Evidence shows that a successful revitalization is one that’s been planned out and pursued.

In this ongoing series, Auxano Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Senior Lead Navigator Jim Randall is interviewed by Gary Moritz, Church Revitalization Futurist, Strategist, Professor, and pastor of City United Church in Boston.

In this episode, Gary and Jim Randall will discuss the fifth irreducible question of leadership for pastors/ministry leaders pursuing revitalization answering The question “Where is God taking us?” in church revitalization. The discussion will also include the distinction between strategic planning and vision planning and introducing the Horizon Storyline tool.

Here are a few main ideas from the podcast:

• Where is God taking us? It’s the vision question that says, okay, here we are today and this is where we want to be tomorrow.

• Evidences will show that a successful revitalization is one that’s been planned out, one that’s been planned, pursued.

• If you’re trying to rally a congregation around the idea of having a different result than what they’re used to, then in order to rally a congregation around to that point, you’ve got to be able to cast vision.

• A vision plan should inspire a congregation to a different result to go somewhere they’ve never gone before.

• Traditional strategic planning is a series of next moves to make; It is this massive punch list that churches have created historically.

• Vision planning is about determining where God wants us to be in the future, coming up with that vision where he wants us to be seven years from now, 10 years from now, and then backing into that with a plan to see that vision come to fruition.

• The Horizon Storyline is a simple tool for a pastor to just go through and fill out the boxes. This is where we want to be in seven years. This is the four things we need to work on over the next three years. This is going to be our focus for this one year. This is what we need to be working on the next quarter.

• The definition of vision is it is a living language that illustrates and anticipates God’s better future.

Listen to the podcast ->

> To employ an honest assessment of your vision language, download your copy of Auxano’s tool for breakthrough leaders: The Vision Headwaters TeamUP