Transcript of Videos in Day 41-50

Video Transcript - Vision Introduction and Definitions

I hope you enjoyed that experience something from our history, but a vision that still remains today. In fact, it's fascinating at the 50 year acknowledgement or anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. People are pointing to that dream saying isn't reality, people pointing to that vision saying, Have we made that vision reality, they're still talking about that today. And the success or lack of success of the movement to create racial equality in this country is judged by that vision statement 50 years later. It's an incredible thing. And people are able to quantify the fact that opportunities for African Americans have improved in our country. Their opportunities for education, that many African Americans are now mayors in large cities in the southern United States or governors or countries. And when Barack Obama was elected president in the United States, it was a banner moment to say yes

We're moving that direction, but then they would come up with all these evidences that we still aren't there. So powerful vision. Now, as we look at that 250 some thousand people hearing that that day but repeated to millions and millions there are what was it? Well, it's the images that he used. Hence the fact that this was a way of speaking to the hearts of people gathering up their dreams, but giving it articulation so that maybe they couldn't have said it. But they were able to say it. It was specific, clear, it appealed the emotions, all those things I pointed out last week, but what was his vision? What was the statement that has made this such a lasting, lasting icon in the history of the United States in regards to racial relations here, inter relational relations here in the United States? Well, his vision was simple. How about racial inequality? Now one of the questions to ask with vision is what aspects of culture need to change.

When you start talking about your vision statement, what you see is the future, you've got to acknowledge that all that stuff we've talked about with cultures, some aspects of that culture are going to have to change. Because sometimes culture becomes less relevant within the church or Christian organizations. And so we're no longer relevant to the culture around us. And so we get marginalizes we've talked, we get pushed aside. And so if we're going to become more relevant, we have to find ways to express our desires for the future that people can identify with. But it will involve changing aspects of culture. I talked about some back many sessions ago now. Just talk about some of those things like changing rituals in the church that some things might have to change that way. Some use of space might have to change around. These kinds of things may have to change Well, what would have to change for Martin Luther King's vision to become reality.

that has made it difficult to actually see racial equality in this country. back right after Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, there were riots throughout the main every major city except Cleveland, Indiana, and had a riot of various kinds. And I remember that those as a kid, I remember that the people that sense that the world is falling apart or being torn apart in one way, shape or form. fires being excuse me, buildings being fired by a variety of activities that that just people rose up in anger against Well, they established a presidential commission did President Johnson at that time in order to say what are the roots of these riots how do we get to the the people so unhappy that they're willing to create such destruction, often to their own detriment in order to get attention, what's the root of it? 

And what do we got to do to change it? And so there was a great report that was written. And it was written with primarily white men being the ones who are on the commission. And they said the root cause of the riots in this country is rage is is white prejudice against blacks racial prejudice. And so the discussion has been that was written 50 years ago, as well.

The discussion has been, has that changed? Well, maybe in some small ways, but there is still there still prejudice. We all have prejudices we do. Prejudice is simply looking negatively at a different person or group of people based on some characteristic. You know, years ago, when I was in high school we used to we used to spend time talking about dumb blonde jokes. 

In other words, we characterize a whole group of people unfairly a women who are blind by telling jokes about how dumb they were. It was a horrible thing to do when I look back about it, but that was that was part of prejudice. prejudice that was finding an expression is the jokes. Well, that's prejudice. I'm looking negatively at a group of people. But racism is something different. It's prejudice plus power. In other words, when people in power are using that power to negatively impact another group of people. Then you got challenges.

Pastors group that I am part of gets together to pray and pray for organizations in our community recently had a group in that was the simply the group that was trying to create a greater racial reconciliation. In the area where I live now. Haven't been huge over problem nothing like back then but but recognizing that it's there. And so we get to talk to some of these people and say, a biracial woman, we talked about trying to get a loan in a certain part of a city and found that the rules were different there than for just two miles away. Or, yeah, opportunities that were created like that the Hispanic who said, You know what, there are certain certain communities, if I come in and I try to buy a home, there's going to be all sorts of forces that are going to try to keep me against that. And it's horrible that that exists today. I'm just trying to point out that there are some huge cultural things that have to change and have been changing over the 50 years. 

Unfortunately, we've taken some steps back in this past couple of years in this country is some of the some of the ugliness of white supremacy has raised its head again. But I just want to point that out to you that if that dream is going to become a reality if that vision is going to become a reality reality, there are some aspects of culture that have to change.

Now, I'm just going to put up a list of some people here. Hopefully you're familiar with most of them. Mother Teresa, the Catholic nun who went to India and rescued people off the streets and people with leprosy and cared for them. Bill Hybels a leader of a church of about 25,000 people in Chicago, Illinois, multi site church,

had been incredibly influential in teaching leadership across generations and every summer in August, he has a leadership summit they call where leaders gather together to learn more about becoming better leaders. We found out that, you know, impossibly, he has some great weaknesses as well as I mentioned in a previous setting in previous lecture. Andy standee, is the senior pastor of North Point ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. Again, somebody who's a great leader and teacher leadership in a variety of places. He's on television, he's got a podcast. He's somebody has been very influential within the kingdom in my day.

Henry Ford historical figure, a first person to provide the construction of automobiles on an assembly line. Bill Clinton, a previous president of the United States, somebody who came in with a certain vision about what should the United States look like. Now? What? When you think of them?

What are some of the words you'd use to describe what their vision was? What was it that drove them? What What do they want to see happen in the future? Well, for Mother Teresa, it was, no one dies, alone, and unloved. She was concerned about that. And so she wanted everybody to experience the love of Jesus. And so she began to talk to various young people. mostly young women, but young men as well, about being part of the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are dying. 

And hundreds responded, because they saw this vision of caring about somebody. And they had in their heart, a desire to care about somebody meaningfully, and here was a leader who made a vision for them greeted the way. Bill Hybels. Back in the days when churches had started to lose influence in our country decided to create a different kind of church. He did it with a high school group. He was a high school youth pastor, and challenged them to start a new kind of church. This church would be a church for seekers. There, their vision statement, mission statement was that they want to, you know, attract seekers, people who are seeking something about God who are seeking spirituality, and then turn them into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. But the people caught on that there are people seeking and so everything about their churches defined by that vision of we want to see seekers come to faith and become fully known.

have followers of Jesus Christ. So the worship service reflects that. Their facilities reflect that. How do we create a place where seekers can come? And so if you were to go to a Sunday service early on, and you're a Christian, you probably wouldn't recognize any of the songs. In fact, they do. Very little congregational singing at least they did back then because that they wanted people to be able to spectate more not me engaged because they wanted to give people a message. So that vision define their behaviors and their actions. But people body in the church body and Andy Stanley, were unbeliever loves to attend. That's his vision for a church and particularly where unbelieving men love to attend. And so that's the way they built their church. That's the way they build their worship. That's the way they define the physical plant. That's the way they they do things because there's a vision of having unbelievers not just people who are seeking God but people who are just unbelieving and maybe.

Are cynical about Christianity, but then they'll still love to come here. And eventually as they love to come, they will encounter Jesus Christ. 

Henry Ford, his vision was, was clear. He wanted to build a car that anybody could afford. Now that met several changes in the culture, one, you know, cars were built one by one by hand by just a couple of people. And so I had to change. They had to be a factory, there had to be an assembly line bill, but the culture had to change too. So automatically, he began paying people far more than anybody else, in order to come to work for him because he wanted these people to be able to afford to buy one of the cars they were building. That was unheard of back then. But it began to change the culture and it began to create unions and it created just a huge change in culture that is still in some respects alive today in the United States.

Coca Cola. Their vision was very simple. They wanted everyone in the world to be able to drink a coke. So that affected all of their decisions about resourcing and distribution and where their factories create this stuff. What about their shipping department? All kinds of decisions had to be made to say, are we attaining that vision? So all of that goes into just examples of visions and how that vision will affect the way people interact with culture, and how resources start being drawn to resources, people resources, but money resources drawn to that preferable future, at least far as the company goes, No Coca Cola. I don't care whether they reach their mission or not. 

But for people like Mother Teresa, Bill Hybels, and Andy Stanley, those are the kind of people who say, I want this to see I want it to happen, because it's an important vision. So what is this thing called vision here are just some definitions. Probably nail for it offers in a book called vision for ministry said I define an institution Vision is a clear and challenging picture of the future of a ministry has its leadership believes it can and must be. 

Now you'll know some words in their picture, a clearer and challenging picture. It's a future oriented hand. It can but must be this is something that someone believes a group of people believe is so important that it must be and we're willing to sacrifice for that to happen. Here's George Barna and the power of vision is his simplest definition is foresight with insight based on hindsight, I like that. But I foresight again, its future oriented with insight. 

In other words, somebody who's looked at the culture, both inside the organization and the broader culture in which that organization exists, and began to define a preferable future based on that, and then looking at previous experience hindsight. Now here's the way he expanded that vision a bit. Said vision for ministry is a clear mental picture of a profitable future, by God who has chosen servants, and is based upon an accurate understanding of God, self and circumstances, now again, because notes and things, it's, it's a picture of a preferable future in part by God, chosen servants, leaders and others, and it's based on an accurate understanding etc. but but it's that future picture. 

John Maxwell is a prolific writer on leadership. And he said, This, a vision is a clear picture of what the leader sees his or her group being or doing. Again, it's a clear picture. And it's based on what that group is going to be being or doing in the future. And so it's something that draws people had. now and all of these definitions there are some common elements. First of all, it's future oriented.

A vision, next time we're going to get into more of this differentiation, differentiation between a mission and a vision. But the vision is something that's focused on the future, what will be sometimes people and organizations will tie it to a date. In fact, they'll tie their vision to a date, National Community Church led by Mark Patterson, in Washington, DC has a vision. They decided that they're going to be a church that goes to movie theaters, that's where they hold their worship services, they rent movie theaters. And so their vision is that by 2020, they'll have 20,000 people meeting an X number of theatre around the Washington area, but beyond that two countries or two cities around that area, so that that's a vision that's tied to a specific date. Some visions are not tied to a specific date. Now, when Martin Luther King Jr. said, I have a dream, he didn't say that by 1972. 

We're going to have this. Wasn't that time limited one, but yeah, depends on what the vision is. We're going to talk about short and long term visions at some point here that you need both. You need a short term goals that you're attaining, and longer term. But right now it's future oriented. I love the story about Walt Disney, the creator of Disneyland and Disney World and the Disney television channel and that sort of thing is a statue of him at Disneyland in Southern California with Mickey Mouse.

The story is told that when Disneyland was dedicated, Walt had already died. And somebody said to Walt's widow, as they're celebrating this beautiful place, so Oh, wouldn't it be great if Walt could see this? And his, Walt Disney's wife turned to him and said, Oh, he did. That's why it's here. that he had the idea of a picture. He had this picture of a place that would be a happy place the happiest place on Earth, he called it and he wanted families to be able to come and, and put aside all the cares of life for a little while and and enjoy each other. And it was a future vision. 

he said, Well, if we could create this thing that created all of these wonderful stories like you know, Sleeping Beauty, we could have a place where people could come and experience these children's stories but experienced them in rich life, Huckleberry Finn that they'd go on the island there that you could just do this explore, you take ride, you could eat, you could just spend a day or days just rejoicing. 

That was his vision. He saw it, and it became reality and now they're, you know, Disney world and variety of Disney organizations throughout the world as a result of his vision to create a happy place for people. 

He saw it. So it's future oriented. It's a mental picture. Anytime you talk about a vision, you've got to be thinking of picture. In fact, you got to be thinking About two things, really. It's a picture and a passion. So it's a picture, you got to use picture language. Now, when I mentor young men in preaching, one of the things we talk about is that within a sermon, you've got to have a certain kind of things. 

One, it's got to be a therapeutic, it's got to be, in other words, related to the needs of the people, and somehow touches their hearts because it's something that they recognize is true for them. It's got to be unconventional in some way that gets gets attention. And so you know, it may be that you're sitting on a stool instead of standing behind the pulpit or maybe that you wander around or whatever, but there's got to be unconventional or, or the way you or points or whatever. It's got to be unconventional. It's got to be filled with passion.

Passion is vitally important, not just the picture language, but the passion that goes with it. And so they're creating a mental picture. You've got to when you're thinking of vision, what is the picture of what this is going to look like. And we're going to look at some variety of statements in the next section, just trying to define mission statements and, and how well would they score and then we're going to look at vision statements after that in the next session just to try to identify what's a good mental picture of the future? What what are those things that grab your attention? 

Because there's further First of all, the picture of Yeah, that's a worthy thing to happen. And secondly, a faith risk. This must be I'm passionate about it. And then, you know, another common element is it's got to be achievable. In other words, it's not something that you can present to someone that they say, hey, that'll never happen. That'll never happen. Sometimes we in the church can do that, you know, we can create this huge picture for somebody there where where people will shut it down, because they just say that can't happen. You know?

heard one consultant that came into the dying church from my denomination and they were down to about 75 people gathered on a Sunday morning. And their resources had been declining for years and years and years as far as the financial resources and the people resources in order to do the work of ministry. And so the average age was probably in the 60s or 70s. And so they were just experiencing this limitation in their life in ministry, and they hired a consultant to help them work through this idea of vision, what's the preferable future for our congregation. And unfortunately, the leadership came up with this unbelievable vision of, you know, becoming a church of 500 people with these kind of facilities and, and the folks that were there just not were too tired, and they made a decision to die. And if you talk to them today, at church, as I did, to one elder in that church, their future is death. They know it, but so you know, the average age is now about 75 in that kind of congregation.

And they said, We love each other, we get together, we're down to about 40. And you know, every year, every month, someone dies. And eventually the last one will close the doors and sell the place and give the money to some Kingdom cause. But that's become their vision is a good death, which is not necessarily all that bad.

You know, we can talk about that for a long time, too. But, but the vision was just too great. The picture was too big for them to saying, Yes, let's go. Let's go.

Now, when you read the Bible, I'm going to be quoting Nehemiah a great deal over the next few sessions, because Nehemiah just caught hundreds very well. He was able to create a vision that was identifiable that was clear, it was precise. It was picture language and it was a passionate, passionate desire to fix a real need within that community. And He was achievable. Now, you know, over these next weeks, I've been talking about the leader for weeks now and then the culture for weeks. Those are all very important things.

vision is going to be the most important thing probably, as you interact with your culture in whether you're able to lead effectively or not. What is your vision? How is it connected? People are aching for good visions these days. Now, here's a picture of George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, back during presidential election when these two are running against each other.

There was this moment in the debate, and Bill Clinton was defining his vision for the future. And so he's talking about this is what I'd like to see America become. I like to see a place where poor being lifted out of poverty, they're given an opportunity to learn to work they're given opportunities for education, they're given opportunities for for jobs that are meaningful, and and they become meaningful And employ as employees and they learn the dignity of work and, and I have this place that prosperity is going to be part of the future of our country that people will be able to come here and they will still see us. And then he's drawing a vision for the world. He says, see a world at peace. 

George HW Bush took this classic pose, and responded by saying there you go with that vision thing again. In other words, he was downplaying the idea of vision. And, well, Bill Clinton got elected. People want vision, they're aching for it. And so as you think about this preferred vision for the future,

know that it's going to become the star that you steer by. It's going to become that North Star that you check against and people will check against the say, how are we doing? How are we living up to our vision, is that still pulling us forward? And it's going to be something that's going to be powered for your ministry, and your life, whatever, whatever leadership situation you are in. 

so we're going to spend a lot of time talking about vision and how to create a meaningful vision for your area. But now start thinking about that in context of Martin Luther King and this other things that we've said today. What's your vision.

Video Transcript - Why is Vision Important

Okay, and thinking about vision a little bit. Today we're going to talk about question that posted on this introductory slide. Why is a vision important? I've already said something about that in the previous section, but I'm going to say more today. Why is vision important? Just to reminder, this is our definition of leadership, a vision for a preferable future. In other words, something future oriented, something that we're passionate about something that's going to draw people's attention and, and love and commitment to that they're willing to sacrifice and then that idea of just that vision and leading into activities and planning and prayer, that bring about that vision into a reality. So that's the topic for today. I want to begin with a Bible verse. 

First of all, Proverbs 19, verse 29, verse 18, King James Version, put This way Where there is no vision, the people perish. Now, since that was written back in the 1600s, of translation into English from the original Hebrew,

there have been other discoveries that have improved our understanding of what various Bible verses mean. So later translations have changed this, here's how the NIV put it. Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint. Now, that's a little bit different, isn't it? Because when you use the word vision, you're thinking about something forward something that's calling us forward. And when you think of Revelation, you think about something we just receive, and, but where, where there is no revelation. And it's really in the context of looking ahead and calling you forward or in God's Will being told to you, the people cast off restraint that this is reflected in other translations. 

Okay, here's the new American Standard Bible where there's no vision the people are unrestrained. I like that one. I'll talk about that what it means to be unrestrained in a moment. And whether there's no vision, the MLB the people run wild. Now. How in the world do you interpret this passage?

Well, where there's no vision, let's start there. In an organization, whether it's a church, a ministry organization, whether there is no vision, things are going to gradually come apart, they're going to drift along and decline will be the result. The second law of thermodynamics, which is a principle in physics, and the principle is simply this that everything is given to decay. In other words, everything in the world is in this process of gradually slowing down, including like the turning of the earth on its axis.

The expansion of the universe all those things are slowing down, that everything left to itself will gradually wear down.

Where there is no vision where there's nothing calling people forward, things are going to wear down. You can see this in churches all the time. They get to the point where they have no vision. So the people are doing all sorts of things. Maybe some of them are contributing to the betterment of the church, maybe not. But they have no idea what is really important because they just do what they're going to do. After a while the people who are eager for a vision, something that they can get behind higher.

They're going to leave. Good friend of mine from years back. He was in a church that was just an interesting place. I'm going to tell a story in just a few moments. But the people for years there had no vision aside from their vision was to continue to exist and as result, the church was dying. Where there is no vision, the people aiming out run with one run while but the people are unrestrained. In other words, there's nothing that is calling the resources of that organization or that church to focus forward. 

How you one person put it this way, you know, if you have a river, that river can be a powerful force, it can generate all sorts of electricity. But if it becomes unrestrained, if it goes over its banks, all of a sudden the flow slows way, way down. And the influence is spread all over the place, and there's not that focus, that creates power. That's what we're talking about with vision. 

That's what this verse is about. When there's no vision or where there's no revelation about the future where there's no call to the future, the focus will begin to drift away. And eventually, the force of that ministry, that church, that organization we'll begin to wane. So that's the importance of a vision now, how in the world do we define visions? 

Andy Stanley, in his book visionary, it says vision, weaves four things into the fabric of our daily experience one of those four things. 

Well, passion, we passion together. People want to be passionate about something, often they'll be passionate about something negative about something they don't like. And one of the challenges in the United States is that our, the church has become known for what we're against, not for what we are for. And so when we define our vision, it's often a negative vision of what we want to accomplish negatively about getting this particular politician out of office or, or getting this particular thing in the community to change so that we can have political power again.

That's, that's not the way vision should function. It should be something positive. It's an anticipated future that this is what we want.

Want to see happen? Secondly, it pulls you forward. It provides motivation for people advice, individual motivation for your own vision. But it provides motivation for a group of people as well. When my children went to college, one of the things I said to them is, you know, you've got to think about what you want to become before you get in college.

And so they are to choose a career, at least tell me what it was. He was a father, I used to think I have the power to do that. But But after a while, I remember that I figured out that they were just telling me get me off their back. But anyway, they hadn't told me what they were going toward. I said, because that's important to have a feature you're aiming for. Because that will give you an impetus to keep moving forward, it will give it will give a defined purpose for the study that you do. It will give a defined reason for spending all the money on the tuition that you're spending. 

And so my one daughter decided that she was going to become an occupational therapist, something that she had been called to she felt since she was age of 10 and saw occupational therapists that work on somebody from our church. And this 10 year old girl was so impressed by that she came home and said, You do. And she tested that vision later on by following an occupational therapist around for a period of time and noting what they did several different ones in different settings and, and today, she has a doctoral degree in occupational therapy, and she both practices and teaches in St. Louis, Missouri. 

my other daughter, her vision was to become a dietitian at the time, she was going through a period of obsession with food and so she wanted to know everything about diet. And then gradually that changed in her passion changed. And she began to be involved in research. And she now today holds a PhD in biotechnology and is teaching at a college here in Michigan. My son just loved computers, but not just computers, but what they could do. And as a 15 year old kid, He was hired by a person in our church to do several things. One was clean the parking lot on five o'clock on Saturday morning, where his business was located, but then go in and he gradually began helping with some of the computer work, and did computer repair computer result computer consulting.

But then what pulled him forward when he got into college was the fact that he wanted to be an electrical engineer. He had seen all the things that an electrical engineer could be involved in and said, that's what I want to do. That's what I want to be part of. And today, he works for Boeing, as an electrical engineer in planning and in the research department there. Now the point is that, you know, when you're in a situation, what's going to pull you forward?

What's going to give your organization a reason to exist, that provides a purpose that helps to find Yes, this is where we want to go and people are willing to give their give their resources and money give their resources and time give their resources and passion. So it passion and motivation direction I put in parentheses there selling equipment. And that's because that this comes from Andy Stanley's book visionary. And he tells the story refining his purpose. He said one of the things he thought he might be doing with his life is being a musician. And so he had just a room full of musician, equipment, and guitars and instruments and that sort of thing. So but then his first child was born. 

And he began to realize that as he was getting more leadership opportunities that that wasn't where his purpose was in these instruments. And so he said, I have no problem selling them all, except for a guitar that he kept to play. But I had no problem because I realized that I had a direction for my life now. And the direction was twofold. One, I was going to be a leader in God's kingdom, first of all, and then secondly, I was going to be a parent. This incredible human being that is born, and so gave direction gave him a reason to get up in the morning gave him a vision.

A vision of a preferable future that didn't leave his life unrestrained, but gave it focus flowed the resources toward the reality of that vision. So it weaves those four, four things together. Now, here's where we have to make some adjustments and understandings. 

One is there's a difference between a mission and a vision statement. And here's how I'm going to do the definitions and then we're going to work through how that works out. A mission statement defines the present state or purpose of an organization. It answers three questions of why the organization exists, why the organization exists, why? What it does is question number one, who does it for question number two, and how It does what it does. That's what a mission statement does a present state a present reality. 

Now, a vision statement, on the other hand, defines a future state, what the organization wants to accomplish over time. And that time period can be one year, three years, five years, 10 years. And it gives guidance to Long Range Planning and It functions as we've been talking about as the North Star. And usually, you know, this is a vision statement is succinct, and inspirational. In other words, it taps into the emotions that taps into the feeling. So that's part of it. 

Now here. This is small because I wanted to fit it on one slide. I'm sorry if you're gonna have to look closely to see what it says but just a the contrast between the two. First of all, 

1- about a mission statement talks about how you will get to where you want to be, defines the purpose and primary objectives are relate it to your customer needs and team values. In the church setting the customer, of course is God's people with God's kingdom. The vision statement outlines where you want to be. It communicates both the purpose and values of your business. Now the answer what does that answer? 

2- The mission statement answers the question, what do we do? What makes us different? The vision statement answers, where do we aim to be as a group of people.

3- In regard to time a mission statement talks about the present, leading to its future. And the vision statement talks about the future.

4- And our function. The mission statement, lists the broad goals for which the organization is formed. Its prime function is internal to the find the key measure our measures of the organization's success, and its prime audience is the leadership team and its stockholders. The vision statement. This way you see yourself some years from now, it inspires you to give your best, it shapes your understanding of why you are working here. 

5- Change mission statement may change, but it should still tie back to your core values customer needs and vision, the vision statement, as your organization evolves, you might feel tempted to change your vision. However mission or vision statements, explain your organization's foundation. So change should be kept to a minimum, but the new change we'll get into that.

6- developing a statement for our mission statement, you ask questions like for what do we do today? For whom do we do it? What is the benefit? In other words, why do we do what we do? What for whom? And why? The vision statements and answers develops a statement of where do we want to be going forward? Or when do we want to reach that stage? How do we want to do it?

7- And then the features on effective statement for a mission statement the purpose and values of the organization who who are the organization's primary clients or stakeholders or what other responsible abilities of the organization toward the clients. Whereas the features of an effective vision statement clarify give clarity and lack of ambiguity. They describe a bright future that creates hope, memorable, engaging expression, a real, realistic aspirations, achievable goals and alignment with organization values and cultures. 

Wow, that's a mouthful of stuff. And I hope you get a little bit of the concept of the fact that they're different. A mission statement describes who we are, and what we are doing, and what that looks like today. And the vision statement says, here's where we're going. This is who we are today. But here's where we're going in the future. This is our values. This is our our culture. This is what we believe is going to be but this is what's going to change as we live out the vision that God has given us. So now we're just going to look at some vision statements and just, you know, try to judge them in some way, shape or form. 

Okay, remember that they have to answer three questions a mission statement has to answer three Questions are, 

1- What does the organization do? 

2- Who does it does it do it for and 

3- How do they do it? 

Okay, so here's the Reformed Church in America denominational statement, which is off their website. Now, I'm not part of that denomination myself, but I know many people in it. And so, I know this is done with a great deal of care and concern. Here's the mission. The Reformed Church in America is a fellowship of congregations called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the very presence of Jesus Christ in the world. Our shared task is to equip congregations for ministry, thousand churches and a million ways doing one thing, following Christ and mission and a lost and broken world so loved by God. Okay, the three questions. What do they do? What do they do? Well, they are trying to be the presence of Jesus Christ in the world. That's what they do. In a lost and broken world, so loved by God, they're part of Christ's mission.

Who doesn't? Well, it's 1000 congregations 1000 churches in a million ways doing the same thing. And what do they do? Well, they equip congregations. That's what this denomination does that what they're trying to do, they're going to equip those congregations for their work. So, so what do they do? How do they do it? Well, for whom? And how do they do it? So let's look at some more people's church. This is in Lansing, Michigan. And I found this online group of just, I put in mission statements for churches. And so I found a whole list of them. There's a bunch of them, you can do that sometime. 

But what they did is they had a group of people who were grading these and so we're going to look at a statement, and then we'll look at that the grade afterwards is after we answer the three questions. So people's churches call to proclaim the gospel of Christ and the beliefs of the evangelical Christian faith, to maintain the worship of God and to inspire in all persons love for Christ and passionate for righteousness and a consciousness of their duties to God and their fellow human beings. We pledge our lives to Christ and covenant with each other to demonstrate His Spirit through worship, witnessing, and ministering to the needs of the people of this church and community. 

So what do they do while they proclaim the gospel? Right? They maintain worship. They're trying to inspire a love for Christ. They are worshiping witnessing, ministering to the needs of the people in this community.

For whom do they do it? Well, the people of this church and community and then thirdly, how do they do it? while they're maintaining worship of God, and inspiring all persons, a love for Christ and passion for righteousness and consciousness of their duties to God, etc. That's their mission statement. Now, the group that was great in this, I know a scale of one to four, gave them a 2.9 score. it's a little wordy. It's not very memorable. It's not something you can tie down to here. This is what this church this is what we are about. And so I don't think it's really great mission statement, I would have given him probably two.

Seeds of Hope his ministry I think it's in Mississippi and Missouri. Anyway, that's a long mission statement the seeds of the mission of seeds of hope is to sow the seed of hope Jesus Christ in the hearts of many in Bloomfield, Pittsburgh, that's where it is, and to the ends of the earth. Our context is the emerging postmodern culture postmoderns have rejected the trinity of modernism, reason, nature, and progress and the church that is built on it. Lacking a meta narrative postmoderns turn to a sort of primitive tribalism or bury their pain and technology or consumerism. Our mission involves creating a church that can be a safe gathering place for postmodern people to come, experience the grace and forgiveness of God, a family of believers where they can find healing for the things that have been, that have hurt and wounded their souls where they can belong to believe that is where they can be nurtured and disciple into faith in the wonderful God and in Jesus Christ to whom He has sent. 

Okay, what are they? What do they do? Well, they're sowing the seeds of hope, Jesus Christ, for whom do they do it? postmoderns? How do they do it? Well, there's a lot of language about that. But what they're doing is creating a church that will be a safe place for postmoderns to ask their questions, basically, a very worry, how did the group evaluate? It's a 2.0, not very high. So it's not very engaging. It's accurate, but it's way too wordy. It has to have too much explanation. And so they graded at a 2.0. That's about where I'd put it.

Journey Church in Fairbanks, Alaska, to connect people to Jesus Christ and to each other. That's their mission statement. Now, that's very simple. What do they do? Well, they connect people to Jesus Christ and to each other. For whom do they do it? Well, that's anybody I guess in Fairbanks, Alaska, and How do they go about it? That's not stated doesn't stay, you know when they're calling people out. Now it's interest in the group grading This gave them a four out of four. I think it was should have been more like a three here in 2.5 or 2.8, something like that, because it doesn't define, you know, how do they go about doing it.

Mary temple in Aniston, Alabama, God has called this congregation to courageously represent the kingdom of God through witness, discipleship and service to others. We take seriously the Scripture, the scriptures, prayer and the call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before God. God is preparing us through prophetic preaching and teaching to bring the hope of the gospel to our community and to take every thought captive to Christ.

What do they do? They represent the kingdom of God, for whom he doesn't really say except that we're going to bring the hope of gospel to our community. So it's for that community in Which they live in Murray temple in Aniston, Alabama. How do they do it? Well witness discipleship and service to others. So it's a fair, fairly well done one 3.5. 

Now, I'm going to take a risk here and share those from my church. Our statement was to help each other take the next step in our relationship with Jesus Christ. And there's a tagline which is not here. This is what we put out there for people that it's very well chosen wording for this, but the tagline is gathering, growing and going. In other words were to gather together, we are to grow. So we gather and worship we gather in small groups we gather for service, outreach, mission, we gather we grow, we are in our understanding of Jesus Christ, and then we go to the community in the Name of Jesus. Okay, so what does it do? While we help each other? take the next step?

And so what does that mean? Well, here's what it means. We've been using the reveal insights from Willow Creek church for the past about 10 years now. And they have four steps, that there's exploring Christ as a first step that some people who come in are exploring Christ and we know that that's about 10% of the people who attend worship at our church. So 10% are exploring Christ. So we want them to take that bridge of coming to step number two. growing in Christ, this is a time when people are beginning to read the Bible and beginning to understand prayer and beginning to apply it to their life. And we want them to take a next step, which is close to Christ. And that is just enjoying Christ presence that they realize that God is somebody that you turn to every day many times a day because you can't live life with. Without him, and then the last step is being Christ centered. And each of those boxes, you know, if you get time with this, you can look at each of those boxes and define the how of the step. But so what does it mean? 

That what we do is we help each other take the next step in our relationship with Jesus Christ. So we're, we're on that continuum of trying to help each other move toward Christ centered living. Who is it for? Well, it's for each other. Now, we're at one point said, unbelievers, we when we were working on this, and decided that we're going to use the words each other because otherwise, it made us feel like while we're up here, you know, those of us who are in leadership, those of us who are further along on that continuum, we're up here, and we're going to help those poor people down there. And instead, we wanted it to be a congregational kind of experience. So it's, it's for all of us. It's for all of us here within the congregation.

Including those are coming in from the community as we go out into the community and they come, and how do we do it? Well, we do it by gathering by growing by going. Now, those elements are going to be part of a mission statement probably wherever you go. That idea of who do I go to? How do I get there? For whom are we doing this? Well, creating a mission statement will include those kind of elements, as I shared, previously attended the church, in which they read this their mission statement every week, which was to, you know, introduce people to Jesus Christ, so they become members of his family, equip them or train them to be disciples, teach them so that they become more and more like Jesus Christ and equip them to go out and do Christ's work in the world. It's memorable. Got it? It's simple. 

Those are the kind of mission statements that will help you move on to vision statements now in the literature about leadership. There will be discussions about what you should form first, should you form the vision statement first, or the mission statement, first, I've always just done the mission statement first because I find it helpful to define who we are at present before we talk about who we're going to become. And so just know that mission statements have power.

If they're written, well, if they are a part of the consciousness of people that define who are we at present, it'll become part of the identity. And so as we've talked about, this is to represent the culture here. This is, you know, who are we and, and that defines how we do things now. So this is all related. Next time, we're going to get more into the idea of vision and how do you write a vision statement? How do you engage that passion towards something of the future, launching from what you have in the present. So hope that's helpful. We'll see you next time.