- In 2007 we felt like the major vision we had set-out for was losing steam- we even felt like we were floundering for a period of 2-3 years
- January 2010, each member of the SMT (Senior Management Team) spent a few hours in a cabin writing down the individual perspectives of what the vision could be- we were amazed at how unfied the different pieces of the vision were
- We shelved it for about a year- instead of rolling out the big vision to the church
- From February-April of 2010, we asked hundred’s of people in the church, “what’s your dream”- hundreds of leaders involved with the dreaming process
- In May- we took it out to another circle, Mark Beeson talked about it on the weekend and asked for input/dreams that people would have
- In June, we took it out to our community- those who go to church, don’t go to church- what would it look like for this community to be everything you would want it to be?
- In August- we rolled up pages and pages of the input- then the SMT crafted another one page draft
- We were looking for commonality? What was God saying that aligned to the vision we had? We also were curious on what people were saying that were completely missed by our team…
- Went back to the leaders in August/September a draft to respond to- we got 41 pages of feedback
- Finally in January of 2011 GCC consolidated the vision for the church, “not our vision….this is your vision… our vision…”
- March/April doing the campaign to help fund what ended up being a 5-year vision
Q? Were you worried about a flurry of different opinions to the vision?
- Mark Beeson, “Yes, I was terrified, I had no idea what we might hear- it was quite chaotic…”
- Tim Stevens, “I think there was a value for people to be heard… even though some of the ideas were not going to happen.”
- Mark Waltz, “Great that other opinions were lifting the heartbeat of getting outside our 4 walls…”
- Kem Meyer: “Listening can be a very disturbing experience- it would have been a lot easier and faster to just drive the vision home…
- Rob Wegner: “We were educating through the process, The Forgotten Ways, created a lot of great conversations about the Church…”
- DC Curry: “It gave people to opt in or opt out… we were comfortable if people chose to opt out… the vision would give people the opportunity to decide…”
How much of the original vision they shelved in 2010 came into the actual vision of 2011?
- Jason Miller: “Tremendous to see in overlapping impulse with the feedback….”
- Rob Wegner: “7-8 different trends came through clear…”
How did it impact the energy of the Church?
- Tim Stevens: “Energy was tremendous…”
- Rob Wegner: “Biggest push of momentum in nearly 20 years”
- Mark Beeson: “The ‘want to’ was critical- people are willing to do what it takes because they ‘want’ it bad enough… I think our energy level has gone up every month for the last 4-5 months…”
How was staff involved in the process?
- Tim Stevens: “We really started there and helped train them to do the same process with the groups and teams- most of the brainstorming was led by staff and volunteers…. We gave them handles on how to steer the conversation to keep it positive and not in teaching mode…”
If you started the process all over again, what would you do different?
- Kem Meyer: “There are things we could have done more efficiently but the chaos and process was essential…”
- Rob Wegner: “I had to tell myself to relax, the process was critical..”
- Mark Beeson: “I wish I had a better ‘me’ to bring to the process…. I want to do whatever it takes to bring the best of me to a process like this… I don’t want to be in a place next year wishing I was bringing a different me…. I want to be in God’s rhythm…”
- DC Curry: “This was one time we were completely wide-open, we were completely transparent, we didn’t try to manipulate the conversation, it was uncomfortable… hard to do something different when we were simply vulnerable in the process…”
Tim Stevens: “We’ve had 3 major vision processes in the life of the church: First vision process, the from the mountain model, second time- team model, third process was a crowd-sourcing model….”
- Mark Beeson went on a sabbatical- everyone was a bit nervous he would come back with lots of new ideas, new vision
DC Curry: “The reality is that we knew our people knew their community better than we did- how in the world do we reach your world? How can we help? What do you need? If we’re going to be a force in the community, we should ask the community…”
Mark Waltz: “Our congregation knew the air was coming out of the tires… the feedback came out of the tremendous need and vacuum our people were already feeling…”
How did the Reveal study help cement real shifts?
Rob Wegner: “We knew we had to reboot our discipleship strategy… Our community and partnership in India exploded when our local model was struggling… We’ve learned a ton from India…”
Kem Meyer: “How have I changed in how I lead my team- here’s the vision, now what do we need to change? What are 3 filters we need to make sure we’re furthering the vision?”
Jason Miller: “Leading with ‘being the church’ rather than simply trying to tell people you’re going to be mature…”
Rob Wegner: “Shift from we can do it and you’re going to help us, now it’s you’re going to do it and we’re going to help you…”
Mark Beeson: “How can I become attractive and be like Jesus so I can effectively lead a missional community?”