Vision Resources
Leadership Journal Archives – Access the complete Leadership Journal archives. Containing over 35 years of issues, these archives contain a trove of pastoral wisdom, leadership skills, and encouragement for your calling. Search the archive for articles on many aspects of church vision, planning, leadership and ministry.
Mind Tools – Established in 1996, Mind Tools helps more than 15,000,000 people each year learn practical, straightforward business and management skills. Follow this link to learn more about business perspectives on vision, mission and purpose.
Auxano – Auxano’s methodology, the Vision Pathway, results in a Vision Frame for your ministry. It’s laid out as a tool to discern and design God’s better future as presented in Church Unique. Steps in the Vision Pathway include:
- Rethink | What does it really mean to lead with effective vision today? Because it is easier to duplicate than to incarnate, many leaders often succumb to neglecting their church’s unique calling.
- Uncover | What can your church do better than 10,000 others? Is it possible that God has a special calling for your church? To put it another way, how does your church glorify God and make disciples? The answer is your church’s Kingdom Concept.
- Talk Up | Do you have compelling answers to the five irreducible questions of clarity? The Vision Frame contains five components that define your church’s DNA and creates the platform for all vision casting.
- Live Out | How is your team “dripping vision” into conversations and ministry decisions every day? The Integration Model is a simple tool to equip your leadership for vision-centered dialogue and ego-free decision making.
Church Vision & Values Examples
Belleuve Baptist Church – Cordova, Tennessee – Our mission is to Love God, Love People, Share Jesus and Make Disciples.
Biltmore Baptist Church – Asheville, North Carolina – Biltmore Church exists to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus who reach up, reach in, and reach out.
Elevation Church – Matthews, North Carolina – Elevation Church exists so that people far from God will be raised to life in Christ.
Faith Baptist Church – Bartlett, Tennessee – The Mission of Faith Baptist Church is to glorify God through passionate worship, personal evangelism, purposeful discipleship, practical ministry and participation in missions.
Fellowship Church – Plano, Texas – Our vision for Fellowship Church is simple. We exist to Reach Up, Reach Out, and Reach In. These three are the biblical mandates of the local church.
First West – West Monroe, Louisiana – Our mission is to #seetoit that no one misses the grace of God. Our vision is to see people changed by the gospel and living out their Christ-centered purpose.
Redeemer Presbyterian Church – New York, New York – Redeemer Presbyterian Church is a center-city community of changed people who are committed to serving and renewing New York City through a movement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Second Baptist Church – Houston, Texas – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always.” – Matthew 28:19-20
Willow Creek Church – South Barrington, Illinois – The Mission of Willow Creek Community Church is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Nonprofit Vision & Values Examples
Alzheimer’s Association – Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s.
Creative Commons – Our vision is nothing less than realizing the full potential of the Internet—universal access to research and education, full participation in culture—to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity.
Ducks Unlimited – Ducks Unlimited is wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever.
Make-A-Wish Foundation – Our vision is that people everywhere. will share the power of a wish.
Smithsonian Institution – Shaping the future by preserving our heritage, discovering new knowledge, and sharing our resources with the world.
Top Nonprofit Vision Statements – Click this link to see 30 vision statements selected from the top 100 U.S. nonprofits.
Business Vision & Values Examples
Amazon – Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
Apple – Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.
Facebook – Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
Google – Google’s mission is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Microsoft – Microsoft’s mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.
Skype – Skype’s mission is to be the fabric of real-time communication on the web.
YouTube – YouTube’s mission is to provide fast and easy video access and the ability to share videos frequently.
Vision & Values (Books)
Barna, George, Turning Vision Into Action (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1996).
Blanchard, Ken, and Jesse Stoner, Full Steam Ahead!: Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011).
Malphurs, Aubrey, Developing a Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1999).
Mancini, Will, Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008).
Osborne, Larry, Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010).
Southerland, Dan, Transitioning: Leading Your Church through Change (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2002).
Stevens, Tim, Vision: Lost and Found: The Story of a Church That God Stuck but Didn’t Stay There (Centreville, VA: Exponential Resources, 2012).