Where are we in the visioning process?

The short answer to the question ‘Where are we in the visioning process?’ is ‘We’re mid-way through it.’

In February 2009, the Elders began a visioning process that included multiple meetings with the ministry leaders of PCF; an all-church gathering in March; Stephen taking a week away in March to read, think, pray, and plan; a ten-part sermon series on Acts in April – June; and an Elders’ retreat in May.

The Elders’ initial goal was to introduce a PCF vision statement to the whole church at the end of June. However, as we moved through the visioning process, listened to you, and thought about how best to lead PCF, we decided it would be best to begin by introducing our core church values and a new PCF mission statement in June, and then allow the values and the mission to give us direction for a vision statement in the months after that.

Thus far, the fruit of our visioning process has been two-fold:

- the establishing of four core values: God. Community. Witness. Word. You can read about these four values on our website by clicking on ‘About Us’ in the top toolbar on the home page

- The introduction of a new church mission statement: ‘We exist to be a Jesus-centered community in Pepperell, speaking gospel words and doing gospel works to display the worth of God to the world.’ You can also read this mission statement and a fuller explanation on our website

Our mission statement flows directly from our core values, as you will see if you read them together. Our vision statement, in turn, will flow from our mission statement. A vision statement, unlike a mission statement, is not just one sentence. It is a fuller description of where we hope to be as a church in, say, five years from now. The vision statement puts flesh on the mission. For instance, given that we want to be a Jesus-centered community in Pepperell, what does it look like for us to achieve that mission? How do we go about increasing community, being more Jesus-centered, and being more actively involved in Pepperell and surrounding communities? Those are all vision questions, and we’re now entering into a season of asking those more specific, goal-oriented questions.

So, here’s where we are in our visioning process. We have four core values. We have a mission. The elders are now thinking through how to embody that mission in a vision of where we want to go and who we want to be as a church in the coming years. In the Fall, we’ll again ask for counsel from the PCF ministry leaders, and we will also have another all-church gathering. We’ll lay out the directions in which we think PCF should move. We’ll invite your response to those thoughts, and we’ll also invite you to share with us your vision of how we are to embody and accomplish our new mission. Out of this process will emerge our PCF vision statement for the coming years.

Posted by Stephen Witmer on Aug 8, 10:12 AM