Sunday, July 26, 2009

Mission, Core Values or Vision?

Today I continue to answer the 20 questions for leaders that Michael Smith of ClearView Baptist Church in Franklin, Tennessee asked Mike Hyatt. At this point, this activity is growing a little tiresome. Many of these questions seem to be very similar with very similar answers. But this week we move on to the question, Which is most important to your organization—mission, core values or vision?

When you are talking about a church, isn’t the mission to teach the core values? I don’t exactly see how you can possibly separate the two. And if we take the biblical understanding of vision, which Proverbs 29:18 seems to imply is right up there with the Law, we can’t say that one is more important than the other. But I doubt Michael Smith meant it quite that way. In a business sense, the vision comes from the big boss, whomever that might be. Since Christ is the head of the church, vision would still be right up there with the law, even in the business sense, but let’s leave him out of it. Let’s suppose the pastor sets the vision. Though the pastor is due respect, he is just a man and is not as important as the church. Whatever vision he may set is not as important as the mission and core values of the church.