Skip to content
GOVERNANCE & MINISTRY
by Dan Hotchkiss
Contact Dan
Buy Governance & Ministry
How to Write a Vision Statement
Open external resource
← Previous
Next →
Excerpt
Every year about this time, I get calls from lay and clergy leaders who want help writing a mission statement. They hope that with a clearer sense of mission, their congregations will stop reliving yesterday and start building tomorrow. I think they’re on the right track, and once upon a time I would have joined them in the mission-writing process. But today I usually suggest starting instead with a vision statement. Every consultant defines mission and vision differently—often, we insist our definitions are the only right ones! Here are mine: A mission statement says what difference you intend to make in people’s lives. It’s built to last. The best mission statement does not sound like a catalog of activities and programs. Instead it says, “Whose lives do we mean to change, and in what way?” A vision statement draws a picture of a hoped-for future. It answers the question, “What
Validate Email
Search for: