90 Second Leadership – Distinguishing Vision, Strategy, and Values
Let’s talk about where your church is going, what it’s going to do to get there, and how it’s going to do what it needs to do. Let’s talk about the relationship between vision, strategy, and values.
Every church’s vision is a contextualized version of the Great Commission and Great Commandment. I’m not concerned about the unique way you word that vision. I just want to make sure that you have a preferred future that you’re moving your church toward. Vision is where your church is going.
In order to move toward that vision, everything a church does can be categorized into two buckets: your discipleship pathway and your leadership pipeline. Your discipleship pathway forms disciples, while your leadership pipeline equips them. Your discipleship pathway shapes character, while your leadership pipeline develops competencies. Your discipleship pathway transforms hearts, while your leadership pipeline trains transforming agents. Your discipleship pathway is what develops, while your leadership pipeline is what deploys. My book, No Silver Bullets, will help you develop your discipleship pathway, while our Lifeway Leadership coaching will help you develop a leadership pipeline for your church.
Your discipleship pathway and leadership pipeline are the strategy that will get you to your vision. However, what differentiates your church from the one down the road are your core values. Your core values are what influence behavior and strategic decision-making. They are the how that dictates the way you do what, so that you can get to the why.
In other words, values are not what you do; they are what characterize everything you do.
I hope that clarifies the differences between vision, strategy, and values and gives you a sense as to how your leadership pipeline differs from your discipleship pathway.
