Churches often struggle with knowing what they are supposed to be doing, and how they are supposed to do whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. As I have argued elsewhere, some of this confusion is due to a poor definition of “church.”

However, most of the nebulous nature of what the church is supposed to be doing and how is a result of not having a clearly defined purpose, mission, values, vision, and strategy. Sounds like a lot of work? It is. But without such things in place, you still do a lot of work in church, and like a hamster on a running wheel, rarely go any place.

One of the best books which can help you understand the what, why, and how of your church’s purpose, mission, values, vision, and strategy is Advanced Strategic Planning by Aubrey Malphurs. He takes you through why these statements are important, and how to write them up for your church.

But here is a basic summary of what each statement should contain:

Purpose of the Church

The purpose is the same for every church. It answers the “Why do we exist?” question. The answer is basic, generic, and broad. The church exists to honor and glorify God (Rom 15:6; 1 Cor 6:20; 10:31). You could (and probably should) use different words to state it for your church.

Mission of the Church

Like Purpose, every church has the same mission. It answers the “What are we to be doing?” question. Jesus told us that we are to be making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19-20). Once again, to personalize it for your church, you should redefine the terms to make it more clear. For example, what do you mean by “disciple”? And what do you mean by “all nations”? Can you really reach all nations, or should you, as a individual church, pick a smaller area of the world to focus on? Willow Creek has one of the most famous Mission statements: “The Mission of Willow Creek is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ.” They might be a bit vague on which people they want to help with this, but they do a good job defining what they mean by “disciple.” Aubrey’s book gives great help on defining your mission (chapter 5).

Values of the Church

Unlike Purpose and Mission, every church will have a unique set of values. Values help you answer the question, “Why do we do what we do?” It helps clarify your mission statement. If you are going to focus your mission statement on families in your area, that will affect your values.

If you want to focus on college kids, your values will look different. If you want to focus primarily on people who would normally not attend church (e.g., atheists, agnostics, people of other religions) that will effect your values. It is a difficult, long process discovering values, and should be done with the help of other people in the church. Malphurs has some excellent tips and value audit surveys which help churches discover their values. You should probably have no more than ten values.

Vision of the Church

Vision is your dream for your church. If you close your eyes, and imagine the ideal church, what it would look like, what it would be doing, who would be there, that is your vision. In developing a vision, I find it helpful to follow Martin Luther King Jr.’s pattern, and write my vision by beginning each paragraph with the statement “I have a dream…”

Once you get the vision down on paper, it would be wise to go back and check your vision with your values. Sometimes, the visioning process helps inform and correct your values.

Strategy of the Church

Only once the previous four items are in place can you begin to ask the “How?” question. Developing a strategy tells you how to bring your vision to fruition. But if you don’t have adequately defined mission, values, and vision, you cannot develop a good strategy.

Tragically, strategy is where most churches and pastors begin. This is why they flounder around, and run off in seventeen different directions, and fight over the best way to do things, and how the money should be spent, and who should be the group they focus on, and what kind of music and literature the church should produce, etc. Most of these arguments go away if everybody in the church is on board with the mission, values, and vision.

Many churches think that they don’t need all this planning. But if we are doing the work of building the kingdom, we need a plan. No person, setting out to construct a building, would get a group of people together, hand out a few tools, and simply say “Go!”

No, they sit down and plan what kind of building they need, what it will be used for, what the budget is, what the codes are, and how it will be safe for the people who use it. Then they draw up the plans. Then they begin building. Heavy thinking precedes heavy lifting.

If you want to be part of building Christ’s church, be ready to take part in some heavy thinking.