The 12 Templates for church vision as a resource made the subtitle of God Dreams— my first major book release since Church Unique in 2008. God Dreams is toolbox for installing a visionary planning model in your church. The master tool of the book is called the Horizon Storyline and it fits inside of the Vision Frame–more on that to come.
SO WHAT ARE THE 12 TEMPLATES?
The Horizon Storyline will engage your thinking on church vision 5-20 years into the future depending on the age and life stage of your ministry. When it comes to thinking this far away, I have found that it is very difficult getting people on the same page. Vision that distance into the future can seem fuzzy or unnecessary to think about. The 12 templates were designed as an on-ramp to vibrant imagination and dialogue as a leadership team.
Think of the 12 templates as a vision typology. When believers sit together and dream about the impact they want to have in the world, I believe any dream can be ultimately defined by one of the templates. It's church vision made that simple.
In fact, that's how the templates emerged in my mind. About 4 years ago I had crossed the 10,000 hour mark of facilitating with church teams. I began to see the patterns crystallize in my mind. We have been using these tools for about 4 years at Auxano, and a year ago, I decided that we needed to put it in a book. The visuals and definitions of the 12 templates are available on the free download below.
HOW WILL THEY TRANSFORM YOUR LEADERSHIP?
Most teams select and relate the top two templates for their church. For example, New Break in San Diego uses the "leadership multiplication leading to targeted transformation" as their picture idea. From there you build out a vivid description of your long-range vision horizon. (God Dreams walks through this process). In the end, the transformative nature of having a long-range vision comes from the brand new ability to:
The state of church vision is so anorexic with regard to this kind of long-range thinking that it's hard to recognize it any more. We are trafficking in such general ideas, we no longer recognize the lack of meaning of anything beyond sermon series planning or the next annual budget. Where does that leave our people? They are not emotionally connected to anything that our church represents or the impact we can have, beyond the next weekend service or small group.
Let me ask you: What kind of dramatic gospel impact will your church have in your community, in your lifetime?
Download the 12 Templates Overview
Templates that ADVANCE (arrow)
Templates that RESCUE (cross)
Templates that BECOME (circle)
Templates that OVERFLOW (wave)
