Have a Vision that Expresses Your Purpose?

To suggest that vision expresses our purpose means we must first identify our purpose. Mission, vision, and goals must all stem back to and grow out of our purpose.

We First Need to Identify Our Church Purpose to Define Our Mission

If our purpose is to love God and people, based on the Greatest Commandments (Matt. 22:36-40), then our mission is:

to love God by worshiping Him, getting to know Him, and communing with Him in prayer

to love people by telling them about Jesus, discipling them, extending fellowship, and having compassion toward them in practical ways as needed

Hence, our purpose answers why we do what we do, providing the essence of who we are. Our mission explains what we will do to live out our purpose.

We Then Express Our Purpose & Mission Through Vision and Goals

It’s not enough to merely know what our purpose is and what we should do to accomplish it. We need to do it. Remember that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17).

This is where vision and goals come in — the outward expression of our purpose. What will it look like to get there? How will we do it? How will we know if we get there?

Vision – the broad statement of how we will fulfill our mission in accordance with our purpose

Goals – specific strategies and measurements we will use for how we will fulfill our vision

Read About: Leadership Skill – Goal-Setting & Vision Casting

You’ll find this content in the Steering the Church Toward God’s Purposes Leadership Guide with a brief caution about getting caught up in terminology about purpose, mission, vision, and goals.