First Assembly is releasing and discussing the start of a strategic plan at our 2011 Vision Meetings on Sunday, April 3 & 17. Thus far, I've discussed through this blog two of the four parts of the plan as it now stands.
First, I shared with you the Mission of church, which is drafted in these terms:
"To create a community where waves of people are transformed by the love of God."
In part two of this "Visioneering" series, I shared with you Five Core Values we embrace as a church as we move ahead:
Discover
Experience
Relate
Serve
Grow.
Now, I'd like to take time to share with you the Vision Statement. Vision defines the desired or intended future state of an organization or enterprise in terms of its fundamental objective and/or strategic direction. Vision is a long term view, sometimes describing how the organization would like the world in which it operates to be. The Vision Statement is not something that everyone will be able to quote, but it gives us a general idea of where we are going.
So here it is--
"We see a thriving church community that welcomes and encourages spiritual discoveryt hrough its teaching, worshiping, and serving opportunities. The Bible stands at the center of our discovery. God’s Spirit is experienced through the teaching of God’s word and exposure to God’s presence through worship and serving. As a community that encourages discovery, we accept all kinds of people wherever they may be in their own spiritual journey.
We see a relational community, reconciled to one another through the cross of Jesus. Relationships are a central expression of Christian truth, and so our congregation emphasizes knowing, serving and loving others as essential to knowing, serving, and loving God.
We see personal and corporate growth as the normal and expected outcome of God’s Kingdom. The growth of our church and its ability to reach beyond itself is rooted almost entirely in its commitment to serving in practical ways."
So there you have it--an idea of where we're heading. In the next and final part of this series of blog posts called "Visioneering", we'll look at the goals set by the church's leadership in the strategic planning process. In many ways, the goals are the teeth of the plan. Goals will help keep everyone in the organization accountable to meeting certain targets and will give us focus as we shape the ministries and focus the resources of First Assembly around meeting the goals.
For those of you who are a part of First Assembly, I'm looking forward to our interaction on Sunday evening as we begin to discuss, consider and imagine together the future that God has for our church.
Labels: vision