VISION & MISSION

In preparation for this weekend’s Visioning Workshop, here are some thoughts about vision and mission.

What is vision?

Vision is, before all else, the work of the soul.

Peter Senge in his popular book, The Fifth Discipline: Developing Learning Organizations, says about vision:[1]

"Vision is a set of guiding principles and practices and shared pictures of the future that provide energy that draws us into the future.  It is not a leader's charisma, not a crisis for which people galvanize into action, not a cookbook with step by step instructions.  Vision is the picture we carry around in our heads of what we want to create, a sense of commonality that binds people together for the greater good, and that uplifts people's aspirations.  Vision binds people together around a common identity and sense of destiny."

A Vision gives expression to what (a congregation) ultimately wants to create (for itself).  It is what a congregation aspires to be as a result of its ministry, programming, and outreach.

How should this vision look like when it's done?

A shared vision to be fully empowering, needs to be broad and allow a congregation to take a long term view of itself.  It is the master blueprint for existence!

Who creates the vision? 

Is it the minister, the Board, or the Committee Chairs?  No.  It’s the whole community that creates the vision.  The leaders of the congregation and the minister facilitate and participate in the process and add their part to it but it is the community as a whole are the ones who need to come together, invite the leaders to join with them, help them pause, and share each other's dreams and hopes.  So a creative vision, a vision that carries us beyond where we are today, has to come from the conversations that people have with one another.

What about mission?  How is it different from vision?

The practical work of having a vision lies in stating a mission, and putting our backs to the plough.   A Mission Statement focuses a congregation more explicitly on what it wants to mean to the community in which it exists . . . the congregation’s focus, passion, and sense of commitment to itself and the broader community.

So, a Mission Statement is a sense of congregational calling, the force that continues to create and sustain the congregation. That sense of calling can be recognized or unrecognized by the members often working in them unconsciously.

Mission answers the question, "Why do we exist?" "Who do we exist for?"  Or, What can we do? What can we create together?

Vision and mission are therefore inter‑related.  Without a vision, there is no mission.  Without a mission, the vision will remain a pipe dream.  The vision of the congregation is our picture of that mission as it is translated out of our minds and into the world in concrete, substantial ways.

Vision is less about identity than direction, less about who we are and more about where we’re going. By stating clearly our destination, a vision statement will inspire and challenge us to manifest, to make real, what we say our mission is.  If mission is character, vision is character in motion.

What are some of the guide-posts, the foundation stones, the pillars, that will inform and guide our process? 

To begin with - our faith.  We are Unitarian Universalists.  The principles and purposes of our faith - there are seven principles and six sources - guide our beliefs and our actions as well as our vision and mission.  Our principles and purposes don’t stand alone in isolation; they rest on a firm foundation of values that are a vital part of our liberal religious heritage - freedom, acceptance, reason, love, the democratic process, shared ministry, a covenantal community, justice, service, and peace.  These are our roots and yet, they help us have wings.  And finally, we are a religious community.  We gather to celebrate the holy in our lives and in Life, provide care and support to each other, and work for justice and peace in the larger world.

A vision without a mission is but a dream;

A task without a mission is but drudgery;

A vision and a mission can transform the world.

See you Saturday.

In faith,

Abhi

---

[1] Quoted from Discerning Your Congregation's Future: A Strategic And Spiritual Approach by Roy Oswald & Robert Friedrich, Jr.  Alban Institute Press