The ’90s Called (Part 2)
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The ’90s called again, and they want their 10-year vision back.
In Part 2 of our series, Sean and I explore how churches can move beyond outdated vision-setting approaches to create more focused, time-bound visions that actually drive change.
In this episode, we discuss:
• why the 10-year vision approach from the ’90s no longer works in today’s fast-changing world
• how to start with identifying the core problem in your mission field before crafting vision
• what makes an effective modern church vision (hint: it’s specific and time-bound)
• practical examples of bold moves from real churches
Plus, we share key questions every church should ask when developing their vision, and explain why getting crystal clear on the problem you’re trying to solve is essential for rallying your entire church body around a common purpose.

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More Episodes in This Series
- Mission Statement – Episode 378
- Core Values – Episode 380
- 3 Ring Binder – Episode 381
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Transcript
Sean:
Well, welcome back to the Unstuck Church podcast. I’m Sean, and I’m joined as always by Amy Anderson. Amy the nineties were a great decade for me. I won’t tell you how old I was in the nineties, but when I think about the nineties, I have some really, really good memories. So I have this wonder as I was working on this episode about what movies I was watching back during the nineties.
Amy:
Oh goodness.
Sean:
Back in the nineties, we had to either drive to the movie theater or to a video store.
Amy:
Yeah. Blockbuster.
Sean:
To see or rent a movie to take home.
Amy:
And rewind it before you return it.
Sean:
Exactly. Yes. So movies took, I think, a little more effort, which I think made them more memorable. So as looking back, here are some of the top grossing movies of the 1990s. First of all, number one, and I don’t know how I feel about this, is the movie Titanic. Remember Titanic?
Amy:
Oh, I do remember Titanic.
Sean:
That was a huge hit, A very long movie over three hours long, and I remember falling asleep in the theater watching Titanic, quite literally asleep. Number two, one of my favorites though, Jurassic Park.
Amy:
Oh, was that in the nineties?
Sean:
It was. 1993.
Amy:
Wow. I’m old. Wow. That was a long time ago. I thought, where’d they get those dinosaurs?
Sean:
I know. Well, that was the first kind of like big CGI movie that I remember.
Amy:
For sure.
Sean:
Number three was Star Wars episode one. So remember with Star Wars when they went back and did the beginning of the story after doing the original part of the story.
Amy:
No, I don’t watch any of those.
Sean:
A lot of people didn’t like it. And then number four, the Lion King—classic.
Amy:
That was in the nineties too?
Sean:
Nineties, 1994. Yep. James Earl Jones is the memorable voice from The Lion King for me.
Amy:
For sure. So Pretty Woman wasn’t in the Top Four, wasn’t that a nineties movie?
Sean:
Not in the Top Four.
Amy:
All right.
Sean:
I don’t know if that was a nineties movie. I don’t remember. That wasn’t on the big movie list.
Amy:
I think it was; I was in college, so.
Sean:
Yep, yep. Rounding out the top five, and I’ll stop here, is Independence Day, the Classic Independence Day.
Amy:
Oh, that’s a good show.
Sean:
Was Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum. I think Forrest Gump came in number six, very close to cracking the top five, but close number six. So it just brings back some great memories of the nineties for me when we actually had to put in some effort to get to the theater or the video store to watch a movie.
Amy:
Wow.
Sean:
It’s fun to look back at some of those memories, but today we’re gonna continue our trip back into the nineties on the podcast with part two of our series, looking at what’s changed and what hasn’t changed in church ministry planning over the decades.
Amy:
Yeah, that’s right, Sean. And last week we kicked off the series by explaining why having a clear picture of your mission field is far more important than having a mission statement. And today we’re gonna talk about the concept of longer vision range vision planning.
Sean:
In the nineties, it seemed every church was working on a 10 year vision. And it’s good when pastors cast a clear, compelling sense of where God is leading the church, but there are also some aspects of what was effective then that just isn’t effective anymore. So, Amy, what’s changed from your perspective?
Amy:
I think maybe the first tension is that churches often jump straight into crafting vision without really identifying the core problem or problems that they’re trying to solve in their community. In other words, we get excited about painting this picture of the future, but we haven’t really done the hard work of looking at our present reality. Another thing is some visions just end up really big. Like too big. Like our vision is to reach the world for Jesus. And again, no one church is gonna do that. It’s aspirational, but that’s probably too big of a statement or they’re not big enough. And those visions could probably be attained without much dependence on God. And maybe my last thing I’d say is that crafting a vision, I think here’s one of the big tensions. I think it’s hard for many pastors. I think it can feel overwhelming. Maybe it feels a bit outside their gifting. They often think they have to be Moses coming down from the mountaintop. You know, with a clear word from the Lord. I mean, that’s a lot to live up to. Or I often liken it to that blinking cursor on the blank screen that pastors look at when they start writing the sermon. So for all those reasons, that’s why I think it gets kind of hard to craft vision.
Sean:
Absolutely. Well, here’s some of the things that have changed that I think used to be relevant in the 1990s kind of planning approach, but they’ve really become outdated and unhelpful, actually. So I mentioned this just before, but the vision stretches out many times over too many years. Back in the nineties, the world was relatively steady. We had a sense that we could kind of chart this course for 10 years into the future and then stay on that course over time.
Amy:
Stay on that course.
Sean:
That’s, and of course we know now, and we’ve just been through in the last several years, this pandemic, so much has changed, and it seems like our world processes through change so much quicker. So looking out in 10 years into the future just seems really impossible. You mentioned this Amy, but in the nineties vision, because we were looking out, 10 years was so big, and I think about it kind of like that supersized vision compared to today. You remember when McDonald’s started supersizing everything in the 1990s?
Amy:
I do. Which actually makes me think of that documentary Supersize Me. Where that guy ate only McDonald’s for 30 days. I think he gained like 25 pounds, spiked his cholesterol.
Sean:
Not a great decision. Interesting movie, but not a great decision. And often big means that their vision is overwhelming and not very agile. And then visions often came in the form of a statement, a vision statement.
Amy:
They did.
Sean:
And this is one of the areas where we still see churches getting it wrong sometimes. We’ve often talk about vision statements as a form of organizational statement clutter. Sometimes there can be a statement for just about everything, a mission statement, vision statement, statement of values and beliefs. And most often, the clutter doesn’t actually help us to move our mission forward at the end of the day.
Amy:
Yeah. Sean, isn’t it amazing how many words and statements we can come up with in church world? It’s like when we’re trying to lead and run too many ministries, churches are busy, but they’re way over programmed, and I’m not sure how effective they are. So likewise, when we have all these words in statement, I think that clutter just creates confusion, not clarity.
Sean:
Amy, before we move on to the solution side of things here, I want to take a moment just to thank our podcast sponsor PlainJoe. With PlainJoe, churches can really unleash the power of their church’s story. PlainJoe has a creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, specialists. They come alongside churches to help excel in their storytelling and reach people who need the church the most. PlainJoe has expertise around strategic, spatial and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, to website design, and many other things. And you can actually learn more about their services and their team at plainjoe.net.
So let’s get on the solution side. What’s the solution to this, Amy? How should churches approach this differently?
Amy:
You know, again, I’ll just echo. I think vision is a great thing. I think it’s a way to re-energize the church. I think ten-year runs are probably too long right now, unless it’s something very specific God gave you. But refreshing that vision every three to five years brings some new energy to the church. So if you’re a pastor and you’re thinking it’s time for us to refresh our vision, I think that’s a great question. Where do they start? And Sean, it might not be what you think it is or our listeners, the first step is not jumping on Google and typing examples of great church vision statements, or today asking what chat GPT thinks. It’s not a three day getaway at a Jesuit retreat center or getting away to the cabin in the woods.
In fact, I don’t think it should start out as a solo activity at all. I think the key, if for those of you’re listening and this is of interest of you, the key is to start with a group of leaders on your team and then start with a problem. Don’t start with a solution. Don’t answer a question you haven’t asked yet. That’ll come later, but start with a problem. You know, as we discussed last week on our mission field conversation, Sean, we asked people to assess where has God placed your church? And then discern what’s the biggest challenge our community is facing. Or what are one of the bigger challenges our community is facing? Is it the rising number of nones, people who have no faith background. Is it cultural division? Is it that no one has crossed a line of faith in months in your church? So start with your list of problems and get crystal clear on those problems before you start planning for the future. God placed your church where he did for a purpose, to be that salt and that light in your community. So the first step is getting to know your community and understanding the challenges that they face. What would you add?
Sean:
Yeah. And actually, Amy, in recent years, we’ve been encouraging churches to think about vision or kind of future direction in terms of what we call bold moves. Establishing these kind of bold God-sized dreams and direction of where God’s calling our church to go. So here’s some examples from some real unstuck churches that we’ve worked with. Crossroads Church outlined a bold move of leading 1500 unchurch people to find salvation freedom in Christ and go public with their faith through baptism. Be Hope Church outlined a bold move of launching two new campuses and three behind the bars – these are kind of prison location campuses – in the next five years. The Hills Church had a bold move of helping launch and or support 15 new multiethnic church plants. And you can see how those bold moves, I mean, those are God-sized dreams. There’s some pretty big metrics that are gonna stretch their team there to try to achieve that goal together. And they certainly can’t do that without God’s help as well. So those are some bold moves that give them a clear, measurable sense of direction and where their church is going in the future.
Amy:
Yeah. And I started out this just on how to start, how to identify that problem. Where you jumped to was really, as I heard you read off those bold moves, they are addressing a challenge in their community.
Sean:
That’s right.
Amy:
Especially that one launching three behind the bars locations in five years. So, I had one, you made me think of Celebration Church in Tallahassee, Florida. Part of their vision was to plant or replant 40 churches. And see 40 people get into long-term ministry by 2027. And so here’s why I like those examples and that approach. It’s because each of these churches have defined a destination. Meaning the vision is not eternal, like reach the world for Jesus. It actually has a beginning and it has a destination.
Michael Hyatt in his book, the Vision Driven Leader says it this way. He says, vision is not the same as a vision statement or a mission statement that you can print on a mug. A vision outlines a clear, inspiring, practical, attractive picture of the future. It’s a clear picture about where you see your church in the next three to five years, and it’s written about reality as you see it, and then write it in the present tense. So, as you just heard, in those visions right, we will lead 1500 unchurched people to faith. We will launch three behind the bars locations. We will launch or support 15 new multi-ethnic churches and great missions like that are specific, but they’re also time bound. So I don’t know what the time bound was on the ones you gave, but like for Tallahassee. You heard them say it’s by 2027. So it was a four or five year vision.They have this end date, and this specificity will align the entire team around what success looks like. Really it should align the entire church around what we’re trying to accomplish.
And I’ll pull one out. Even church boards, I think when we have a clear defined vision, like the examples you gave, it helps them be better board members because one of their key roles is to protect the mission and the vision of the church. And when that vision is vague, I’ll pick on it again, we’re gonna reach the world for Jesus. Well, they don’t know what to protect there. That’s not even tangible. And so boards can often, members can often get focused on ministry approach and methods and kind of get into the weeds of things. But when the vision is clear and specific, then they actually know what they’re protecting. So they ask good questions of the lead pastor at those meetings. They ask about progress related to them. When the vision outlines a clear, practical, inspiring picture of the future, then the team is set up to be united, to be aligned. And I really believe more effective.
Sean:
That’s very good. Alright. So let’s just talk practically about some next steps that pastors can take. What are some things they can do to identify their core problem and then begin to chart a course for a vision to address it?
Amy:
First, do some assessment. So like we talked about last week, look at your community data, look at your demographics. Look at your psychographics, get to know where God’s placed your church, and then assess your current ministry impact as well. So not just looking where you’re located, but how effective are we right now with our ministry. Where are we seeing fruit? Where do we feel stuck? Again, some of that work is just dusting up some information as you’re gonna get into some brainstorming. And then next, as I mentioned, get your leadership team gathered to identify the problem or problems you’re trying to solve.
And here are just some sample questions we ask churches to pray and think through before we help them with vision. Again, gets the creative juices going. What will be different about our community in three to four years? What will be different about our church in three or four years. In fact, let me just mention, I was on a call with a church yesterday and they are, they’re gonna hit their 20 year mark this fall. And they just feel like it’s a catalytic kind of time. So they’re getting ready to cast a vision. And one of the things that they said to their team was in 10 years, everyone who’s eight right now will be 18. What do we need to be doing over the next 10 years to launch our kids well?
Sean:
That’s a good question.
Amy:
They just played with those numbers, and when you reframe some of that, it just helps you think differently. So what would be different in our church in three or four years? Here’s another good one. What might God do through our church if we believed he could? Or set said another way. Picture what you want now, what you think you can do based on your current reality. And at this point in the process, I also would encourage you don’t think about the obstacles. Don’t think about how you’re going to do it. Just ask yourself, what would we actually attempt if we knew we couldn’t fail? And again, we’re still in brainstorming time, so this can be a really fun conversation. I find most people need a little bit of time to prepare. So sending questions out like that in advance I think is helpful.
You know, my husband is a lead pastor at a church here, and he recently went through this activity with his leadership team. Our church had been without a lead pastor for about three years. So the church itself was hungry for what was next. So after he got through about a year of being the lead pastor this fall, he rolled out a fresh vision with the help of his team. And it’s built around being a church that’s outwardly facing multi-ethnic, and for the next generation. So this vision, I didn’t give you the full wordsmithing, but this vision is really foundational now to their ministry planning. And it’s already drawn people out from the congregation who wanna play a role in it. Some people when they heard that we’re gonna be a next generation focused church, they’re like, sign me up. How can I be a part of it? And we say this a lot around here, that’s what a strong vision does. It rallies people. It rallies their time, their prayer. And their giving, they rally around that destination, that picture that creates that strong vision.
Sean:
That’s good. Amy. Really practical steps that pastors can take there to begin to clarify vision with their teams. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today’s conversation?
Amy:
Let me just say again that the most effective churches we work with, they’re really crystal clear on that problem they’re trying to solve and the difference that they’re trying to make. I really believe that that clarity drives everything they do. And as you mentioned earlier, I just encourage churches to be bold. I mean, we hopefully all make a difference in our personal mission fields at work, at school, and our families. But vision asks the question, what could we all do together? What could God do through us if we all rallied together? So give time to that question as you think about the problems in your mission field. And then lastly, just having a team tackle these questions should really draw out an amazing long list of all the things your church could do. And if you’re the lead pastor, you should have the responsibility for determining the vision and communicating the vision. But these teammates coming in with their input should energize and inspire new thoughts and ideas. And then once that’s done, now you’re actually ready to go to your retreat center or take your trip to the cabin of the woods to pray, and then actually confirm your God-given vision.
Sean:
That’s good. Well, if your church has been chasing a 10-year vision or a vision in general that just feels stalled and has gotten stale, let’s talk. We help pastors lead unstuck churches, and we can help you too to identify those bold moves that you believe God’s called you to make, and then how you’re gonna make them. So you can start a conversation with us today at theunstuckgroup.com/ start. Next week, we’re back with a conversation in this 1990s series about core values. So until then, have a great week.