In our church, every calendar year ends with vision season. It’s an exciting time in our church where our pastors share the word God has given them with our church. Everyone gets to come together under the vision for the next year. We end the year with vision so we can start the new year in execution.
Pastor Dharius Daniels said it well: “Many people don’t have an execution problem. They have an execution problem when it comes to Godly instruction. If you’re going to seize a season, you have to be willing to execute on a word.”
We want to grab hold of the season God is calling us into, and in order to do what God says, we have to understand where we are going. Vision gives direction and purpose. We might not have all of the puzzle pieces, but God always gives what we need to take the next step.
A new year brings new vision, and new vision brings new opportunities for our organizations. There are endless possibilities to what doors God will open and invite us to walk through. God-sized vision often requires the hearts and hands of many; rarely are God-dreams accomplished alone. Like instruments playing together in a symphony, we can execute the vision in unity and strength as each servant leader, staff member, and department plays their role in executing the same vision.
For us, these three key areas help streamline and systemize the vision for our church:
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PROGRAMMING
The programming departments works alongside our central ministries and pastoral staff to outline a programming calendar for the year. This is a high level overview of each Sunday at a glance. With 52 Sundays in a year, we have 52 opportunities to make the church experience fresh for a first time guest.
The programming calendar covers key themes, collections, program moments, and department deliverables we know ahead of time. Once final, the Programming Director will post this calendar on our central project management tool Basecamp as well as review this calendar with staff in our Monday afternoon programming meeting.
Having this calendar readily available at the beginning of the year allows our teams to plan effectively and proactively. Each SZN (January - April, May - August, September - December) the calendar is updated for the upcoming SZN and posted.
OPERATIONS
Similarly to the programming department, the operations department works alongside our HR department to outline the calendar of events for the year. This includes everything from holidays, to church gatherings, to Crew Weeks. This document is shared with our staff and key leaders for the year at a glance and reviewed in person throughout the year at our seasonal Team Leaders Meetings. We encourage leaders to share this information with their Servant Leader teams and spread the word. We know the power in the information is when it's shared.
CREATIVE
As our programming and operations departments are gearing up for the new year, so is our creative space. Prior to the new year, the creative department puts together a yearly vision deck. This is a collection of references, ideas, and art direction, following the programming calendar, for all key events in the year. This deck is broken out by month, then collection of talks, and then key event occurring within the respective month.
Simultaneously, the team is working to develop the new direction for SZN launch, which occurs 3 times per year.
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We know that the Vision is far larger than just us. We've found that equipping those running alongside us with these practical tools has allowed us to operate with strength and clarity. If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.
