Vision Statements - who needs them?

One of the things that we did at our service at CBC on Sunday was to launch our new Vision and Values to the wider congregation. And although we had a chance to explore what it means briefly, and although there will be some home group resources to help us think some more, I want to spend the next few weeks on here looking at both our vision and our values in more detail, and unpacking the different words and thoughts.

What we don't want to happen is that this simply becomes a piece of paper that is filed away and forgotten about. Instead it should give us an idea of where we're heading and how we're going to get there. The choices and decisions that we make are made in line with our vision and values.

A vision is not about where we are - but about where we want to be. Our new vision states:

Seeking to be an authentic community of disciples, becoming more like Jesus - walking in step with God, alongside each other and seeing lives transformed.

There is a sense in which there is nothing new here. I know that some people really like the idea of vision and mission statements and other people are a little more sceptical - people who might say that this is always what we've been about.

And that is right - the purpose of the church has not changed. We are God's church and that has been the case for the last two thousand years. Central to our faith is the person of Jesus. We encounter God through his Spirit and in his Word. So why do we need a new vision - and what's new about it?

As we unpack this vision statement over the next few Fridays hopefully we will see the value of setting out our goal in such clear terms. And how having this goal clearly defined and known by everyone at CBC will help us in the process of knowing what it is that God is calling us to be involved in. 

I quite often get people in the church coming to ask me about whether it is OK for them to organise this event or start up that project. And I think that that is appropriate - not because I need to have the final word on everything, but because I am probably more aware than anyone else about the bigger picture of what is going on across the whole church. But the next time you come to ask me - you'll need to be prepared to answer the question, 'tell me - how does X,Y,Z fits in with our vision?'

Come back on Friday so see what it means to be 'authentic'.