Imagine for a minute all of the church communication your church sends out: Sunday bulletins, e-mails, student flyers, tweets, children's ministry reminders, campaign brochures, pastor blogs and on and one and on. The average church in America is a fire hydrant of words— from announcements and devotionals to pastoral letters and Facebook updates.
But what if the most important tool you need, is something that never crossed your mind?
Consider this...
What is the first thing you put in the hand of a prospective or existing leader? How do you invite someone to reflect significantly on the cause that your church uniquely champions for Jesus Christ? What is the most compelling thing that any of your leaders, have ever read about your church?
Announcing "The Leader's Vision Guide"
The Leader's Vision Guide is a simple tool that delivers a short reading experience to orient and inspire your leaders around what God is doing in your church. Since volunteer leaders are the engine of your church, why wouldn't you put your best effort into a tool like this one? Words create worlds. What are you saying, again and again and again to build a world of ministry in the minds of your leaders?
So what makes up a Leader's Vision Guide? Here are some elements:
- Anchoring the mission that Jesus gave to all of us
- Compelling presentation of your church's mission (what we do)
- Brief introduction to your church's values (why we do it)
- Picture and explanation of strategy (how we do it)
- Clarification of what winning looks like (when we succeed)
- Invitation to the leadership community
- Saturation with Scripture
- Engaging design that reinforces the vision
- An overall reading experience that reflects the culture of your church
That may sound like a tall order, but for churches that develop a Vision Frame, it's really not that hard. It just takes a commitment to having clarity, and then putting some resources into creative writing and design.
That's exactly what Northwest Bible Church did after spending 2012 as a "Dream Year" walking with Auxano through the Vision Pathway. They created a beautifully designed and excellently written overview of their Vision Frame. The call it their "Leader Guide." I want to personally thank Neil Tomba for allowing me to share this great tool with you.
DOWNLOAD the Northwest Bible Church Leader Guide
What do you think of this tool? Have you have already created something like this? If so, I would love to see it!