If Any Church in Town Could Say Your Vision, You Don't Have One Yet

Here is a hard truth I have had to sit with in my own ministry: a small church without a clear direction does not stay still, it drifts. Slowly, quietly, week after week, it drifts. But a church of the same size with a sharp, shared vision punches far above its weight. The research backs this up. Across U.S. congregations, a clear and compelling mission is one of the top correlates of growth and vitality.

And here is the part we cannot delegate away: the most important function of a leader is to cast vision. You can hand off the administrative pieces. You can train others to run programs. But only you can set the tone and name where this church is going. If that feels like a weight, good. It means you understand the calling. Let's make it doable.

The specificity test that changes everything

Most vision statements fail for one reason: they are too generic. So try this test. Read your vision out loud and ask, "Could every church in town say this?" If the answer is yes, it is not a vision yet. A real vision is more specific than a dream, but more motivational than a goal.

"Love God, love people, reach our community" is beautiful, and it is also something ten thousand churches could put on their sign. Specificity is what makes people lean in. It is what makes your church this church, in this place, doing the one thing you are uniquely positioned to do.

Discover your Kingdom Concept

Before you write a single word, discover what only your church can carry. One helpful frame is Kingdom Concept = Problem x Passion x Potential. Another version asks you to combine your collective potential, your local predicament (the real ache in your neighborhood), and your apostolic esprit (the fire God has put in your people).

Work through these questions honestly with a few trusted leaders. What is the specific problem in front of us? What are we genuinely passionate about? Where is our untapped potential? The intersection is your Kingdom Concept, and everything else flows from it.

Write it short, and say it in two minutes

Once you have your Kingdom Concept, distill it. The benchmarks here are your friends:

Keep the full statement under 100 words so it stays memorable.

Aim for a distilled statement of 12 to 17 words.

Make sure you can pitch the whole thing in two minutes.

A vision no one can repeat is a vision no one owns. Short is not lazy. Short is disciplined.

Name the "Who"

Vision gets real when it has a face. Instead of "our community," name 3 to 4 specific personas you are trying to reach, with real detail. Think "Jess, 35, single mum" rather than "young families." When your people can picture an actual person, they start praying differently and inviting differently.

Revisit these personas every 2 to 3 years, because your neighborhood changes and so should your understanding of who God has sent you to.

Turn vision into a focused plan

Vision without a plan is just a nice feeling. Here is a simple sequence that works:

Gather your core for a planning retreat.

Run a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).

Set SMART goals with real KPIs. For example, "20 people attending the new initiative regularly after one year."

Build an action plan and review it regularly.

Then cap yourself. Choose only 3 to 5 strategic priorities. More than that means none of them. Focus is the whole discipline. And make at least one of those priorities about leadership development, because it has the largest trickle-down effect on everything else you are trying to do.

Deliver it relentlessly, and mark the doorposts

A vision frame only works if it is repeated until you are sick of saying it (which is usually right about when your people are finally starting to hear it). Deliver it consistently from the platform, in emails, in hallway conversations.

And here is a piece I love: mark your doorposts. Alongside your forward goals, display visible, emotional markers of what God has already done. When people see momentum from the past sitting next to the targets ahead, they walk forward with confidence, not just obligation.

A simple milestone map

25 to 50: Get your Kingdom Concept and a short, specific statement on paper, even a rough 12 to 17 word draft. At this size, you are the strategy. Clarity beats process. Name your first one or two personas.

50 to 75: Run your first planning retreat and pick 3 to 5 priorities. Start testing whether your core can recite the mission.

75 to 100: Resist priority sprawl. Make leadership development explicit. Preach the vision consistently.

100 and beyond: Re-examine your "Who," and let your vision point toward new initiatives. Carry your doorposts into the next stage.

What to do next

Do not let planning become a substitute for doing. The workbooks and retreats are a means, not the win. Match your ambition to your size, because for a church under 100, baby steps beat overreach every time. Start with clarity, then build the plan around it.

If you want help diagnosing where you are before you plan where you are going, take the /assessment and check your /milestones. Then reach for the /tools when you are ready to build.

Your challenge this week

Before your next meeting, quietly ask three of your board or core members to recite the church's mission without prompting. Count how many can. That number is your honest starting line, and it tells you whether your vision has actually landed or whether the real work is just beginning.