Working Vision Out: My Personal Experience

I thought it might be fun to share my working out of some of the vision thoughts from my previous blog. So, I will share how that went for me. One quick note before I get started. This vision is always a work in progress. Who knows what this will look like in two months much less ten years. Also, it seems like How and the What might change at some point in the future. I don't think the essence of the Why will or should. Right?

The way my brain words is from big to little, general to specific, from complex to simple, etc. That's how I processed this info. I used a cool program called MindNode to map my ideas (you can see that here, just select vision.pdf)). I am a visual thinker so this helps me map thinks out better. I started with what I knew best. For me that was the how. That was the clearest, easiest to articulate thing in my mind. For me how was a three step strategy: Get believers to build authentic, Gospel centered friendships with God, nonbelievers, and other believers.  I used the analogy of Dirt, Seeds, and Roots to communicate those three different experiences. Dirt is those honest, real friendships we need to have with seekers. Seeds represent those early stages where we start hearing basic things from God. Roots picture our experience of growing deeper with God and into leaders. Dirt. Seeds. Roots. Or... Get Dirty. Gather Seeds. Grow Roots. That's my uber-flexible church model/ personal life vision right now. I knew that much. But, what did it mean we were hoping to accomplish. What was the what?

The what came down to the simple idea that we want to start a dirty movement or "Get Boulder Dirty." If you want a more traditional "vision statement" I came up with: Our vision is to start a city wide and world-wide movement of believers growing authentic, Gospel-centered friendships with non-believers. That's the what. That's what we believe the future will look like. 


Now, the why. The why is pretty simple. This is the way Boulder must be reached. Boulder must be reached with dirt, i.e. authentic, Gospel centered friendships (and authentic, honest, transparent, Gospel expressions through-out). So, that is where I must start communicating our vision. Boulder (and all people really) must be reached with authentic, lay it all out, non-phoney friendships. 


A couple of additional thoughts. One, this fits me, my family, and the other people who are joining us. It fits the "Who" like we talked about in the first blog about this. Second, the how part described above is not something that I have to wait to do. I don't have to "launch the church" in order to practice the "dirt, seeds, roots" part of our vision. I can do it now. I think that may be a good test of your how portion. Can you do it now? If you can't, how will your people be able to do it. Third, if you wanted to break this down into labeled pieces I think that the what would be your vision. It's where you hope to end up. The how would be your mission. It's what you do. The why would be your purpose. 


Thanks for playing along! The next vision oriented blog will pick up where this one left off. We will talk about communicating your vision.