Is It Possible To Have A Clear Vision For 2021?
A few days ago, a pastor asked me, “So what is your vision for 2021? Do you have any clarity? Any big plans?”
As soon as I heard the question, I laughed out loud! “Nope! No big plans! I am just trying to get through the next few days!!!” But after the fact, I started to reflect a bit on that question. Can you have a clear and compelling vision for 2021? Let’s face it, there have been some enormous challenges presented to our ability as leaders to set goals and to measure success.
First, the quarantine restrictions are continually changing.
Second, the presence of the virus inhibits people’s normal behaviors.
Measuring attendance, as a church, is much more difficult. Online attendance is still something we are all trying to figure out.
No one knows exactly what we can be planning, when it comes to in-person gatherings or events.
No one knows what the needs will be in our communities, even over the next few months.
It feels very much like we are leading through a season of just trying to survive this crisis. But survival is not really a good vision. Its a necessity but it isn’t a compelling dream ors plan. So is it possible to have a clear and compelling vision for 2021? I believe that it is! How?
#1 - It’s All About Short-Term Wins!
Almost thirty years ago now, I became the lead pastor at Allison Park Church. When I stepped into this role, APC had just come through a season of division and slight decline. Morale had been low. Trust was also low. People were wounded from some past hurts. Everyone was protective and tentative about the future.
One of the things we desperately needed as a church was to start winning again. We were still doing fairly well as an organization, but the perception was that we had been steadily losing more and more people, and more and more of what we had historically been.
We needed to change the narrative and flip the script. We needed to feel like we were making progress again. Actually, this is the case with any team that is struggling or any church that is taking some hits.
If a football team is not playing well in the first half, you might hear the coach say, “Let’s take it one play at a time. Get a few first downs. Stack some positive plays together. This is the way we will climb back into the game again.”
Momentum changes when you start to see small wins; some progress. We need to cast vision for some small and incredibly short-term goals. Where can we win during the next seven days? Even if we are locked down? Even if it so small in comparison with what we used to celebrate.
Let’s call everyone on our lists this week.
Let’s do an outreach of some type to a local nursing home. (ie. Send some gifts or baskets.)
Let’s try to gather 20 people on a zoom call to pray together for 30 minutes.
Remember, it does not have to be huge. It just has to be something we can all do; something we can all celebrate.
#2 - It’s All About The Story Of ‘The One’
When you can’t measure stats, you can always measure stories! In fact, stories are often more motivating than stats anyway. It’s mainly pastors who care about the numbers. We like to look at attendance charts and set goals for numbers of groups, or amounts given, or people reached.
Most people like to hear about stats, but are more moved by the stories. Allison Park Church has a ‘Purpose Statement’ - changing the world, ONE life at a time. We like to say - ‘It’s all about the ONE!’ That one person who is lost. That one person who is forgotten. That one person who is hurting. The world changes for the good as we reach the ONE.
We can have a clear and compelling vision for THE ONE. We can say, “This year we want to have an impact on families with food insecurity needs, or parents who foster and adopt. We want to care for those who are dealing with addiction. We want to launch an initiative to reach out to those in prison, to love on single moms, or to be present for the elderly who feel all alone.”
When you care about those who are overlooked and forgotten, you not only touch the heart of God, you touch the hearts of your people. If you just touch ONE person this week, then you have ONE story to tell about how God is on the move.
#3 - It’s All About Living The Values
One of the things that we did at APC during the pandemic, is that we took the time to really define our values as a church. We did not spend as much time talking about what we want to do. We talked instead about who we wanted to be.
Peter Drucker is famous for saying, ‘Strategy is important. But culture is more important. Culture eats strategy for lunch!’
It’s possible that we have focused too much on strategy and goals, and not enough on values and culture. So during this time when strategy can only be short-term anyway, maybe we should shift our focus to who we want to be rather than on what we plan to do.
After several months of discussion, we landed on three key values: 1) Humility: 2) Multiplication; 3) Bold Faith. Through the guidance of John Stahl-Wert (The Center For Serving Leaders), we started learning how to celebrate the moments when we saw our people living out these values well.
The vision became our values. The win became the living of those values. The celebration was not just about what we are doing but about who we are becoming, even in the midst of this crazy season.
It is possible to have vision for 2021; we just have to shift our imagination into some new categories. As we do, it is possible that our vision-casting will become healthier and more well rounded as a result