3 Questions to Evaluate Vision Planning - Ron Edmondson
What is the next level for your organization? Do you have a vision to get you there?
As we approach our third anniversary as a church, I’m in a deep brainstorming time about where God would want us to lead the church in the coming years. God has blessed us with three wonderful years, but what’s next? I have always believed and taught that a healthy church is a growing church, so what is our role in producing that growth. Of course our overall vision remains the same. We want to make growing followers of Jesus Christ. I know that God ultimately is the One who grows the church and people, but I also know that He uses people to carry out His will. Will what worked to accomplish our growth the first three years work the same way in the next three years? As fast as the world is changing, and since we are a culture invading church, reaching people who are very entrenched in the culture, it would make sense that we would need to be ready to make changes quickly to maintain our growth.
So, here are some of the tough questions I’m asking myself. While at this point these are personal questions I am processing, yesterday I shared these with our staff for their input and to spur their thoughts in similar directions. I welcome your input if you have questions or thoughts that would be good for us to consider or if you have insight for a church at our stage of its life-cycle.
Where do we want to go? What specific goals in each area of ministry do we have for the next three years in regards to numbers of people engaged and numbers of people volunteering? What changes need to be made to our current structured programs in order to better disciple people? Do we need to alter our service times, tweak our style of music or add new services to reach new people?
How are we going to get there? Once we know where we want to go, what steps need to be in place to accomplish each of the goals? How much will it cost? Will our current facilities be enough to sustain our new growth goals?
Who is going to lead the way? Are the right people in place to take us to the next level? Do we need to add staff or alter responsibilities in order to achieve maximum results from everyone on the team? How many new volunteers will be needed to meet our goals?
These are just a few of my questions. Again, I welcome your input in this process.
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15:22 NIV
