination, and more recently gay ordination and same-sex marriage. These new congregations have not been particularly community-oriented. Rather they have focused upon reaching other disaffected Episcopalians who live in a wider area. This has not proven a very effective strategy for growth. Even though it has not yielded the results that the churches who adopted this strategy hoped it would, it continues to influence their thinking and forms a serious obstacle to their ability to make the critical transition to being a community church, a church which is a missional presence in the community, resembles the community, opens positions of leadership to members of the community, contextualizes its ministry for the community, and prays for the community.

The radical decisions which Thom Rainer identifies that ex-neighborhood churches must make if they are to experience revitalization and growth are also the same decisions that these churches must also make if they wish to flourish. It means abandoning the mindset which sees the church as a safe haven for Episcopalians and other Christians who are disaffected from a church or denomination or as a means of propagating a particular praxis, or way of practicing the Christian faith.

An important step is to develop a vision for the church which is based upon what the church stands for, rather what is against. This would appear to be a non-brainer. But surprisingly significant number of churches formed by breakaway groups fail to recognize the importance of having a positive vision if they hope to reach and engage unchurched people, a vision not just on paper but one to which they are wholly committed and which influences every decision that they make.

Church leaders seeking to develop a positive vision for their church may find these resources helpful:

How to Develop a Church Mission/Vision Statement
Crafting a Church Vision Statement
The Five Cs of a Healthy Vision Statement
A Unique Approach to Casting Church Vision
The Power of Clarity in Your Church’s Vision
Five Reasons It’s Okay to Borrow Another Church’s Vision Statement