Vision, Mission, and Covenant:
Creating a Future Together
New Congregation and Growth Resources
Unitarian Universalist Association
2005
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 2
Table of Contents
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together
Forward 4
Concise Definitions 5
The Historical Context 6
Why Undertake Vision, Mission, and Covenant Work? 8
What Are Vision, Mission, and Covenant? 10
What Is Vision? 10
What Is Mission? 12
What Is Covenant? 12
Commonalities: Vision, Mission, and Covenant 13
Dynamics 13
Primary Religious Questions 14
Tension between Individual and Community 15
Tension between Internal and External Focus 16
Broken Promises 17
The Process 19
Creating the Team 20
Understanding the Change Process 22
Dynamics of Change 23
Dynamics of Paradigm Shifts 23
Technical and Adaptive Change 25
Facilitative Leadership 26
Selling the Process 27
Planning the Process 28
Change Agent and Advocate 30
Creating the Vision 32
Sample Vision Program 1: Guided Imagery for a Group 33
Sample Vision Program 2: Individual Reflection 37
Sample Vision Program 3: Small Group Meetings and Time Line 39
Criteria for a Good Vision Statement 41
Creating the Mission 42
Sample Mission Process 1: Questions 43
Sample Mission Process 2: Community Field Trip 46
Criteria for a Good Mission Statement 49
Creating the Covenant 50
Sample Covenant Process 1: Promises 53
Sample Covenant Process 2: Hopes and Promises 56
Criteria for a Good Covenant Statement 58
Following Through 59
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 3
Mission Objectives 60
Sample Mission Objective Process 61
Mission Budgeting 64
Evaluation 65
Revisiting the Vision, Mission, and Covenant 66
Glossary 68
Appendixes
Appendix A—Sample Vision Statements 69
Appendix B—Sample Mission Statements 70
Appendix C—Sample Covenant Statements 72
Appendix D—Team Retreat Suggestions 74
Appendix E—Facilitative Leadership 75
Appendix F—Additional Resources for Small Group Work 77
Appendix G—Additional Background Exercises 80
Appendix H—Consensus Models 86
Appendix I—Leader as Change Agent and Advocate 89
Appendix J—Additional Questions 91
Appendix K—Uses of Vision, Mission, and Covenant Statements in
Congregational Life 93
Appendix L—Stages of a Mission Budget Process 94
Resources List 96
Important note for searching UUA.org: All UUA resources mentioned are
available on the UUA.org web site. Please use quotes around the title when
you search to bring up the resource or item you seek.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 4
Foreword
Who are we, as individual Unitarian Universalist congregations? Who are you, within
your own community when you gather on Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon,
or Wednesday night, or any of the other times that you gather? Who are you, as a
religious community?
These are the questions that a vision, mission, and covenant process will help you
ask, answer, and articulate in a positive way. As the biblical prophet said it, “Without
a vision, then the people will perish.” It is also true that if you don’t know where
you’re going, then any road will take you there. Without knowing why we bother to
gather, to meet, and to be a community, Unitarian Universalist congregations are in
danger of ceasing to exist, or of merely replicating the local university’s continuing
education program, or the local debating society, or the local country club. If we
don’t know who we are as individual Unitarian Universalist congregations, then what
is there to differentiate us, one from the other and from all the myriad choices that
people have in deciding how to spend their time, their energy, and their money? In
communities that have multiple Unitarian Universalist congregations, what
distinguishes one from another? Without vision, we stand in danger of withering on
the vine. Countless people within our regions stand to lose valuable and viable
religious communities that can sustain them in times of trouble and concern.
This document on vision, mission, and covenant assumes that not only are Unitarian
Universalist congregations worth strengthening but also that the message of our
religious movement is important to the world around us. We provide a saving
message that people need and want to hear—one of equality of all people, of the
need to strive for social justice, of the glory that there is nothing that we need to do
to be deemed worthy. In fact, if we didn’t believe in the importance and possibility
of this message for the world around our congregations, then there would be no
need for mission, vision, and covenant statements. Rather, we could just continue to
exist without paying attention to the deepest questions of why we gather and why
we continue to be.
We also assume that every congregation can be strengthened or rejuvenated. This
idea comes from the realization that although most of the congregations we
participate in were originally called into being many years ago, the gathered and
worshipping community is actually called into being every time two or more gather
in its name. Each person who enters a religious community is not only touched by it;
each individual also touches and transforms the congregation. It is true that we are
more than just the people who gather, but it is also true that the people who do
gather give each congregation its particular flavor, personality, and reason for being.
It is the purpose of a vision, mission, and covenant process to help congregations
(and the people in them) understand more deeply the reasons they gather, the
reasons they exist in the world, and what they want to do in the world.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 5
Concise Definitions
It is always helpful to understand how language is used in a particular context.
There are many competing definitions of the words vision, mission, and covenant. In
this document, the terms mean the following:
Vision: A carefully defined picture of where the congregation wants to be in
five or more years. It is the dream of what the congregation can become.
Mission: A concise statement of what the congregation wants to be known
for, or known as, within the wider world; what the congregation wants to
mean to the community.
Covenant: A statement of how members of the congregation will be with,
and will behave toward, one another, as well as what is promised or vowed
to one another and to the congregation as a whole.
Fuller definitions of these terms, along with provocative questions, can be found
later in this document.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 6
The Historical Context
From the earliest days of recorded history in the Western world, there are stories of
vision, mission, and covenant as foundational parts of religious community. These
stories have been told in song, dance, and language, and they are the story of
community—individual stories woven into an intricate collective narrative that shows
the identity of the community. Each story may be appreciated on its own but gains
in power when seen in its larger context. An understanding of the significance of
vision, mission, and covenant work today is increased by knowledge of the role of
covenants in early New England congregational life, and of patterns of religious life
in Europe before that. It is a story that involves risk, missions accomplished and
failed, covenants made and broken.
The universal aspects of vision, mission, and covenant may be seen throughout
Western religious culture. The story of the people of Israel is a record of God’s
covenant with a community. It is celebrated in various events: the saving of Noah,
his family, and the animals during the Flood (Genesis 6–8); the covenant with
Abraham when God gave Abraham the land of Canaan, and when God renewed the
covenant after asking for Isaac’s sacrifice (Genesis 17, 22); the delivery of the Ten
Commandments to Moses (Exodus 19–20); and the deliverance of the people from
Egyptian bondage at the Exodus (Exodus 11–14). After the fall of the temple and
exile from the promised land, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant: “See,
the days are coming . . . when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel.
. . . Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31).
The early Christian community saw itself as part of a continuing covenant, restored
through the life and teachings of Jesus. The covenant that was rooted in the history
of Israel was seen both as fulfilled by the life of Jesus and as the basis for the
existence of the Christian mission. For Christians, Jesus was the one who came to
save them and to provide them with life everlasting, thus fulfilling the earlier
covenants. This created for them a new covenant and a new mission—God would
save them, and it would be their responsibility to spread God’s word to save others.
Later theologians such as John Calvin and Augustine spoke of the Christian life as a
“covenant of grace” and as the “saving acts” of God in history. Covenant as a way of
being with one another was also made real in the work of Benedict when he
formulated his “Rule for Monasteries.” Created in the sixth century, this document
spelled out all the details of how the monks should live together, and monasteries
and other religious communities today still use it virtually as it was originally written.
Tip: You may find this section helpful to the
congregation’s understanding of the place of
covenant within our religious history.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 7
The Enlightenment was a broad movement of scientific and naturalistic thought that
often emphasized the human role in redemption, the importance of reason, and a
view of human progress in history. Eighteenth-century thinkers such as Descartes,
Voltaire, Pascal, Rousseau, and Hume sought to create general laws based on
human experience and observation, experimentation, and mental deduction. They
believed that if they could just uncover and understand these human laws, they
could create systems of laws and codes of conduct that would enhance civilization
and the ability of humankind to get along.
The strands of the biblical covenant and the work of the Enlightenment thinkers
were combined in our North American immigrant ancestors. The early European
immigrants based their new congregations not on specified creeds but on means of
covenants reminiscent of those of the biblical days. The Cambridge Platform was
created in 1648 specifically to settle differences and strengthen relationships among
local congregations in New England. The platform held that “there is no greater
Church than a Congregation” and that each congregation would be autonomous
because of this fact. Yet at the same time, the platform also stated that there were
duties and responsibilities that congregations owed to one another: care,
consultation, admonition, participation, recommendation, and relief. For more
discussion on this subject, refer to the document Interdependence: Renewing
Congregational Polity, by the Commission on Appraisal, 1995, section 2 at UUA.org
by clicking Leaders then Leaders’ Library and searching ‘Congregational Polity.’
The organizing principle of such covenants was to make churches out of collections
of individuals, to establish community. Coming from a European context where
people were not always allowed religious freedom, congregation founders wanted to
create a way of living that was different and respectful of others. This orientation
was, in effect, a paradigm shift—a change from one way of being with each other to
a different one, where the rules and regulations that governed interaction were
substantially changed. Refer to the definition of paradigm in the glossary, page 68.
This shift in behavior and consciousness was done with reliance upon God, but also
in light of reason and the value of human life as part of the underlying assumption.
For example, the 1629 Salem Covenant used the following language:
We Covenant with the Lord and one with another, and doe bynd ourselves in
the presence of God, to walke together in all his waies, according as he is
pleased to reveale himself unto us in his Blessed word of truth.
Stepping outside of our tradition’s direct European roots, the universal aspects of
covenant can also be found in Eastern traditions. For example, in the early period of
the Buddhist community, the Buddha could have remained in his enlightened (or
awakened) state and have had no further concern for the transient world. But out of
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 8
compassion for others, he decided to devote himself to proclaiming the dharma (the
truth that he had discovered through his awakening). In so doing, he began to
attract disciples who wished to be instructed in “the way” or “path” of which he
spoke. The community of the Buddha, therefore, became organized around a
commitment to the way of life and shared vision of how to overcome suffering. They
created a shared assumption of how life was organized and of how they would
interact with one another—ways that were based on the models that preceded
them.
Why Undertake Vision, Mission, and Covenant Work?
With its richness from the past, vision, mission, and covenant come to life today in
the midst of people gathered in religious community. In fact, the genius—and the
risk—of liberal religion is that each new generation must discover its own
understanding of vision, mission, and covenant. There is some truth to the remark
that “liberal religion is always only one generation removed from extinction,”
because without the valuable work in discovering and creating vision, mission, and
covenant, the reasons why our congregations gather can be lost. Because we
choose to allow (and to insist upon) individual determination of belief, we cannot fall
back onto historical statements as the reasons why we exist. Rather, the members
of each gathered community must determine for themselves the reasons why they
continue to exist.
Some congregations have historical covenant statements—statements recited or
posted by their congregations from centuries past—but these historic covenants
serve a different purpose than newly created and renewed statements. These
historic statements bind today’s people to those who came before, reminding them
that the congregation is never really theirs; instead, the congregation is “borrowed”
for the time being from those who came before and from those who will follow in
their footsteps. These historic covenants do not necessarily set out who and what
the congregation is now or wants to be as it moves forward, but rather they capture
the spirit of the congregation’s history.
This talk about each generation’s needing to create its own vision, mission, and
covenant might be a bit misleading, for according to the experience and advice of
congregational experts, these statements need to be revisited at least every five
years. With people entering and exiting our congregations, the way to keep these
documents alive and vital is to make sure the gathered people have ownership of
them. This ownership is best created through inviting the people into the process
rather than just telling them the results. Yet as stated before, if this process is to be
vital and the work productive, it cannot just be done and put on a shelf; instead, the
vision, mission, and covenant must be live documents used in the everyday life of
the congregation.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 9
In this way, vision, mission, and covenant are resources for congregational
development and health. As alluded to in the Foreword, congregations without a
compelling and shared vision may too easily lose track of what they should be doing
and, consequently, struggle to determine how to allocate their human and financial
resources. Without a centralizing agreed-upon focus, battles can rage over
competing interests and equally good projects. However, when vision and mission
are in place, all discussion circles back to these articulated statements for a double
check and grounding. In congregational decision making, the “winning” decision
should reflect the vision and mission of the congregation. If it doesn’t, then
something needs to change. Sometimes it’s the decision that needs to change, and
sometimes it is time to revisit the vision or revise the mission of the congregation.
The vision and mission may incorporate the sentiments of historical covenants, but
they are made alive by the involvement and participation of today’s members
looking forward, as well as back, in time.
Studies have shown that the congregations that have living vision, mission, and
covenant statements are the ones that are growing—not only in numbers but also in
the depth of membership commitment. This growth shows in the depth of
commitment members have to the world around them and to living more fulfilled
lives. By terming these statements living, we mean that the process is followed
through from vision to mission to objectives into the actualization of the
congregation’s dreams. Too often, vision and mission work is done without the
subsequent steps to make the results come alive, and they remain pretty words on
paper. When this happens, resistance and resentment build up; people who helped
craft the visions, missions, and covenants feel as if their time, thought, and emotion
were not well spent.
When a congregation’s leadership follows through with the mission to create
objectives, ties all major decisions back to these statements, and makes sure the
statements are effectively used in worship, the commitment of the members is
strengthened. Congregations with vital, living visions and missions are growing,
whereas those without them have little substance to attract new people to their
midst. Districts that have done this work have discovered deeper resources and
ideas for helping congregations fulfill themselves. The process of vision, mission,
and covenant is ongoing; its richness grows as it is applied. No one can promise you
that vision, mission, and covenant work will answer all your problems and directions,
but it will help you determine where you want to go, and which paths you need to
take to get you there.
Some times the creation of vision, mission, and covenant statements reflects a shift
in paradigm—a change in the way things are done and in the way in which people
interact with one another. Sometimes the creation causes such a shift. (Refer to the
“Understanding the Change Process,” page 22.) Such a shift in people’s
understanding of who they are can create tension; yet by being aware of this
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 10
tension, speaking about it forthrightly, and engaging the members and friends of the
congregation in the shift through a widespread process of development, this tension
can help bring into place creative and deeper relationships among people of the
congregation. Vision, mission, and covenant work is not easy. Developing and
following a good process that involves most of the people in the congregation is
hard work and takes time. And the outcome can be well worth it.
What Are Vision, Mission, and Covenant?
The words vision, mission, and covenant often seem to have divergent meanings,
changing not only between fields of application but sometimes even within the same
field. They are also interrelated; vision has the broadest focus, which then narrows
into mission and covenant, becoming further focused as these statements come
alive through shared ministry goals and mission objectives. The diagram below sets
out a conceptual picture of how they fit together. Because of the confusion of
terminology that often occurs, it is necessary to clearly define the terms and use
them consistently within congregational life.
Mission
Who we are and why we exist
Vision
Our Dream
Values/Covenant
What We Hold Dear
Shared Ministry Goals
Together in ministry, we will..
Mission Objectives
Specific, measurable strategies
What Is Vision?
A vision is a carefully defined picture of the congregation’s future. It is not the
current reality of the congregation, but it is a dream of what the congregation wants
to make of itself. The vision answers the following question:
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 11
• What do we want the congregation to look like in five or ten years as a
result of its efforts in ministry, programming, and outreach?
The vision needs to be empowering and to be more than a cherished possession of
just a few. It needs to be a shared vision, created among and by the people who
are in the congregation. A shared vision enables a congregation to move from the
status quo toward a new reality. A shared vision can create new ways of thinking
and acting, and it should be broad enough to provide growing room for the
congregation. A shared vision needs to be renewed continually as a congregation
grows and accepts new challenges. Although it may be tempting to limit the vision
to what we conceive as possible or to what we know the congregation is currently
doing, the vision must be bigger than this if it is to be inspiring and empowering. A
vision requires of us the ability to take a long-term view of ourselves as a
congregation. It also must be specific and concrete so that it can be known and
worked toward.
The vision statement binds together the individual thoughts and desires of the
people. Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of a
Learning Organization, writes: “When a group of people come to share a vision for
an organization [a congregation], each person sees their own picture of the
organization at its best. Each shares responsibility for the whole, not just for their
piece.” Vision is what takes us beyond where we stand in the congregation and
helps us both understand and take responsibility for how the dimensions and
activities of a congregation fit into the larger, overarching aim for the future of the
congregation.
Yet the vision is not a creed, nor is it a substitute for individual or collective
theological reflection. It speaks of the institution and what it wants to be. For
example, the vision of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is to become an
antiracist, antioppression, multicultural institution. This vision is a clear and concise
statement, and although it is built upon the UUA’s shared understanding of the
inherent worth and dignity of every person, this vision statement is not a theological
statement. It may well be that theological work by individuals alone and in concert
within the congregation is a good beginning for work on a vision, but the two should
not be confused.
Similarly, the vision is not the words that you find in the legal papers of the
organization. That language is often constricted by the legal process and usually is a
general statement of the purposes of the congregation. The language is rarely
changed and exists primarily out of legal necessity. (If the legal definition is vastly
different from the vision of the congregation, however, legal counsel should be
consulted to see what, if any, implications arise out of the difference.)
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 12
What Is Mission?
The mission is a carefully defined, concise, and focused statement of what the
congregation wants to mean to the community, and for what it wishes to be known.
It is a statement of who you are and what you value, and it should be the
measuring stick for all the congregation does. The mission statement should
incorporate answers to the following questions:
• If this is our vision, where does this lead us in mission?
• What “must” we do?
• In what ways does our vision lead us in service toward others in the broader
community?
Every congregation has a mission—a way it lives out its life—but too often the
mission is hidden in the fabric of the congregation and the “way we do things here.”
Healthy congregations consciously articulate their mission, and this mission paints a
path of how to move from the present reality to the dreamed-of vision. The mission
should use active, not passive, verbs and should be the guide for congregational life.
The mission should relate a congregation to the community context by establishing
the congregation’s sense of religious identity, relating this identity to the needs of
those the congregation aims to serve. The mission should answer the question of
who is to be served, what service is for those inside the congregation, and what
service is offered to those in the wider community. To be effective, the mission must
be owned by the congregation’s membership, committees, and staff.
There is a difference between a mission and a mission statement. Until the mission
is made real through the development of goals and objectives, it is merely a
statement, a piece of paper. To be a mission fully lived, it requires specific,
measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals and objectives.
What Is Covenant?
Covenants describe the way people interact with one another. They incorporate the
values, prized beliefs, and behaviors that are held dear, and they set out an image
of how individuals are expected to behave in groups.
The formation of a covenant is a process that helps form and maintain the internal
identity of a congregation. The promises and commitments people make to one
another in the context of a religious community help them understand what their
tradition calls them to be. The covenant grows from an affirmation of shared needs,
values, purposes, and principles. It is rooted in the past and reflects the promises
that people make into the future. Covenants should answer the following question:
• What are the qualities we want in our life and work together?
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 13
Historically, covenants were three-way documents between two or more individuals
or groups and that which they considered most holy. An example is marriage vows
made within religious communities, where the couple makes their vows within the
sight and hearing of God, thereby increasing the sanctity of their commitment.
Within our Unitarian Universalist congregations, it is often the community that is the
most holy, and thereby covenant statements are made between the individuals in
the community. The presence of the third party (whether the holy, the
congregation, the future, all that one holds high, or some other collectively agreed-
upon other) helps remind people of a sense of accountability to someone or
something larger. It helps remind us that we are not alone, and that in all we do we
should pay attention to the legacy we leave behind. Covenants help remind people
of who they said they want to be in their interactions with the world around them.
Many congregations have created behavioral covenants as a way to protect children
or respond to a particularly difficult time in the congregation’s history. Although
these covenants are valuable and often necessary, the creation of a broad,
overarching covenant during a period without strife can lay the groundwork for
dealing with the difficult times that arise in congregational life.
Please refer to the Unitarian Universalist Association’s “Safe Congregations
Resources,” at UUA.org by going to the Leaders’ Library and by searching “Safe
Congregations.”* Also useful for this work is Gilbert R. Rendle’s Behavioral
Covenants in Congregations: A Handbook for Honoring Differences (see the
Resources List).
Commonalities: Vision, Mission, and Covenant
Although vision, mission, and covenant are parts of a whole and serve separate
aims, they are still interrelated. The mission grows directly out of the vision, and the
vision is built upon the shared values, concerns, and principles that are articulated in
the covenant. All three of them call the congregation to be aware of itself as a
corporate citizen and to honor the individuals within it. They also have other
common aspects.
Dynamics
The vision, mission, and covenant statements all include the following dynamics:
• Relational. The statements involve commitments between people, as
well as between people and a shared vision.
• Paradoxical. The statements involve living within a balance between
what might appear to be contradictory values, such as individual freedom
and community values, reason and faith, past and present, and being and
becoming.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 14
• Democratic. All the statements are based on the free association of
persons, and they are open to new insights as the people involved change
over time.
• Historical. The statements are rooted in what the congregation has
been, because they reflect the dreams and values in a particular place and
time.
• Convictional. Vision, mission, and covenant statements affirm shared
needs, values, purposes, and principles. They say, in effect, “For now, this
is what we hold as most valuable.”
• Contextual. Although part of a larger movement, these statements come
out of a particular congregation in a particular location in a particular time
with a particular history of who they have been, as well as particular
possibilities of who they can become.
• Dynamic. The process of developing vision, mission, and covenant takes
place over time as people reflect upon and renew their promises, and as
congregations grow and change.
• Visionary. These statements show the world not as it is but as it could
be. They embody the best dreams and desires of people striving to be
their best and to create a world that is more fair.
Primary Religious Questions
Vision, mission, and covenant are also related in that they are, in effect, the center
of a triangle of religious questions. As human beings, we ask questions in three
specific arenas:
• Who am I? Theologian Alfred North Whitehead said that “religion is
what one does with one’s solitude.” Our primary religious need is for
individual fulfillment and identity—for understanding who we are
beyond our roles and the expectations of others.
• Who am I in relationship to the world? Because we are not
isolated beings, we wonder how to be in relation to others, how to live
ethically, and how to shape the world around us to reflect the way we
think things should be.
• What is of ultimate importance to me? It used to be that there
was a simple answer to this question: God. But in these days when we
cannot assume that everyone believes in God, or that God is the same
for every believer, this question takes on an even greater significance.
Not only are we faced with defining that which we believe is most
ultimate; we also seek an authentic relationship to that ultimate.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 15
Vision, mission, and covenant find themselves sandwiched between these three
distinct points: individual, world, and ultimate. The following diagram shows one
way of visualizing the dynamic tension between these distinct points.
Tension between Individual and Community
One of the shared and more challenging aspects of developing vision, mission, and
covenant processes and statements within congregations is the tension between the
individual and the community. Vision, mission, and covenant describe how identity is
formed within the religious community, but not just that of individuals. Just as
identity formation is crucial in human development, so too is it crucial in corporate
religious life. Without clarity of identity and mission, organizations lose sight of who
they are and where they are going.
When considering identity, though, most of us think only in terms of individuals, not
institutions. We concentrate on the private dimensions of identity (self-awareness
and personal growth) rather than on the public dimensions (group awareness and
community development) or on the way in which the community creates the
individual (mentoring, shaping, and reflection of self). Our thinking has been shaped
by a pull toward the individual and toward being private, rather than by a sense that
even as individuals we are embedded within communities of people we know and
people we don’t know.
The search for personal identity is important, but it is certainly not the only search.
Society could not survive if people were driven only by the need to maximize self-
interest. Human beings also seek relatedness and identity that roots us within
Vision
Mission
Covenant
PRIMARY RELIGIOUS RELATIONSHIPS
Individual:
need for
self-fulfillment
or identity
World:
need to
help shape
the world
Ultimate: need for self
-
transcendence
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 16
community. Indeed, personal identity and community identity should not be seen
from an either/or position, as they are intimately interrelated. Personal development
depends upon relationships formed and nurtured in community, and healthy
community rests upon healthy, fully functioning individuals.
Yet the movement from personal to community identity in a religious context may
be one of the most critical concerns facing Unitarian Universalists. How do we speak
about a corporate religious identity while we believe in individual freedom of belief
and while our style of life encourages such diversity? The most obvious and
deceptively simple response is that we simply must begin, if we believe ourselves to
be a religious community and not merely a collection of individuals. Identity must be
seen in a cultural context, in the paradigm that creates it and is created by it. It is
often hard to see what has shaped the individual; the context in which we live and
move and breathe is to us like water to fish—nearly invisible. The sense of the
individual as private has become a distinct and dominant part of our culture, so it is
sometimes difficult to remind ourselves of the communal context in which we live.
Yet remembering this communal context is essential to building a healthy and
vibrant religious community. No one gets what he or she wants all the time, and
knowing how to recognize and serve the larger whole is a key learning in religious
community. Also, sometimes the right thing for the community is the “wrong” thing
for an individual; for example, someone who seeks to hold power, but is not trusted
by the congregation, may need to learn to step aside for the larger whole, or to find
ways of behaving that lead to trust rather than concern. Developing a religious
community calls us to step outside of ourselves, become better people than we
thought possible, and connect in deeper ways.
Tension between Internal and External Focus
A further tension in congregational life revolves around the questions, Whom are we
here for? Are we here for those who gather inside our walls every week, or are we
here for people outside our walls? Should we take care of only ourselves, or do we
owe something to the community in which we are located?
These are important questions in work on vision and mission, and they go to the
heart of how a congregation defines itself. Although nothing compels a congregation
to have an external focus as well as an internal one, what is clear is that
congregations that have only an internal focus—taking care of those who somehow
find “us”—will have a difficult time sustaining themselves over the long haul.
Healthier congregations overall have a focus outside of themselves. They know that
they exist not only for the members who are already in the congregation but also for
those outside the walls of the congregation who can benefit by a liberal religious
message, whether they ever want to become Unitarian Universalists or not. The
words of the sage teacher and master Jesus, “Whatever you do for the least of
these, you do for me,” point to the vibrancy and responsibility to engage with the
world around.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 17
Nevertheless, tension can arise, particularly if you are trying to change the
congregation from being primarily internally focused to being externally focused.
This tension arises from a number of places: concern that the needs of members will
be ignored or downplayed in favor of those outside, desire to have one place that is
a respite from changing the world as opposed to another place to work for world
change, fear of the other and the resulting change, and a number of other valid
responses. Helping members work through these concerns is an important part of
vision and mission work. By asking the questions “Why are we here?” and “Who
should we serve?” the congregation can get closer to knowing what is truly
important to it.
The question of internal/external focus may also reveal places where the
congregation can take on antiracism, anti-oppression, and multicultural work. Who is
it we are welcoming? For whom does this congregation feel safe? Who is at our
table and welcomed at our table? This is especially true if the demographics of the
community where the congregation is located have changed substantially. What
once might have been a neighborhood that reflected the membership of the
congregation might now be so different that the membership would be well served
to ask, “Why is it that our membership no longer reflects the surrounding
community? Is there something we should be doing about this, and are there ways
that we can explore sharing the saving message of Unitarian Universalism with
those who now surround our congregation? Who is our neighbor?”
Broken Promises
What is also shared among these documents (and in the processes of creating
them) is that in all human relationships, commitments can be forgotten, promises
discarded, and covenants broken. This happens in at least two ways:
(1) By intentional or unintentional breaking of a specific covenant or
(2) By leaving certain people outside the covenant in the first place.
This insight is especially significant for religious liberals, because our critics often
charge us with an optimism that neglects the negative side of existence. Not having
a shared concept of sin (missing the mark), we too often despair or throw up our
hands and walk away from each other when promises are broken. Yet by
recognizing that we all mess up, and that we can come back from disappointing
each other and create a new, stronger, renewed bond of support and nurture, we
can ensure that the vision, mission, and covenant continue to be powerful
documents in congregational life.
Additionally, history teaches that our institutions have not always been open to
individuals other than those in the dominant group: women, people of color, and
other historically marginalized groups; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 18
people; those outside a certain economic class; or those perceived to be strangers
to the existing group. Too often, rather than straying into unknown or different
territory, we step away from the potential by failing to risk growth by engaging and
empowering the “other,” however it is defined. When engaging in vision, mission,
and covenant work, it is important that both those leading and those involved in the
process ask questions about who is, and who is not, at the table. By asking what
voices have been heard and what voices are missing—who is present and who is
invisible—congregations can begin ensuring that they are more inclusive and
intentional about who is a welcome part of them.
Vision, mission, and especially covenants can be broken. Yet they may also be
renewed. The power of these documents is their dynamic capacity to confront
broken promises, engender forgiveness, reestablish relationships, and renew
commitments.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 19
The Process
There is no one way to take a congregation through vision, mission, and covenant
work. All along the way there are differences due to congregational size and culture.
This document offers several different examples of the process, and further in depth
information may be found in the sources in the Resources List. However, certain
steps are basic to making the process a valuable and living one:
• Creating the team.
• Understanding change process.
• Selling the vision, mission, and/or covenant process.
• Planning the vision, mission, and/or covenant process.
• Creating the vision.
• Creating the mission.
• Creating the covenant.
• Implementation or following through.
• Evaluation.
• Revisiting the vision, mission, and covenant.
Tip: The order of creation of the vision, mission, and covenant
statements is not fixed. Some congregations like working from the
global to the more specific, while other congregations find it
useful to develop the covenant first, because the covenant
incorporates the congregation’s understanding of how to be with
one another. Beginning with the covenant is especially helpful in
congregations that have a history of less than civil debate. By
ironing out the rules of the game first, the hard work of
collaboration on the vision and mission is likely to proceed more
smoothly. Some congregations find that doing theological and
values work before undertaking any of the steps is a good way to
engage the congregation and the process.
Tip: Although we refer to vision, mission, and covenant together, it is
possible for a congregation to choose to create only one or two of the
statements. Which processes and statements your congregation
undertakes at a particular time will be determined by your own needs:
Do you need the widest vision, a more focused mission, or an articulation
of the way that you work together? Excerpt from this manual the parts
that will be helpful to your congregation now, understanding that in the
“ideal” situation these three processes are part of a whole.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 20
The order of the steps is not absolute, but what is important is to ensure that you
have a team working together and that the congregation is fully engaged in the
process, including the implementation and review stages. As stated earlier, there is
little positive to be gained by going through the development stage without the
implementation, evaluation, and revisiting stages. Individuals who work hard only to
see their results stored away on rolled-up newsprint in a closet will be hard-pressed
to enter into other programs and processes of change. To gain buy-in and
effectiveness, the whole process needs to be seen as important. If there is no team
building or education, if there is no leadership buy-in and congregational
involvement, and if the documents are not made “alive” in the congregation, the
final result will be frustration.
Creating the Team
Doing the work of vision, mission, and covenant alone is very difficult, if not
impossible. It is best to create a team (a committee or task force) of people who
feel a commitment to exploring the creation of a congregation’s vision, mission,
and/or covenant. The team should be representative of the congregation as a
whole, and although the desire to allow anyone to serve is strong, great care should
be taken in the selection of team members. Ideally, you want people who are open
to new ideas, who work well with others, and who are well-respected by the
congregation membership. They should be people who can follow through on
commitments and who know how to put individual desires aside and look at what is
best for the whole. They should be able to work well in consensus situations and be
capable of both self-assertion and compromise. The team should be a balanced
representation of the congregation in terms of areas of interest, longevity of
membership, leadership experience, and knowledge of the members. The
professional leadership (ministers, religious educators, and membership
coordinators) may be members of the team; however, it is often better to have
someone else chair the team, as the professional leadership often have enough on
their plates.
The team should communicate its membership and purpose to the congregation in a
variety of ways—through special letters, information in the newsletter,
announcements on Sunday mornings, e-mail communication, bulletin board
presentations, and special programming such as a worship service or forum
presentation. All through the process of vision, mission, and covenant work, the
emphasis should be on informing the congregation of the status of the project in a
variety of ways. It is always better to have too many avenues of getting the
information out than only one that is easily missed.
The team’s first task is to spend time getting to know one another and deciding how
to work together. By going on a retreat, team members will get a deeper sense of
their individual strengths and skills and be able to figure out how they can best work
together. Sample tasks for the retreat can be found in Appendix D.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 21
Next, the team should gather together the congregation’s previous vision, mission,
and covenant statements, including any historical and current statements. These
statements should be reviewed and discussed, including (where possible) what the
processes were for the creation of the statements. Understanding how the work has
been done in the past, and what process is currently in place, will help inform the
team about pitfalls and treasures they may encounter during the process. If no one
on the team was present for the creation of the previous statements, the team
members may want to invite some “old-timers” in to tell the history from their
perspective.
The team will create an initial plan for selling the idea to the leadership of the
congregation (which includes the board, others not on the board, and those in
formal and informal leadership roles). Even before that takes place, though, it is
best for the team to educate itself about the dynamics of change. Knowing what
may be encountered in the process is helpful so that any resistance or anxiety that
occurs will be understood. Thus, the team members will be able to distinguish
ordinary responses to change from other responses that may need a more careful
analysis and handling.
Once the change process has been reviewed, the team then creates a process to
bring the leadership on board. The process widens out the circle of those who both
support the concept of vision, mission, and covenant work and who understand the
nature of the reaction to change that might come through the process. Chances are
good that the governing board will be asked to deal with the anxiety that arises
from change, and if the board members are not in sync with the team on these
issues, it may be difficult to provide a united movement toward the implementation
of vision, mission, and covenant.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 22
In this diagram of congregational leadership, envision
the central circle being the board, the next widest
concentric circle being key leaders and committee
or task group chairs, the next circle being informal
leaders (past official leaders or people with strong
leadership skills, regardless of role), and the widest
circle being the entire congregation. Ensure that each
group is kept informed of the process, and brief the
leaders on handling change and resistance.
Understanding the Change Process
Although every one of us lives in the midst of an ever-changing world, we don’t
always understand the dynamics of change—the way it happens, our resistance, and
the best ways to lead through change at any given time. Entering into vision,
mission, and covenant work, especially if your congregation has not done so before
or done so recently, is asking the congregation to enter into a process of intentional
change. Very few of us are personally comfortable with change, so it becomes
important to educate your team on change leadership and management before you
Tip: You may already be beyond this step, with the
congregation already committed to a vision, mission,
and covenant process. If so, you might want to skim
this section to understand the difference between
technical and adaptive change, and to refresh your
understanding of facilitative leadership.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 23
begin so you can help the members understand the nature of change as you go
through the process.
Dynamics of Change
In his book The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments, change
theorist William Bridges states that there are three components to change. First, he
says, there is the past that you must consciously leave behind. You need to know
what has been, and be willing to let it go as you enter into the process. Second are
the transitions, or “middle places,” where much is unknown. Sociologist Victor
Turner calls this the “liminal” phase, when you’re neither where you were nor where
you will be. This liminal phase can be difficult, for the old is no longer in place, and
the new is not yet realized. There can be a lot of ambiguity and anxiety at this time.
The third component is the ending, when the goal is in sight, and once again people
feel as if there is solid ground underfoot. And if truth be told, this ending is also a
new beginning, a place that eventually may need to be left behind.
Every person responds differently to change, and each responds at a different pace.
Depending upon the comfort level with change in your membership, you may find
that selling the process takes longer than anticipated. Teaching the membership
about change is valuable. Good work in this initial phase will smooth the path later
on. By helping people early on to know that their concerns will be taken seriously,
and by helping them understand the nature of change, it is possible to ease the
anxiety that will crop up during the process.
Even for congregations that are used to doing vision, mission, and covenant work,
education about the nature of change is important for those who have joined the
congregation since it last went through the process. The more informed the
membership, the easier it is to work well together through the process.
Dynamics of Paradigm Shifts
It isn’t only individuals that have a hard time with change; congregations have their
hard times, too. Any institution develops systems and patterns of behavior that
seem to endure even as the individuals within the organization change. Roles are
created and filled, and both written and unwritten rules are created for how those
roles are carried out, regardless of who fills them. The whole is greater than the
sum of its parts, and the congregation itself develops an emotional component. It
tends toward stability and balance, and a sense that “we’ve always done it this
way.” (Refer to the Glossary, page 68 for “paradigm.”)
The "doing it this way” is the current paradigm of the congregational system.
Paradigms have their own rules and regulations, mostly unwritten, and they shape
and form the way we view the world and what is possible. Often the paradigm itself
limits or shades what we can see; if something doesn’t fit within our understanding
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 24
of the world, we often can’t see it at all, or we discard it out of hand. Just like we
say that fish can’t “see” the water they swim in, institutions can’t see the “water”
they live in, either. Yet the individuals in the institutions can feel the anxiety rise as
the unwritten assumptions are challenged. People, often unconsciously, act to
reduce the anxiety and attempt to bring the system back into balance by restoring
the old, familiar ways. This resistance is always encountered when changing any
paradigm.
William Chris Hobgood, in his book Welcoming Resistance: a Path to Faithful
Ministry, outlines seven stages of resistance to changing a paradigm that are helpful
to know as you work through the process of change within your congregation:
1. Maintaining. People act in their “ordinary” ways to keep the
system the same.
2. Reinforcing. People take deliberate interventions to maintain the
system (the congregation) as it has been.
3. Adapting. People halfheartedly cooperate with change, but there
is not yet an internal valuing of the changes.
4. Revisioning. People start to look again, and they get fixed on the
vision. They may need other people to become involved at this
point to carry on the change.
5. Retooling. People start looking for tools for the new processes
and system, and they gain the ability to be accountable toward the
change.
6. Restructuring. People begin to change, and they begin to see
differently as new structures or ways of behaving appear more
clearly.
7. Transforming. People finally “get it” and move to the new place,
embracing the changes in the system.
Educating people and reminding them of these stages can be a helpful tool;
recognizing where you are on the journey is often part of the battle. It helps people
realize that others have been there before, and that they can get through it.
Remember, though, that stage theories are rarely purely linear, and also that at any
point, individuals within the congregation may be at different stages of resistance.
Using this material as a guideline, though, will help at least the leaders know that
they are on the path.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 25
Technical and Adaptive Change
In addition to the personal and institutional aspects of change, one encounters
challenges due to the existence of two kinds of change: technical and adaptive.
Technical challenges involve clearly defined problems, often of a mechanical nature,
and the best solution to them is to call in an expert to offer a predetermined
solution. For example, when your computer breaks, you call the technician, who
knows what buttons to push or which software to reprogram; when your power lines
fall down, you call the electric company and allow its experts to fix the problem.
Adaptive challenges are different, for rather than being clear-cut problems with
clear-cut solutions, they ask us instead to adapt the way we do things. Adaptive
change challenges us to understand our values and our (often hidden) agendas.
This is particularly true in congregational life—people joined the church they wanted
to be part of, and so by asking them to consider changing the institution, we are
asking them to think about changing that which greeted them as "home." The
adaptive part of change requires us to ask why we want certain things rather than
what things we want.
It may be tempting to simplify these kinds of issues and identify them as needing a
technical solution. Sentences about these matters can begin with “It’s just a matter
of . . .” or “If we only do . . . .” The risk in identifying adaptive challenges as
technical ones is that it may gloss over what people hold most dear and miss an
opportunity to really contend with important congregational business in a healthy
way. Additionally, it can sometimes take years to undo the results of hurrying
through what seemed at first to be easy solutions to complex adaptive issues.
Beginning a vision, mission, or covenant process is asking people to do adaptive, not
technical, change. There is no clear-cut problem with a readily identifiable solution.
Rather, you are asking people to uncover the underlying values and meanings of
particular aspects of congregational life so that these values, rather than their
particular embodiment, are what informs the congregation’s life and decisions.
Tip: More information about adaptive change
can be found in Chapter 8 of Alice Mann’s
book The In-between Church: Navigating Size
Transitions in Congregations.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 26
Facilitative Leadership
The team can help best in this kind of work by being facilitative leaders. (Refer to
Appendix E, Facilitative Leadership, on page 75.) Facilitative leadership requires
several things. First, as a facilitative leader, you need to resist the expectation that
you will take total responsibility for both understanding the problem and developing
the solution. Rather, you need to help others understand the nature of the problem
and understand their own responses to the situation. Adaptive change requires
people to do their own work and understand what the underlying values, issues, and
concerns are in order to move forward with less resistance.
Second, facilitative leadership means that you should not move too quickly to
reassure people and lessen their concerns and anxiety. People need to see the
potential threats before them so that they can also feel free to move into seeing the
potential benefits before them. People need to understand the costs involved—both
of moving forward into a new way and of not moving forward. They need to weigh
these costs carefully as they make their decision.
Third, your job is not to reinforce expected roles. Rather, be curious about the way
roles are shifting, and what the shifts might allow to happen in the congregation.
What will happen if you begin to think of "doing church" from a vision, mission, and
covenant perspective? Ask the hard questions and even what might seem
subversive. Some of the subversive questions may be about whose voice is present,
and who is absent in the conversation. Check to see if there are particular groups—
especially people of color and other historically marginalized groups—who are not
being represented, and ask questions about that. Are these individuals present in
the life of the congregation? If so, why are they not at the table? What about
children—where are they in the process? These kinds of questions can often make
people uncomfortable, so remember that your job is not to provide the answers, but
to help people figure out how to work through the adaptive change work that is
required.
Fourth, you will need to resist the pressure to restore order immediately by
returning to the way things have always been done. A desire to return to the
“normal” state arises out of anxiety, and anxiety is a by-product of change. This
anxiety may be particularly apparent as you challenge the paradigms and ask the
questions about who is not present or being heard. Your job in the face of this
anxiety or other moves to return to the “usual” is to help people recognize the
discomfort and then to encourage them to stay in that discomfort; they then can
make a conscious choice about the process rather than simply moving back to the
way things are by default.
Fifth, the facilitative leader allows the unwritten rules and norms of the
congregation’s life to be examined and challenged. The current paradigm must be
made visible so that people can begin to choose what parts of that paradigm they
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 27
wish to retain, and which to change. Looking at “the way we’ve always done it” is an
important part of deciding whether or not to do something new.
Another important part of facilitative leadership is ensuring that everyone has a
chance to participate. Stay attuned to who is speaking and who is not. Help provide
opportunities for quieter persons to be involved. One simple way is to have a period
of silence for reflection and individual journaling following each question so that
those who need the space have a chance to think before the more talkative people
fill up the silence.
Selling the Process
There are many different ways to sell the idea of beginning vision, mission, and
covenant work, but the best place to start is with the leadership. Some
congregational change professionals believe that without the support of at least
three-quarters of the leadership, it is difficult to initiate anything new in
congregational life. Leadership, in this sense, includes not only the elected
leadership but also those who have unofficial leadership by virtue of former position,
deep respect, and lasting influence in the congregation. Yet every congregation is
different. Some congregations have a handful of people who, if they support an
idea, can get it to go. In other congregations any kind of change work is next to
impossible without convincing the entire congregation to be a part. You will have to
feel your way through this, but it is a good idea to build as large a consensus as
possible in your leadership group before proceeding. As you go through the process,
you will know that you have a problem if key individuals are boycotting the meetings
or speaking against them. If this happens, take a step back and do more of the
marketing work by returning to the whole question and trying to uncover what the
resistance means. Although resistance can be frustrating, it can provide clues as to
where more information, support, or listening is needed.
There are several ways to engage the leadership. The overall goal is to provide
opportunities for extensive open dialogue about the benefits, drawbacks, and risks
of vision, mission, and covenant work. It is helpful to provide the leadership with a
summary of what vision, mission, and covenant work is about, as well as an outline
of a possible process. You may find that members of other congregations that have
gone through the process might be helpful in answering questions and concerns.
You can learn about these congregations from your district staff members. Sharing
Tip: In smaller congregations, it might be easier to begin the
step of selling the process with the entire membership, as
the proportion of leaders is greater than in larger
congregations. Larger congregations may have more leaders
in actual number, but the proportion of the congregation that
needs to be involved will be less.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 28
this document with congregational leaders may also help fulfill their information
needs. The main work at this point is to help the leaders understand the nature of
the change that you are undertaking—the adaptive work that is part of moving into
a new way of doing things. The team may want to “try out” its ideas on how to
involve the membership by walking the leadership through one or more of the
processes that will be implemented later with the whole congregation.
Providing leaders the opportunity to express their concerns and expectations in a
nonanxious, nondirective way not only helps them understand the process but also
models ways in which fears about the divisiveness of such conversations can be
lessened. By modeling good behavior and process, the leaders can see how vision,
mission, and covenant work can energize the congregation. This goal can be best
accomplished by letting go of your own expectations about the outcome. If you
cannot persuade the leaders that vision, mission, and covenant work is a good idea,
then you need to do more work to bring them along or delay the process until some
other issue is dealt with first.
Planning the Process
Once the team has received the support of the leadership of the congregation, it is
time to finish planning the process for the whole congregation. The feedback and
questions from the leadership will give you a sense of what questions and concerns
the general membership may have.
Whatever the specifics of the plan for the process, certain elements are critically
important:
• Permit enough time to engage the widest possible participation
in the process. Make sure that the congregation understands what is
being proposed. The greater the input, the more likely that everyone (or
at least a plurality) will own the results.
• Include a variety of opportunities for input and involvement. If
possible, provide several different options for the time and day of
meetings, taking into account the needs of various special groups such as
senior citizens, parents of small children, single parents, youth and young
adults, people who work during the day, and those who work less
conventional shifts. As you go through the process, be open to adding
additional ways of meeting for those groups that are not yet involved.
• Keep extensive notes and records of what has happened
throughout the process. This information can be used in future vision,
mission, and covenant processes to improve them based on current
learnings. Also, by having the records handy, people who enter the
congregation’s life between vision, mission, and covenant processes can
understand the nature, place, and role of the process in the life of the
congregation.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 29
• Use visual and audiovisual presentations when possible.
Remember that not everyone learns best by listening or by reading, and
that by engaging all the ways of learning (auditory, visual, and
kinesthetic), you will be able to reach a wider percentage of the
membership. Any tangible objects created along the way, such as
banners, should be saved, because they may become lasting symbols of
the congregation’s accomplishments.
• Plan for informal social events as part of the process. Not only
does a good cup of coffee or tea entice people to come out but it also
creates an atmosphere of caring and goodwill that may help during any
difficult conversations that may arise throughout the process. When
people’s physical and safety needs are taken care of, they are more willing
to risk the difficult work of adaptive change. Pay particular attention to
scheduling events.
• Celebrate the milestones of the process. Hold special services to
honor the creation of the vision, mission, and/or covenant, taking time to
thank those who worked hard to bring the process forward.
• View the production of the vision, mission, and covenant
statements not as the end of the process but only as the first
stage of moving the congregation into a new way of being. The
statements should be used as resources in congregational life for new
member orientations; publicity; religious education programs; and making
key decisions about the time, talents, and treasures of the congregation.
The process plan must take into consideration the size of the congregation. The
larger the congregation, the more different opportunities for participation must be
planned. In a small congregation, it might be easy to gain over a 60 percent
participation rate, but in a larger one, the participation rate may be less than one-
third. Pay attention to your congregation’s culture: Do you need to have a large
percentage of the congregation involved in the direct shaping of the statements, or
is it sufficient to have a small group working on the statements and then presenting
a draft for congregational approval? What works well in one congregation of one
size may not work well in another congregation of the same size, while a process
that works well in a particular large congregation may also work in a particular small
congregation. Whatever process the team chooses, it should be open to modification
and should provide for the eventual acceptance of the statements by the
membership.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 30
The process plan should include opportunities for individuals to participate in small
groups and to hear from others involved in such groups. Questionnaires, surveys,
and interviews can be used to gather information from those who are not able to be
present during the process. The results of the groups and individual responses
should be brought back together, and a rough draft should be created. This rough
draft should be presented to the congregation informally for feedback and critique;
a “final” statement then should be presented to the membership for formal adoption
at a congregational meeting. This same process of small groups, draft statement,
and final adoption can be followed for the vision, mission, and covenant statements
either separately or all together. Some congregations find that a congregation-wide
retreat (complete with a children’s program) is a good process for creating the
vision, with the mission and covenant work then done “at home” over a period of
weeks and months. Again, the process should always be reviewed to see who is
included and who is not.
Once the mission has been approved by the congregation, the next step is to
develop mission objectives to make it come alive. Suggestions for how this can be
accomplished are presented following this section, beginning on page 32. Finally,
the team’s process plan should include a method of evaluation and review of the
vision, mission, and/or covenant. The plan can also specify how the next team will
be chosen when the statements are to be next reviewed.
Change Agent and Advocate
Once the congregational leadership and governing body have decided to proceed
with the vision, mission, and/or covenant work and you have put the plan together,
it is time for the team to switch from facilitative leadership to being change agents
and advocates for the process. Whereas facilitative leadership is the best kind to use
when seeking consensus—or a blessing—to move into this process, the kind of
leadership needed to actually carry out the process is that of advocate or change
agent. Because people rarely want to change, and institutions change even more
slowly than individuals, the team will need to act as cheerleaders and judges to help
propel the process forward while not being domineering or overwhelming in their
enthusiastic support for the program.
Tip: Remember to include ways for the young
people to be involved. They can be gathered
together and asked what they think is most
important about church, or they can be invited to
draw pictures of what they’d like to see added to
the church. Don’t assume that the adults have all
the good ideas!
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 31
John Kotter, a respected management consultant, sets out the steps that an
advocate leader can take to guide people through transition in his book Leading
Change. The method involves establishing a sense of urgency, creating a guiding
coalition, developing a compelling and sensible vision, communicating in a variety of
ways and a great number of times, empowering broad-based action, generating and
celebrating short-term wins, consolidating gains, and anchoring new approaches in
the culture. Details of Kotter’s suggestions can be found in Appendix I on page 89.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 32
Creating the Vision
People come to a religious community for a variety of reasons. Some come for
community, others seek the holy, others come for the chance to be with like-minded
people, and still others look for the chance to change the world together. Yet
underneath it all, each congregation has a sometimes unarticulated sense of what it
is and what it wants to be. The vision process is intended to bring the commonalities
to the surface and help the congregation articulate where it wants to be in five
years’ time. The goal is not just to have a statement you can publish in your
congregation’s membership brochure or on the cover of the order- of-service. The
goal is to engage the congregation in a process that clarifies its ultimate and guiding
purposes.
There are several different ways to create a vision statement. Some congregations
do it as part of a congregational retreat, while others do it as part of a single-day
program or one that takes place over several weeks. Some congregations create a
vision statement as part of worship, while others use lifespan faith development
religious education as a vehicle for creating the shared vision.
Whichever method is used, make sure that it is easy for people to take part in by
giving plenty of advance notice and providing child care and children’s activities. You
may wish to incorporate social time, such as a refreshment break. Beginning with a
chalice lighting and reading will impart the feeling that this is an important event.
You may wish to have an outside facilitator assist, but that is not necessary. Make
sure that you allow adequate time for the process to unfold; rushing people through
these important steps doesn’t contribute to a good process. If exercises take longer
than you originally thought they would, stop and talk with the members about that
fact. Then work out a way you can continue the process, either through having
additional sessions or perhaps agreeing to allow a smaller group to complete the
activity and bring the results back for the larger group’s input and feedback.
Remember, the secret to a good vision, mission, and covenant process is making it
easy and fun for people to be involved.
The following are three examples of the vision creation process.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 33
Sample Vision Program 1: Guided Imagery for a Group
This program can be run in a morning, afternoon, or a longish evening. The
program works well with teenagers on up to seniors. Provide a variety of spaces for
people to sit and work—some will want to work at tables, others may prefer
comfortable chairs, and still others may want to sit on the floor. For those working in
chairs, provide clipboards or other surfaces for ease in writing. Make sure that there
are pens, pencils, crayons, and other materials available for participants to jot down
their reactions. You will need newsprint and markers for every three people, as well
as tape for posting the results. You can begin the program with simple chalice
lighting and reading to set the stage.
Step 1. Invite the participants to relax and use their imaginations to dream of a
compelling but practical future for your congregation in five or ten years. Provide file
cards or paper for them to jot down the images, thoughts, feelings, and words that
occur to them during the exercise. Here are some sample words for the guided
imagery.
Tip: You may also decide to hold this program several
times, and then either have the team bring the results
together or provide a final wrap-up session where you
share the results of the various groups and then go
through the process of compiling the individual and
unique themes from the various sessions.
Tip: Make sure you have read through the guided imagery
instructions several times before leading a session. Change anything
that is not applicable to your congregation. If you don’t have your
own building, you might want to include comments asking
participants to imagine the sort of place where you will be meeting
five or ten years from now. Some people find that playing soft,
nondistracting music in the background aids in the guided imagery,
and some people find that sitting in front of a blank wall, rather
than facing others, works best. Before you begin, encourage people
to become comfortable in whatever way works for them. Invite
them to move until they get to that best place for them. Also, it can
help to invite them to breathe deeply for several breaths before you
begin; others find that suggesting to people that they leave behind
their cares and worries is a good beginning to the visualization.
Make sure you allow silent times, too, for individuals to create and
deepen their imaginings.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 34
We all have a vision for our congregation. It informs some of our involvement
and continued education in our life together. This vision, though often
unarticulated, exists like a moving picture in our imagination. Allow that
moving picture of our congregation to become more explicit. As we engage in
this process, relax and allow the vision to appear to you, rather than
deliberately trying to create it. As images, thoughts, feelings, or words occur
to you, jot them down on the paper, remembering to stay with these images,
thoughts, or feelings long enough. Then, even with your eyes half-opened,
write down the essence of your imaginary experience. Don’t interrupt the
flow of your imagination to write. Consider that you are taking still frames
from the moving picture of your vision, and just jot down phrases that
describe these still frames.
In your imagination, approach a compelling, but practical, vision of our
congregation five or ten years from now. What is the feeling of anticipation
you experience in yourself as you do this? Imagine yourself approaching the
neighborhood or the community where our congregation is located. What do
you notice about this surrounding neighborhood or community? Who are the
people that live here? What are their needs and desires?
Approach now in your imagination the actual location where our congregation
meets. What does the landscape look like—how does the facility appear on
the outside? What does it say about the congregation?
Now open the doors to the meeting place. What do you notice? Who is
gathered there? In what activities are these people engaged? Who is missing
from the picture? What is the atmosphere like? How does it feel to be there?
What are the aesthetics of the place? Tour the building, and visit the various
activities that are occurring in the building.
In your imagination, allow yourself to get a sense of the worship, education,
outreach, and fellowship of this congregation . . . as you deeply hope and
imagine it to be five or ten years from now.
Tip: Another example of a guided imagery meditation can be
found in Churchworks: A Well-Body Book for Congregations, by
Anne Odin Heller.
Tip: The leader should allow sufficient time
for this tour to take place.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 35
Stay with whatever images, thoughts, feelings, and events occur to you.
When you are ready, jot down just the essence of what presents itself to you.
Spend the next five minutes in this exercise of imagination.
Step 2. Invite participants to meet with two other people. In groups of three, each
person takes five minutes to share his or her vision with the others. This is not a
time to deliberate or discuss. It is a time to listen for some of the common and
unique themes that emerge. At the end of fifteen minutes, give the group five
minutes to list on a piece of newsprint some of the common and unique themes that
they heard among the members of the group.
Step 3. Get back together as a whole group. Invite each small group to share the
common themes that they heard.
Step 4. Solicit some of the common and unique themes from the whole group.
Reflect together on this information. Write these on newsprint under the headings
“Common Themes,” and on another sheet, “Unique Themes.”
Tip: One way to include children in this exercise would be
to get them to draw their ideal church. Then, by creating
intergenerational groups for sharing, adults could help the
young people give input by capturing their words as they
explain the drawings. It might be helpful to others, too, to
try drawing as a way to express their response to the
imagery.
Another tip: Rather than jotting down words or phrases,
ask them to draw a picture or draw images of their vision,
and then talk about what they drew.
Tip: An alternative way of proceeding is to have
the small groups work to come to one common
vision for the congregation. They then report this
common vision back to the whole group. The
leader can then call again for the common
themes and values.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 36
Step 5. Invite a few participants or a task group (or the vision, mission, and
covenant team) to take these sheets of common and unique themes and draft a
vision statement that can be circulated among the congregation for thought and
reflection before refinement. It may be helpful to provide this group with the criteria
for a good vision statement in Studying Congregations: A New Handbook. (Refer to
the section “Criteria for a Good Vision Statement,” page 41, which follows the
sample processes for vision statements.)
After the draft vision statement is created, it should be presented for conversation
among the members. The team should then create the final vision statement,
incorporating the concerns and wishes expressed in the review process, for
presentation to the congregation members for ratification at a congregational
meeting.
Tip: Another way of proceeding would be to list a series
of values on a flip chart page and give each participant
three or four colored dots and then ask the participants to
“vote” on their highest values by placing the dots near
their favorite values. The top vote getters would then be
used as the basis for the draft vision statement. Examples
of values would be terms such as justice, love, salvation,
beauty, cleanliness, patience, kindness, frugality, peace,
and so on.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 37
Sample Vision Program 2: Individual Reflection
This vision exercise, proposed in Marketing for Congregations: Choosing to Serve
People More Effectively, (refer to Resources list, page 97) can be incorporated into
the worship or spiritual practice of a congregation for approximately a month. At the
end of this time, the congregation is invited to meet in small groups to share some
of the common themes of their collective vision.
Step 1. Invite members of the congregation to spend at least a month in sessions of
individual meditation or reflection on the question, what is your vision of our
congregation five or ten years from now? You might suggest that they spend two
brief periods alone each week (for example, fifteen minutes each time), in addition
to a brief period of reflection together in each of the worship services during that
month. Toward the end of this period of reflection, they should begin to make a
visual representation of their vision, a one-page narrative, or both of the images,
ideas, and feelings that occurred to them.
Step 2. Hold a congregational meeting or gathering in which members in groups of
three to five present their vision to one another. Each group should record the
“Common Themes” and “Unique Themes” on sheets of newsprint and then present
these themes to the whole group.
Tip: If your congregation has a midweek
education activity, a quiet time for individual
reflection could be added to that. You also
might want to provide a quiet space or room
after each service where people could go and
begin to create their image or statement.
Make sure there are both drawing and writing
supplies available to make it easier on the
members.
Tip: Another way of proceeding would be to list a series
of values on a flip chart page and give each participant
three or four colored dots and then ask the participants to
“vote” on their highest values by placing the dots near
their favorite values. The top vote getters would then be
used as the basis for the draft vision statement. Examples
of values would be terms such as justice, love, salvation,
beauty, cleanliness, patience, kindness, frugality, peace,
and so on.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 38
Step 3. Invite a few of the participants or a task group (or the vision, mission, or
covenant team) to take these sheets of common and unique themes and draft a
vision statement that can be circulated among the congregation for thought and
reflection before refinement. It may be helpful to provide this group with the criteria
for a good vision statement in Studying Congregations: A New Handbook (see
Resources list, page 96) to aid them in their work. (Refer to the section “Criteria for
a Good Vision Statement,” page 41, which follows the sample processes for vision
statements.)
After the draft vision statement is created, it should be presented for conversation
among the members. The team should then create the final vision statement,
incorporating the concerns and wishes expressed in the review process, for
presentation to the congregation members for ratification at a congregational
meeting.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 39
Sample Vision Program 3: Small Group Meetings and Time Line
This program provides a chance for members to reflect on their impressions of the
shared core values of the congregation through use of a time line. A member of the
team should be at each meeting to facilitate the conversation, and someone should
be chosen as a recorder to collect the thoughts. This program can be done either
several times, in smaller gatherings, or one or two times, with all members invited.
If there are more than fifteen to twenty people at the gathering, consider dividing
them up (according to various lengths of membership) and having each group
construct its own time line to share with others. (You will need additional facilitators
on hand for this option.) It is best, though, to work toward a diverse group that
represents varying lengths of time in the congregation. This way the newcomers can
hear the history of the congregation from the old-timers, and the old-timers can see
the shifts since they made their choice of affiliation.
Preparation for the time line activity involves a basic understanding of the
congregation’s history—the various eras and stages of its development. A time line
should be created on three-foot-wide paper approximately twenty-five feet long; it
should include the starting date of the congregation, the basic stages and eras, and
the future. Key events, such as the change of ministerial leadership, acquiring and
remodeling property, and other major occurrences in the congregation, should be
plotted along the time line in different colors to differentiate the various events. This
time line should be posted on a wall so the participants can see it and so that you
can add their comments and recollections. You should also have paper available for
others to jot down their reflections as they participate in the gathering.
Step 1. Review the events that you have put on the time line that mark off the
different eras of the congregation’s life. Ask for other key events that members think
have shaped or revealed the shape of the congregation’s life. They could include
special programming, social action projects, and other key events. You do not need
to work in chronological order, but ensure that you write the new material at the
appropriate position on the time line.
Step 2. Ask each participant to identify when he or she arrived at the congregation,
and mark these on the time line. Get participants to comment on what drew them to
the congregation and what has kept them there.
Tip: More information on time lines can be found on
pages 209 to 210 in Studying Congregations: A New
Handbook. (See Resources list, page 96.)
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 40
Step 3. Get the participants to add key events in the community, region, nation, or
world, as well as how the congregation responded to these events, if at all. These
events could include wars, elections, natural or human-made disasters, recessionary
periods, civil rights struggles, and any other telling event.
Step 4. Encourage those who have not yet participated to add whatever details and
information they think needs to be put on the time line.
Step 5. Either as a large group or in smaller groups of three, reflect on the values
and core beliefs that are expressed through the congregation’s history. Are there
common values that run through the congregation’s life? What are the unique
themes they see? Record the “Common Themes” and “Unique Themes” on
newsprint. If this step is being done in small groups, get the small groups to report
back the common and the unique themes, and compile them into one list.
Step 6. Invite a few of the participants or a task group (or the vision, mission, and
covenant team) to take these sheets of common and unique themes and draft a
vision statement that can be circulated among the congregation for thought and
reflection before refinement. It may be helpful to provide this group with the criteria
for a good vision statement in Studying Congregations: A New Handbook. (Refer to
the section “Criteria for a Good Vision Statement,” page 41, which follows the
sample processes for vision statements.)
After the draft vision statement is created, it should be presented for conversation
among the members. The team should then create the final vision statement,
incorporating the concerns and wishes expressed in the review process, for
presentation to the congregation members for ratification at a congregational
meeting.
Tip: Another way of proceeding would be to
give each participant three or four colored
dots and then ask them to “vote” on their
highest values by placing the dots near their
favorite values. The top vote getters would
then be used as the basis for the draft vision
statement.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 41
Criteria for a Good Vision Statement
Certain criteria tend to help make a vision statement better. Pay attention to them
as you prepare and consider the final vision statement. The following list comes
from Studying Congregations: A New Handbook (See Resources list, page 96). It
might be helpful to share this list with the individuals creating the draft statement
and to review the criteria with the congregation members prior to their consideration
for adoption. A good vision statement has these characteristics:
• The vision is faithful to the congregation’s best understanding of its
religious heritage.
• The vision statement is oriented to the future, providing a statement of
the congregation’s desired future.
• The vision is appropriate to the specific congregation, bearing in mind
its history, culture, size, resources, location, and capacities, as well as
what its members care deeply about.
• The vision statement is realistic in terms of the congregation’s social
context.
• The vision statement contains both judgment and promise, by
articulating the different future it wishes to create.
• The vision is a shared image of the desired future, growing out of the
stated wishes and desires of the membership.
• The vision statement is specific enough to provide direction for the
congregation’s life, but broad enough to include multiple but
complementary visions important to groups within the congregation.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 42
Creating the Mission
The mission statement is a further step toward implementing the vision statement.
It sets out how the congregation should focus its programs, activities, and finances
in order to fulfill its vision. The mission statement should relate your congregation to
your community context by establishing your sense of religious identity, relating it to
the needs of those you aim to serve, and articulating what you must do to live out
that mission. The statement may wrestle with the question of internal and external
focus—do we serve those among us, those outside our doors, or some combination
of the two?
Because of the complexity of the issue, it is best to focus the mission process from
the beginning. One way to do so is to keep in mind the essential question: Given
who we are, and where we are, and what we want to become, what should we do?
This question becomes paramount, and it may be helpful to return to it again and
again, both in the development process and in the implementation phase. “Given
who we are” is the issue of congregational identity; “where we are” is the issue of
context, both that of the congregation (age, race, sex, income, orientation, and so
on) and that of the wider community (neighborhood, region, state, district, country,
and so on); “what we want to become” is the issue of vision and the dreams of the
congregation; and “what should we do” is the issue of mission.
Again, paying attention to hospitality is key. Ensure adequate notice, and provide
child care and activities for the younger people who won’t participate in the process.
You may want to explore creating a process for the elementary school–aged young
people and adopting the processes for adults to include teenagers and youth. Create
an inviting atmosphere and possibility for everyone, paying attention to who can
come during the evenings, weekends, and days. Consider offering a variety of time
options to increase your participation rate.
The following are three examples of the mission creation process.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 43
Sample Mission Process 1: Questions
This mission process is a chance for people to be asked important questions and
provide the answers in an atmosphere of attentive listening. You will need paper,
pens, and pencils for every person, plus clipboards or other writing surfaces.
Additionally, every twosome will need newsprint and marker to record answers. You
may wish to provide colored sticker dots to allow for “voting,” should you choose
that option.
This process can be done during a weekend retreat or a workshop with a couple of
meetings so that the team creating the draft statement has time to complete the
task. A retreat setting allows less chance for attrition. Its other advantage over
multiple meetings is that less time is required to brief individuals who join the
process for the second meeting only.
Again, creating a hospitable setting and providing for the needs of the participants
helps the work move along well. Provide child care and children’s programming. You
may want to begin and end with readings and with lighting, and then extinguishing,
the chalice.
Step 1. Write the following questions on newsprint, and post them at several visible
locations in your meeting space: What is the mission of our religious community?
What is really our mission?
Step 2. Ask the participants to form subgroups of two persons each. You might want
to recommend that they work with someone they know less well as an opportunity
to create new connections in the congregation. Each person then asks the other the
two questions in Step 1 and records the answers. This process is repeated twice, so
that each person has answered the questions three times: Person A is asked the
questions with Person B recording A’s answers; Person B is asked the questions with
Person A recording B’s answers; and then the cycle is repeated twice (B asking, A
asking, B asking, and A asking). At the conclusion of the three cycles, the recorder
gives the participants their own written answers. They review their own responses
and circle the responses they consider most important. As a couple of ground rules,
there should be no discussion of the responses, and the participants must ask each
other the questions three times.
Step 3. Combine each twosome with another twosome to create groups of four. Put
all the responses that were considered most important on a sheet of newsprint. The
foursome then writes a mission statement that incorporates the views of the four
persons and transfers it to newsprint.
Another alternative is to have the members of the foursome write their most
important responses on newsprint and then post them. These responses are shared
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 44
aloud. Participants then are given colored sticker dots and asked to go and “vote”
for their top three or four responses, either their own or other responses that
capture their interest. The results are given to the task group, which next creates a
draft statement for the congregation. (It may be helpful to eliminate duplicate
responses before participants vote with their dots.)
Step 4. The statements or most important words created by the foursomes are then
shared with the whole group. If they desire to do so, the group can enter into a
conversation about the common themes and the unique themes found in these draft
mission statements or lists of most important words.
Step 5. Designate a task group (or the vision, mission, and covenant team) to take
the written work from the groups of four and develop a draft mission statement that
incorporates all the others.
Step 6. Reconvene the whole group to review the proposed mission statement. This
is a time for clarification, further definition, and explanation—not for writing a new
statement. A recorder from the task group (the vision, mission, and covenant team)
should record the responses, and it may be helpful to ask the members to express
their agreement or disagreement with various parts of the draft statement.
Tip: If the mission process is part of a weekend
retreat, the task group (or team) can work on
this draft mission statement during a break and
then present the results to the participants.
Otherwise, an additional meeting a week or two
later can be called to continue the steps of this
mission process.
Tip: You may wish to use this second meeting as a
chance to list some of the ways to make the mission
statement more specific; these specifics will be helpful
when you follow through on the mission statement by
creating goals and objectives, covered later in this
manual. For example, if your mission is to “transform
the world,” you might list some of these goals: to
survey the needs of the community, to determine
where our congregation might be a catalyst for action,
and to identify and carry out one congregational
program or service that fulfills a major unmet
community need.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 45
Step 7. The task group or team meets again at another time to refine the draft
mission statement and then presents it to the congregation for adoption at a
congregational meeting.
It may be helpful to provide this group with John Carver’s criteria for a good vision
statement to aid them in their work. (Refer to the section “Criteria for a Good
Mission Statement,” page 49, which follows the sample processes for mission
statements.)
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 46
Sample Mission Process 2: Community Field Trip
This mission process begins with thoughts about those outside the walls of the
congregation and asks the members to explore the context of the local community
in which they have their religious home. It is a chance for them to understand
where they are located and to allow that knowledge to help them articulate what
they want to be to the community. This exercise is particularly helpful in
congregations that have been predominantly internally focused; as they see, meet,
and understand the people and needs in their geographic community, they may well
discover new reasons for being a religious community. The exercise is also a way to
gain background information that will be helpful in the implementation phase of the
mission statement process. It is a way to create a mission that is meaningful to the
community and to the members, because they are the ones who recognized the
necessary mission.
This mission process requires a fair amount of preparation before the event. The
preparation includes determining which specific activities you want the members to
do. Will they walk or drive around the neighborhood? You may choose to have some
walk, and others drive. Are there places you want to ensure that they find? Write up
a list of questions to help them out, and leave space for them to come up with their
own discoveries. Make large-scale maps of your neighborhood available, both to
help people navigate and as a place for participants to jot down their observations.
Tip: The book Studying Congregations: A New
Handbook, (pages 47 to 50), contains many helpful
suggestions on how to do community tours.
Tip: Think about including questions about pedestrian and
vehicular traffic, stores and other shopping destinations, the
services available, the people who live here, the housing,
whether people are moving in or out, the kinds of diversity,
products manufactured in the vicinity, children and where they
go to school, the seniors and those with disabilities, medical
and dental offices, veterinarians, graffiti, and where people
play. Who from your congregation lives or works here? What
do the back roads and alleys tell you? What other religious
institutions are in the area? Are there areas that feel
particularly dangerous or safe? Is this a place where you would
want to live? These are just samples of questions that can
prime the pump of your members’ minds.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 47
Are there key leaders and neighbors you want interviewed? If so, find out if they
can be available on the day of your exercise, and make sure you set up
appointments with them. See if they would be willing to do two or three 15-minute
interviews, and then prepare a few questions to help your members know what to
ask. You will probably want to aim at two people to interview per interview team.
Prepare maps to the interview location for your participants.
This process should be well advertised, and child care and children’s programming
should be provided for those who wish to attend. If you are planning a walking tour,
make sure you let people know so that they can wear appropriate footwear. Also
make sure that there are options for those who wish to participate but are not able
to do the walking. Dividing participants up into walkers who will explore the near
neighborhood and riders/drivers who will explore the farther reaches of the
community gives you a greater wealth of information and helps ensure that
everyone who wishes to participate can join in. You will need to provide each
participant with a large-scale map, paper and pen, a writing surface, and colored
sticker dots for voting. Give the group newsprint and markers to record their
answers. As always, hospitality is a big part of any event you create. You may want
to include a light lunch as part of this day’s activities so you won’t have to rush any
of the steps. You may begin the gathering with a chalice lighting and short readings.
Step 1. As the people arrive, begin to create teams of four people, including walking
teams, riding teams, and interviewing teams. Make sure each riding team includes
someone who is willing to drive. Each group should choose at least one recorder,
who will annotate the findings on the large-scale map. Provide each participant with
the relevant list of questions and the map that is appropriate for its activity. Once
everyone is gathered and assigned to a team, send them on their way with the
request that they return in an hour.
Step 2. When the teams return, give them fifteen to twenty minutes to organize
their presentation on what they found. Once the teams are ready, have them report
what they found to the whole group while someone records the salient facts on
newsprint and on a large-scale map of the area. For the interviews, create separate
newsprint lists of the needs and wishes of the various community leaders.
Tip: Sample questions for community
leaders may include the following: Who lives
here? What are the most pressing issues
facing the community? What are the ways in
which you (and your organization,
department, or other group) are helping
out? What is your biggest fear? Where do
you see hope?
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 48
Step 3. Once the reporting back is complete, ask the group to reflect on what it has
heard and learned. Ask the members to keep silent for about five minutes as they
each answer these questions, in their own minds: What surprises me the most?
Where do I feel most drawn to make a difference?
Step 4. Have the participants share the answers to their questions in their team,
jotting down the basic answers on newsprint. Once every member of the team has
been able to share, ask the teams to share their responses with the whole group.
Step 5. Give each participant three colored sticker dots, and ask each to “vote” for
the areas to which they feel most drawn to make a difference.
Step 6. Designate a task group (or the vision, mission, and covenant team) to take
the voted-upon priorities for action from the participants and develop a draft mission
statement that incorporates these desires for presentation to the congregation. It
may be helpful to provide this group with John Carver’s criteria for a good vision
statement to aid them in their work. For more information on the Carver method go
to, www.carvergovernance.com/. (Refer to the section “Criteria for a Good Mission
Statement,” page 49, which follows the sample processes for mission statements.)
Step 7. Provide members with a copy of the draft mission statement that the task
group or team developed, and arrange times for members to come together to
discuss the statement and provide feedback. Have the task group or team
incorporate the feedback into the statement. The revised draft mission statement
then should be presented for adoption to the congregation at a congregational
meeting.
Tip: You may need to group together
similar responses to help reduce
duplication before voting.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 49
Criteria for a Good Mission Statement
John Carver, author of Boards That Make a Difference, (refer to Resources list, page
96) has developed a checklist to evaluate a mission statement. Pay attention to the
following questions, adapted from his work, as you create your mission statement
• Does your mission statement address what difference your
congregation makes for the broader community or does it merely
describe what your congregation is doing?
• Does the language in your mission statement allow your congregation
to accomplish goals rather than state what it intends to do? For
example, tentative words like tries or seeks are not appropriate for a
mission statement. Rather in a mission statement a congregation says
where it wants to go, not where it might go.
• Is your congregation’s mission statement too long? Can it be easily
recalled or its essence easily communicated?
• Is your mission statement too broad or too narrow? (Brainstorm about
the effects that your congregation might have on the world; then rank
order these effects and discuss their relative merit.)
• How does your congregation’s mission statement relate to, and
differentiate your congregation from, other faith communities and
other Unitarian Universalist congregations?
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 50
Creating the Covenant
A covenant statement tells people how you want to be with one another. It sets out
the qualities that will sustain your life together, and it contains the promises you
make to one another in religious community. It answers the question, what are the
qualities we want in our life and work together?
Covenants center on the values that are held dear in community, be it religious
community or secular community. The stakes are higher in religious communities,
however. People come to religious communities hoping to find a place that is as
good as its word—where people are valued and treated well, and where they can
find strength and resources for making their own homes more open and generous
places. Disappointment runs very high when congregations fail to live up to people’s
internal expectations—when people don’t act like good religious people “should.”
Covenants can help people articulate those internal expectations, and written
covenant statements can provide people with a feeling of safety: This is a
congregation that will expect me (and others) to behave well.
The covenant can also acknowledge the fact that our congregations generally are
not something that we create but rather are something that we receive from those
who have gone before, and something that we will leave for those who will follow.
As the Reverend Rebecca Parker, president of Starr King School for the Ministry,
said, “We receive who we are before we choose who we will become. We inherit
covenant before we create covenant. Covenant is, first-most, not a verbal
agreement but a practice.” Knowing that a covenant is a recognition of what has
been, as well as how we want to be with one another, we can also make it reflect
the kind of institution and institutional practice that we wish to bequeath to those
who will follow. This orientation also allows the inclusion of the holy, however it is
defined, as a participant in the covenant.
It is important to note that all congregations have covenants—ways in which it is
acceptable to interact with one another—but not every congregation has an explicit
written covenant statement. Having the statement created and written makes the
implied real. It then becomes a touchstone that people can refer to when times get
testy in congregational life. When tempers get frayed or people get impatient with
one another, the covenant can be recalled to remind people of what they said they
would promise one another. By having the membership create the statement, they
gain ownership and a sense of authority to call others back to the covenant in
difficult times.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 51
Although the covenant might be used to smooth out rough times when they occur, it
is best that the covenant itself not be created during rough times. When tensions
arise in congregations, people don’t feel safe, and too often the trend is to want to
legislate better behavior rather than really talk about what it means to be a religious
community. During the rough times it is better to enter into appropriate conflict
resolution; once the good feelings have returned, then the congregation can
consider entering into the creation of a covenant statement.
It is often best to begin the covenant work with a global covenant—one that will
cover the interactions of everyone in the congregation—and then, if desired, to
enter into specific covenants concerning special groups within the congregation. The
latter could include, for example, covenants between and among professional staff,
people working with children and youth, congregation and minister emeritus,
congregation and minister, congregation and religious educator, or congregation
and music director. All these specific covenants, though, will benefit from being
grounded by the existence of a more global covenant statement. The covenant
should be the spirit, not the law; any particular requirements (such as criminal
background checks for individuals working with children) should be spelled out in
policy documents, not in the covenant itself.
Tip: Belonging: The Meaning of Membership, a
report of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s
Commission on Appraisal, may be a valuable
resource for those seeking background
information on what congregations can promise
to their members and what members can
promise to their congregations. Refer to the on-
line version at UUA.org by going to the Leaders’
Library and searching “Belonging.”*
Tip: Congregations looking to create
covenants to prevent peer or child
abuse, or to deal with clergy misconduct,
should consider using the Unitarian
Universalist Association’s Creating Safe
Congregations curriculum, available from
the UUA Bookstore. For information go
to UUA.org/bookstore.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 52
A sense of fairness and safety must surround the covenant process even more so
than the vision and mission processes, for this is the time when people will risk
saying what it is they need to feel safe. It is almost a paradox—providing the safety
to be able to say what makes us feel safe—but it is something that is necessary. As
with the other processes, hospitality is necessary. Make sure you announce the
sessions well in advance, offer child care and children’s programming, and provide a
chance for social interaction. If there has been recent tension concerning how
people behave toward one another, consider having an outside facilitator whom the
congregation membership knows and trusts to ensure that people feel safe. As
stated above, a covenant statement should not be created during a conflict, but only
when members of the congregation are doing well with one another.
Tip: The Unitarian Universalist Association has
a covenanting process designed specifically for
use with religious educators. This document
can be found at UUA.org by clicking Leaders
then Leaders’ Library and by searching
‘Covenanting.’
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 53
Sample Covenant Process 1: Promises
The following covenant process is adapted from one developed at Second Unitarian
Universalist Church of Chicago during the Unitarian Universalist Association’s
“Fulfilling the Promise” program. They used it as a way to prepare for an upcoming
capital campaign and, more important, to articulate the core premises of their
community in a way that would serve as an ongoing reminder of their promises to
one another.
The workshop set out below is designed for a morning, afternoon, or evening. An
abbreviated format could be held as part of the congregation’s worship service. If
you choose to use this process as part of worship, you must pay careful attention to
how visitors (especially first-time visitors) are brought into the process. One
suggestion is that the visitors could decide whether to participate or meet separately
with the minister and/or other key leaders during the small group part of the
process, rejoining the whole congregation when they come together.
This process could also be used with the young people in the congregation, working
with them in their classes. The results of the children’s covenant could be shared
with the adults as part of an intergenerational worship or other celebration.
Make sure that you have advertised the program well in advance, and consider
having multiple sessions at various times and on different days. Pay attention to
hospitality, and make sure that you provide index cards, pens, and pencils for the
participants to use during the process.
Step 1. Begin with chalice lighting; reading; and some reflections on covenant,
relationships, and commitment. As part of the brief service, explain the nature of a
covenant: that it involves the promises that people make in mutual responsibility
and agreement. Make sure you also point out that there will be times when we fail
to live up to those promises, but that the nature of covenant means that we grant
one another the right and responsibility to call us back to the promises we have
made. You may also want to mention that the promises we make and the promises
that we want others to make to us are inseparably bound together—one and the
same thing. If the congregation has a historic covenant, share that covenant as part
of the beginning worship.
Step 2. Ask people to recall, silently, a time in their life when a relationship with an
individual or group was especially important to them. After a couple of minutes for
reflection and thought, ask people to form groups of three. Each person then briefly
tells the story of why this relationship was important, and what qualities in the
relationship made it so. Allow about fifteen minutes for this process.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 54
Step 3. Based on the stories they told and heard, ask each person to write down
three promises they want to make to the congregation and its members, as well as
three promises they want the congregation and its members to make to them. Allow
five minutes for this step.
Step 4. Ask people to pair up with someone they don’t know very well, and to share
the promises they want to make and the promises they want others to make. Ask
each pair to create a draft covenant statement based on these promises, beginning
“We covenant . . . .” Allow ten minutes for this activity.
Step 5. Ask each pair of people to join up with another pair of people to share their
statements with each other and to come up with a new draft covenant statement
that incorporates the ideas presented by both teams. Allow twenty minutes for this
step.
Step 6. Ask the quartet to find another quartet, share their draft covenant
statements, and then, once again, create a new draft covenant statement using a
consensus process. (For an example of a consensus process see page 86, Appendix
H, “Consensus Models,” Other processes can be accessed as described in Appendix
H.) Once the draft is complete, they should write their draft covenant statement on
newsprint and post it. Allow thirty minutes for this process.
Step 7. Bring the participants back together. Each group of eight should share its
draft covenant statement with the whole group. Once all the groups have shared,
ask for similarities and differences between the statements.
Tip: If doing this exercise as part of
a worship service, omit the sharing
with others, and ask them to
proceed directly from the personal
recollection to the next step.
Tip: If this workshop is held as part of worship,
invite each pair to share their draft covenants.
Inform the members that their draft statements
will be given to the team or task force leading
the process, and that a new draft combining
their statements will be presented to the
congregation for further discussion. Conclude
worship with prayer, meditation, and song.
Continue the process another time, beginning
with Step 7.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 55
Step 8. Designate a task group (or the vision, mission, and covenant team) to take
all the statements from the groups of four and develop a draft covenant statement
that incorporates all the others for presentation to the congregation.
Step 9. End the workshop with closing words, highlighting the values that have been
mentioned in the draft covenants.
Step 10. After the task group or team has prepared the revised draft covenant, hold
a town hall–style meeting or various sharing opportunities for the task group or
team to receive feedback. Once the sessions have been completed, the task group
or team revises the draft covenant to present to the congregation at a
congregational meeting for adoption.
Refer to the section “Criteria for a Good Covenant Statement,” page 58, which
follows the sample processes for covenant statements.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 56
Sample Covenant Process 2: Hopes and Promises
This process, as adapted from a process presented at the Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship of San Luis Obispo County, California, is designed to develop consensus
about the primary commitments the people in the congregation want to make to
one another as members. It first asks about the general subject areas for hopes and
promises and then develops some specificity about those subject areas.
This workshop can be held in a morning, afternoon, or evening. Although it could be
held in multiple settings at different times, there are benefits to having people
together to hear one another’s responses and hopes and dreams. Attention to
hospitality is useful and includes advance notice, child care, and children’s
programming. An opportunity for social time also will help. You will need to provide
participants with index cards or other paper to write on, as well as pens and pencils,
and newsprint and markers for the small groups. You may begin the workshop with
readings and chalice lighting.
Step 1. Tell the participants that this first exercise is to help determine the subject
areas for hopes and promises—the areas of life in which they want to make and
hear promises from members of the congregation. Examples might be physical
behavior, communication, financial commitment, and volunteering. Ask the
participants to spend three minutes answering the question, What do we want to
have hopes and promises about? Ask them to write down their answers.
Step 2. Break into groups of four or five people, and have each person share his or
her list. Then have each group come to consensus about the most important areas
that need to be covered. Ask them to write the consensus list on newsprint and to
choose one person to present the list to the larger group. Allow about fifteen
minutes for this activity.
Step 3. Each small group reports its list of most important areas while the facilitator
compiles a list of all the most important topics. Participants discuss the common
ideas, and the facilitator leads the participants in developing a list of the most
important areas to be included. The most important topics should be written on
newsprint and posted. Care should be taken to ensure that the “lesser most
important” topics are referred to the board for consideration at a later time.
Step 4. The facilitator then prompts the participants to answer the question, What
have we neglected? As the participants discuss this question and possibly add to the
Tip: Determining the most important
areas can be done by providing each
participant with three or four colored
sticker dots and having participants “vote”
for their most important topics.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 57
list, the facilitator should be making sure that the views and issues that concern
historically marginalized people (such as people of color, gay men, and lesbians) are
considered.
Step 5. Following the restatement of the areas of concern, the facilitator asks people
to choose which of the areas they would like to work on the most. Divide people into
small groups, with each group devoted to a different aspect of the hopes and
promises.
Step 6. In small groups, individuals write examples of the hopes they would propose
the congregation adopt for their small group’s subject area. They should focus
immediately on the fundamentals, not the particulars—what should be promised,
rather than how the promise should be specifically fulfilled. After allowing three
minutes for this, each group then shares its hopes with all the other groups
reassembled.
Step 7. Each small group should come to consensus about which hopes it wishes to
recommend to the congregation, writing them on newsprint.
Step 8. Each small group reports its list to the whole group, while the facilitator
helps the group spot overlaps, inconsistencies, and other matters that might need to
be ironed out. The participants discuss the list as needed to create an understanding
of the unified list.
Step 9. Designate a task group (or the vision, mission, and covenant team) to take
all the topic areas and develop a draft covenant statement that incorporates the
work of the group for presentation to the congregation.
Step 10. After the task group or team has prepared the revised draft covenant, hold
a town hall–style meeting or various sharing opportunities for the task group or
team to receive feedback. Once the sessions have been completed, the task group
or team revises the draft covenant to present to the congregation at a
congregational meeting for adoption.
(Refer to the section “Criteria for a Good Covenant Statement,” which follows the
sample processes for covenant statements, on page 58.)
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 58
Criteria for a Good Covenant Statement
In creating your covenant statement, it is good to keep the following criteria in
mind:
• The statement should not be too vague or too detailed. Simply saying
“Be nice to one another” is not enough, but highlighting every possible
behavior or “fall from grace” should be avoided as well.
• Using affirmative language rather than negative language makes it
easier for the congregation to feel supportive and to join in. Using we
will rather than we will not also leads toward a statement that is more
suited to occasional use in worship and other celebratory services.
• The covenant should be faithful to both the vision and mission of the
congregation.
• The covenant should be appropriate to this particular congregation and
be realistic in terms of the congregation’s context.
• Consider including in the covenant an understanding that people are
fallible and that there will be times when individuals fall short of the
mark. This recognition, along with an included assumption of goodwill,
can be helpful during the hard times in congregational life.
• Ensure that your congregation’s covenant statement complements
both the theological understanding of the membership and the
principles of Unitarian Universalism.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 59
Following Through
Although it is important to have vision, mission, and covenant statements, even
more important is making these statements come to life. Very few things are more
frustrating for groups of people than to see their hard work of creating something
together be relegated to the shelf on rolls and rolls of marked-up newsprint, without
any mention being made of them again. To be worth the effort, we must make
these statements real in the congregation’s life.
When done well, the vision, mission, and covenant process captures the people’s
sense of who they are and who they want to be as a religious community. It is the
clearest articulation of why the people think the congregation should exist, and the
results can help the congregation in all areas of its decision making. Where should
we build our new building? The answer can be found in the congregation’s vision.
Where should we put our money? And why should we even bother to donate money
to the congregation? The answer, you can say, is found in the mission—this is what
we have said is most important, so therefore we should focus our money, time, and
effort where we said we wanted them to go. How should we treat one another in
committee meetings, social gatherings, and the children’s time? Once again, the
answer can be found in one of the statements you’ve created—this time the
covenant statement. Over and over again, the work and life of the congregation can
be tested against the collective will and desire by reference back to the vision,
mission, and covenant statements. The reason why most vision, mission, and
covenant statements fail is because the congregation fails to plan for their effective
implementation.
The good news at this point is that the follow-through on the vision statement has
already been done. By creating the mission and covenant statements, a
congregation has taken the steps that are necessary to work toward the vision. By
having a mission that embodies the vision, and by working to make that mission
come true, the vision will become a bit closer every day. By living out the covenant
and treating one another in the way you’ve designed and spoken of, that vision
comes closer. The vision becomes real through your mission and covenant work. It
is a good idea to have a celebration—be it a party, special worship service, or
volunteer recognition—of all the hard work that the congregation has done to get to
Tip: Appendix K, “Uses of Vision, Mission, and
Covenant Statements in Congregational Life,” page
93, contains suggestions of how you might make the
vision, mission, and covenant statements become real
within your congregation.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 60
this point. Once the celebration is over, cross this one task off your list, and now
move on to making the mission become real.
Mission Objectives
Mission objectives are based on the congregation’s mission statement. The mission
statement identifies who you are and what you are about, but it does not explain
how this will come about or be implemented. It is the mission objectives that clarify
how the mission statement is to be implemented over time.
To be a successful tool, mission objectives must be SMART, an acronym for specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound. Also, a congregation should limit
itself to three or four (but absolutely no more than five) objectives at any given
time. Any more than this, and the congregation’s energies are too diffused; the
overriding sense of mission will disappear in the confusion of deciding what comes
first.
Mission objectives usually span a five-year period. Once these objectives have been
chosen, it generally takes up to a year for the governing board, committee, or
relevant task force to develop a complete strategy and budget for implementing
them. A phased implementation can then be spread over the next two to four years,
allowing for depth of commitment and reducing the possibility of burnout. The
congregation can measure the fulfillment of its objectives year by year and celebrate
the successes.
Tip: To stimulate commitment to the objectives in both
new and continuing members, some congregations
choose to stagger the process by choosing a new
objective every year as they complete and “retire”
another. This means that in any one year, the
congregation is choosing one objective; determining the
strategy of another (the previous year’s chosen one);
working on the implementation of the objectives from
year one, two, and three (the objectives chosen two,
three, and four years prior); and completing the work on
the objective chosen five years previously. This way, new
members are involved in beginning another objective,
which captures their imagination and commitment.
Otherwise, they would have to wait three to five years
before choosing objectives again.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 61
Mission objectives do not curtail the ongoing services of the congregation or staff.
Worship, religious education, pastoral care, and other parts of the ministry continue.
However, they might continue within a different context; they might be challenged
to reorient their programs to help the congregation fulfill its mission. Once each of
the objectives is chosen, every committee and group in the congregation should be
charged with how they will help implement the objective. Budgets may shift to
support the objectives, and staff priorities and time might need to be renegotiated.
Some congregations will modify their structures, staffing, and programs in concert
with the new mission statement and objectives.
To avoid frightening participants, talking about, and understanding the implications
of, creating mission objectives should be part of the overall conversation and
process. Individuals leading the process should ask others how the objectives they
choose will affect the current focus of the congregation. Chances are, the new
mission and objectives will build on aspects of the congregation’s life, or it will be
easy to see that the priorities have shifted. Care must be taken, though, not just to
add on tasks for the staff and volunteers, but to talk about what will be let go from
the work and focus of the congregation so that the jobs are still manageable. Care
must be taken, too, to honor the work that has been done in the past. Then, if
projects and emphasis shift, those who worked hard to create them do not feel that
the work they did was in vain. Celebrate the good work of the past as you move on
to the work of the future, and remember that for some individuals, the move to new
objectives and focus might involve grief and loss. By honoring the past and those
who made it come alive, you will have better success in the change process as the
congregation moves into its future vision and mission.
Sample Mission Objective Process
After the mission statement has been adopted, select another weekend to establish
mission objectives. This process generally takes six to seven hours, including time
for lunch and breaks. The involvement of a large portion of the congregation is
encouraged, so ensure that there is adequate notice and appropriate child care and
children’s activities. The older youth may wish to be involved in the process, and a
special invitation should be made to them. You will need tables and chairs, easels,
newsprint, markers, and masking tape. Paper, pens, and pencils for all participants
should be made available, as well as three different colors of sticker dots—two sets
for every participant. You may choose to begin the process with chalice lighting and
reading or other worship elements.
Step 1. Review the mission statement, and explain the need for mission objectives
and their five-year status. Describe the phases accorded by this status (acceptance,
strategy development, and then three to four years of implementation). Emphasize
that the objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, time bound, and
realistic. For example, “a more nurturing congregation” fails to meet the first three
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 62
criteria. You may also wish to provide some information on consensus decision
making for the group process to follow, as given in Appendix H, “Consensus
Models,” page 86.
Step 2. Ask each person to list the five most important things that the congregation
must do in the next five years to implement the mission statement. After they have
done this, ask them to scratch two items from the list, leaving three major
objectives that are absolutely essential to fulfilling the mission.
Step 3. Form groups of four, and have each person share his or her list with the
group. After that, the group needs to come up with a new list of three to five
objectives on which it can agree. Encourage the group to use consensus techniques
to reach its decision.
Step 4. After the groups of four have established their list of objectives, have each
of these groups merge with another group (or possibly two groups, depending upon
the number of people in attendance). These groups of eight or twelve people share
the lists that were developed in the groups of four, and then devise a new list of
three to five objectives upon which they can all agree. Again, consensus techniques
can be used in this phase of the process.
Step 5. Each group then presents its objectives to the reassembled participants.
Many similar objectives can be merged; this task is probably one of the most difficult
ones the facilitator faces, as people may be concerned that their objective is being
too radically changed or subsumed in another objective. Reach consensus with the
group on the combination of objectives. The entire group may come up with eight to
fifteen different objectives. Write these objectives on newsprint, putting only one or
two per page in order to facilitate the process of voting in the next step.
Step 6. Once the master list has been compiled, give everyone one strip of three
different colored dots. Assign weights to the dots; for example, the gold dot is worth
three points; silver, two points; and blue, one point. Ask the participants then to
vote for their top three objectives. Remind them to vote for three different
objectives, and not to put all of their dots on one objective.
Tip: It may be helpful to write up the
point value of the dots on newsprint and
post it in a visible place to help people
remember which of the dots has the
highest value.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 63
Step 7. After everyone has voted, tabulate the scores. In most congregations, the
top two or three objectives will be very distinct. In some, three or four objectives
will be clearly differentiated from the remainder. In contrast, the value of objectives
four, five, six or more may not be very different. Again, it is important to select
three or four, but no more than five, objectives. Resist adopting them all, since the
purpose of the objectives is to help the congregation focus its leadership, resources,
time, and money to make the mission effective. Diluting the objectives reduces the
impact. If the vote is unclear, you may wish to eliminate the objectives with the
lowest number of points and then have members vote again, with three or perhaps
only two dots.
Step 8. Once the mission objectives have been decided, the next step is to refer
them to a task force (or forces) to develop a plan for implementing each objective
over time.
It then becomes the responsibility of the task force or forces to prepare the plan and
present it to the governing board for approval and presentation to the congregation.
Again, this step will take time—as much as a year—to obtain the necessary
information and create an effective plan. The task force should be open to input
from the congregation and seek out expert advice (from within the congregation
and from outside people) to aid in their implementation plan. The task force may
find that collaborating with other groups is another viable option for carrying out the
mission objective.
Again, it is important to celebrate the various milestones in the process, including
the implementation process. Have a potluck lunch or supper or a dessert party to
celebrate what you have done to live out the mission, as well as to congratulate one
another on working well on the process. Celebration is always a good way to make
the vision, mission, and covenant come alive in the congregation.
Tip: If you are choosing one objective per
year, follow this same process, but give
individuals only one dot to place.
Alternatively, they could award a gold dot
to the first year’s objective, a silver dot to
the second year’s, and so on.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 64
Mission Budgeting
Another important way to make the vision and mission of the congregation come
alive is by tying the budget of the congregation directly to the mission. There are
three types of congregational budgets: the cost, or line-item, budget; the program
budget; and the mission budget. Most congregations use a cost, or line-item,
budget, which focuses on past performance, reasonable projected increases in
expenses, and projected income. This is the least compelling type of budget,
because it focuses on what it costs to keep the congregation up and running. It is
usually used at canvass time to entice people to give what is needed to keep the
doors open and the lights on. A line-item budget is a necessary part of
congregational life, but it is not the only way in which the budget can be conceived
or presented.
A program budget focuses on the institutional welfare of the organization. The
general categories from the line-item budget are allocated to each of the program
areas based on a percentage of time or usage. For example, the minister’s salary
would be spread out over the different programs based on the percentage of time
the minister spends with each program, such as worship, pastoral care, social
justice, and adult religious education. This type of budget helps members
understand that the money they give is not just for the intangibles of heat and light
and books and staff, but that these expenses can be directly tied to the programs in
the congregation that the members value. A program budget may also create a
sense of competitiveness among the champions of particular program areas.
The mission budget focuses on the people helping or being helped in making the
mission of the congregation come alive. It takes the program budget one step
further as it relates these program areas to the mission objectives of the
congregation. A mission budget is often a two-year budget, updated annually. This
budget requires that the church have not only a mission statement but also a clear
sense of mission, and it is particularly helpful if the congregation also has a strategic
plan. This kind of budget is often the most exciting to members, and therefore the
easiest to fund. They see that the money they give goes to support (either directly
or indirectly) the mission and mission objectives that they have chosen. It is a very
concrete way of making the mission statement come alive in the congregation. A
sample process for creating a mission budget can be found in Appendix L, “Stages of
a Mission Budget Process,” page 94.
Tip: Budgets with a Mission, by Jerald King, is a good
resource for learning more about how to develop a
mission budget. Refer to the Resources List at the end
of this document, page 96.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 65
Evaluation
Evaluation is an important part of each phase of the process of developing vision,
mission, and covenant statements, as well as in moving them along to become living
aspects of the congregation’s life. Without looking at what you’ve done and how
you’ve done it, you won’t know how to improve the process either in the moment or
for the next time the congregation goes through the cycle of vision, mission, and
covenant work.
Ensure that there are formal evaluations for each process that you undertake with
the congregation. Evaluations can be as simple as asking participants to respond to
these questions:
• What will you take away with you today?
• What was the best part of the process?
• Which was the least valuable part or the process?
• What did you want more of?
• What can we do to improve the process?
By creating a form that features these questions and asking for feedback (and
graciously accepting it!), you will help live out the covenant of right relations. You
also will prove to the congregation that this is a collaborative event, rather than a
mandate that others have put on them.
It is also important to keep asking who is at the table, and who is not. Through the
Unitarian Universalist Association’s commitment to antiracism, anti-oppression, and
multicultural work, the following questions always must be asked:
• Whose voices are present and have been heard?
• Who has not been heard?
• Have the events (steps in the process) shown an understanding of the
need to incorporate people of varying backgrounds, cultures, races,
ages, abilities, colors, genders, sexual orientations, and gender
identities, as well as people from other historically marginalized
groups?
• How can we make sure that our congregation, its vision, mission, and
covenant, and its processes are open to those who have been
historically marginalized so they may enjoy participation,
representation, and being heard?
Even if becoming an antiracist, antioppressive, multicultural institution is not one of
your key objectives, these questions are still important to a spiritual and theological
understanding of what it means to value and honor people, and to make alive the
first principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association: affirming and promoting the
inherent worth and dignity of every person.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 66
Revisiting the Vision, Mission, and Covenant
One of the things that is true of vision, mission, and covenant work is that you are
never done. Not only do you keep on adding appropriate mission objectives to help
make the mission come alive, and not only do you encourage people to live out the
covenant between you, and not only do you educate visitors and new members
about the vision, mission, and covenant statements; you also need to revisit these
documents on a regular basis to ensure that they are still what you intend. Because
of the mobility of people and the influx of new members in the congregation, often
after five to ten years, the proportion of the membership that was involved with the
process will have dwindled to the point where fewer and fewer people have direct
ownership of the process and the statements that were created. This is especially
true in times of rapid congregational growth and often during times of ministerial
transition—at these times, more and more people come in inheriting the good work
of the longer-term members. Also, demographic and other social changes in society
and the neighborhood in which the congregation is located may also foster the need
for revisiting the documents.
The good news is that it is often easier to sell the process of vision, mission, and
covenant after the congregation has been through the process once before. Rather
than the response of “We’ve never done it like this before,” you are more likely to
hear, “Oh yes, I remember this” and “Yes, this is the way we do things around
here.” These reactions will be more likely if the implementation of the process has
been handled well and has been kept a vibrant part of congregational life.
Given the transitory nature of congregations and the rapid pace of change in society
in general, it is recommended that the congregation revisit its vision, mission, and
covenant every five years. This schedule allows the newer people to buy in to the
process, and it provides an opportunity to reengage and energize individuals who
were present the last time the statements were reviewed. Congregations that
choose the four- or five-year process of mission objectives will find that it is a
natural follow-up of implementation to revisit the initial vision, mission, and
covenant statements after the set of mission objectives has been completed.
Congregations that add a new mission objective every year may find it somewhat
awkward to revisit the vision and mission while also beginning to implement new
objectives, but it can still be done. Chances are high that the most recently added
objective is in line with where the congregation members want to go, even as it may
be a little on the edge of the older articulated mission statement.
Planning for a subsequent process is often easier, especially if good notes were
preserved from the first time the congregation went through the process. The
vision, mission, and covenant team can incorporate the feedback from the last time,
look at different options for some of the exercises, and create the plan in a shorter
time. By now the leadership of the congregation should be committed to the
process, but a “refresher” for those new in leadership is always a good idea. Again,
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 67
though, by building on the past successful experience, it should be easier to “sell”
the idea. After all, what you are selling is a congregation that is vibrantly alive and
connected with, and committed to, the community both within and without the
congregation’s walls.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 68
Glossary
Covenant: A statement of how the members of the congregation will
interact with one another, as well as what is promised, or vowed, by one
member to another and to the congregation as a whole.
Mission: A concise statement of what the congregation wants to be known
for, or known as, within the wider world; what the congregation wants to
mean to the community.
Paradigm: A set of rules and regulations, written or unwritten, that
establishes or defines conceptual and behavioral boundaries and that tells
one how to behave inside the boundaries in order to be successful. Adam
Smith, in Powers of the Mind, states that a paradigm is “a shared set of
assumptions. The paradigm is the way we perceive the world; water to the
fish. The paradigm explains the world to us and helps us to predict its
behavior.” (quoted in Paradigms: the Business of Discovering the Future, by
Joel Arthur Baker, page 31). Refer to the Resources list, page 96 of this
document.
Vision: A carefully defined picture of where the congregation wants to be in
five or more years; the dream of what the congregation can become.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 69
Appendixes
Appendix A
Sample Vision Statements
Together in beloved community, we will build a world without borders where
all are valued and supported as they navigate their individual religious
journeys.
Source unknown
We envision members and friends of First Church as pilgrims traveling on
life’s journey together—creating a shared ministry through which we can
grow our souls in ways truthful to ourselves, caring of others, and sustaining
the planet.
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, San Diego, California
First Parish in Needham strives to be a vibrant, open, inclusive congregation
in which all are free to explore and grow spiritually and intellectually in a
supportive and socially responsible community. Through: inspirational
worship services including music and celebrations; religious education
opportunities for all ages; social action outreach; opportunities for reflection;
intergenerational activities; social events.
First Parish in Needham (Unitarian Universalist), Needham,
Massachusetts
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 70
Appendix B
Sample Mission Statements
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers, where religion and reason
meet, takes as its mission:
• To nurture the search for truth and meaning
• To be a loving, diverse and intergenerational community
• To minister to each other and the community at large
• To improve the quality of life by living our values and working for
local and universal justice.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers, Fort Myers, Florida
As a welcoming and accepting, diverse and inquiring religious community, we
unite to provide an environment which stimulates a free exchange and
exploration of ideas, fosters spiritual and intellectual growth, and serves as a
base for active outreach to benefit the world around us.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas
We are an open and nurturing spiritual community, gathering in love for
renewal, learning, and celebration. We are reaching out and living our
commitment to social justice and a sustainable environment.
Unitarian Universalist Community Church, Glen Allen, Virginia
Church of the Open Door is a sacred assembly of Black, lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgendered, and heterosexual sisters, brothers, lovers, friends,
and allies gathering at the invitation of Christ to seek justice, to extend
hospitality, to deepen understanding and wisdom, to affirm our identities, to
receive healing and power, and to celebrate the transforming presence of the
living God.
Church of the Open Door, Chicago, Illinois
The purpose of our religious community is to support each other in our
various inward journeys toward truth. We will endeavor to do this in an
atmosphere of mutual acceptance, openness and friendship. Committed
social action on behalf of the local and global communities will be a natural
expression of this purpose.
Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalists, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 71
It is the mission of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego to
become an increasingly diverse community with differing beliefs yet shared
values. In joy and mutual support we offer spiritual nourishment, create
beauty, affirm the worth of each individual, and honor the democratic
process. From this place we encourage all ages to learn and grow together
while we labor for compassionate justice in our society and on our planet.
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, San Diego, California
The Dublin Unitarian Universalist Church is a sharing, nurturing and caring
community which promotes spiritual growth and development along with
intellectual freedom. We provide an atmosphere of acceptance of one
another while seeking to understand ourselves and our universe.
We foster an ethical basis for living and celebrate in life’s diversity. We
reaffirm our respect for others which empowers us to act on our beliefs to
improve our community and relieve social injustice.
Dublin Unitarian Universalist Church, Dublin, Ohio
Our mission is to be an inclusive spiritual community that serves all families
and individuals as a sanctuary, a beacon of enlightenment and a call to
service.
West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, Cleveland, Ohio
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 72
Appendix C
Sample Covenant Statements
We will be kind to each other, treat people fairly and with respect. That’s how
we want people to treat us, no matter how old we are.
Children’s Covenant, Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, Santa
Barbara, California
We covenant to share our passion, energy and resources, promising honest
communication and our enthusiastic presence. We promise to accept and
challenge each other to live according to our principles, moving from inner
conviction to collective and individual action. We recognize and embrace the
conflict inherent in this process as an opportunity for positive change and
growth.
Working Group Covenant A, Second Unitarian Universalist Church,
Chicago, Illinois
We covenant to consciously choose to join and stay in community, to be an
exceptional place where people of all ages are supported in being forces for
good citizenship in the communities of our lives. We recognize that our
spiritual growth happens both as individuals and in community. We are
supported with an offering of stepping stones and encouragement on our
lifelong journeys. Inherent in our being together in community is the
awareness and celebration of our diversity—and even in the facing of our
differences we unite around the core human need to have the opportunity to
love and be loved.
Working Group Covenant B, Second Unitarian Universalist Church,
Chicago, Illinois
We covenant to build a community that challenges us to grow and empowers
us to hold faithful to the truth within ourselves, living out the profound
connections that bind each of us and all beings together. We will be generous
with our gifts and open in hearts and minds, seeking to recognize and accept
each other in all our complexity and diversity.
Working Group Covenant C, Second Unitarian Universalist Church,
Chicago, Illinois
This religious community holds dear the values of social justice, love,
diversity, elevation of the human spirit, and community. We covenant to:
value diversity in all interactions; create a respectful, loving community; and
work for social justice in the world.
Source unknown
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 73
This church is an intentionally diverse democratic religious association,
dedicated to building a dynamic faith and attitude wherein our religious
heritage finds ennobling harmony with contemporary truth as validated by
reason and experience. We seek the spiritual enrichment of our members in a
mutually sustaining fellowship, and the welfare of all people.
To these ends we foster free inquiry with the right to make up one’s own
mind on religious beliefs; respect for the individual with a willingness to listen
to each other’s opinions and viewpoints; and consideration and respect for
minority positions while practicing the democratic process in human relations.
We recognize our responsibilities as a church to help our members fulfill in
their lives their religious faith and personal ethic and to develop a sustaining
confidence in the meaning and purpose of life. We recognize love as a
creative and supportive force in life, and we realize the interdependence and
unity of all life. We seek cooperation with other organizations having similar
aspirations.
Bond of Union, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, San
Diego, California
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 74
Appendix D
Team Retreat Suggestions
The team retreat is a time for the members of the team to get to know one another
and figure out how to work well together. The team will be doing difficult work in
the congregation, first by planning and then by leading the congregation through
the change process. The team members need to know the dynamics of change
management, when to be facilitative leaders, and when to act as change agents.
They need to know their various skills and abilities. The retreat is a time to do that.
It is recommended that the team members bring in a facilitator to help them
through the tasks of the retreat. This person could be a member of the congregation
or a neighboring congregation, a member of the district staff or district consultant’s
bureau, or someone from a local social service agency. The retreat facilitator should
be aided in understanding the goals of the retreat. The major goals are as follows:
1. Get better acquainted, and deeply acquainted. You will be on a long journey
together.
2. Build trust. There will be issues, principles, processes, people, and anxiety
around you, and you may disagree—sometimes intensely. You need to
develop the trust and mutual understanding among you that are essential
to following through with the process in a healthy way.
3. Learn about one another’s skills and interests so you can begin to divide up
the tasks ahead.
4. Build a covenant on how you will do the work together, including how to
communicate with one another, deal with deadlines, and other important
tasks.
5. Develop a time line for the vision, mission, and covenant process.
6. Develop your bases for making decisions. Using a consensus process is to
be hoped for, but having a backup procedure is wise. Gather information on
processes to enable good choices to be made. Under what circumstances
will you vote? By what plurality must decisions be made? How will you deal
with disagreements? When do you need to have unity in the process?
7. Develop your plan for communicating with the governing board and the
congregation. How will you include key leaders and staff in the process?
Tip: The goals and process of the retreat are adapted from the
retreat process for a congregation’s ministerial search committees.
If you have recently been through the ministerial search process,
you might find that a member of the search committee can add
valuable information about the benefits and goals of a team retreat.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 75
Appendix E
Facilitative Leadership
The following facilitative practices and errors to avoid are adapted from the work of
Alban Institute consultant Alice Mann, as presented in the Unitarian Universalist
Association’s Planning for Growth and Vitality Weekend Workshop for the Small
Congregation.
1. Do: Conduct extensive, open dialogue to determine whether the vision,
mission, and covenant work is indeed desired. Engaging a third party to
help may strengthen the process.
Don’t: Assume that everyone wants the congregation to move in this
direction. Instead, engage the members in conversation, and ask for help
in crafting the best plan.
2. Do: Ask difficult questions about what is changing. Encourage others to
question.
Don’t: Provide only technical solutions, since change involves adaptive
change, and it is very personal.
3. Do: Alert the leadership and congregation that the road ahead will be
difficult at times. Inform them that the transition requires personal
changes from everyone.
Don’t: Focus only on changing structural elements. Vision, mission, and
covenant work is about a new way of being and a new approach.
Changing only the structure bypasses the central purpose.
4. Do: Allow people to experience the discomfort required during times of
transition. Resist the temptation to make everything all right again and to
smooth over conflicts. Bring out the difficulties that are occurring for open
discussion.
Don’t: Jump in too quickly to reassure people in the face of the
challenge. That action rescues them from the adaptive work necessary for
success.
5. Do: Create diverse groups for conversations about the personal nature of
change. Help these groups to understand what is necessary for
congregational growth and change. By creating multiple opportunities in
diverse gatherings, you offer individuals the chance to hear voices that
they don’t always hear.
Don’t: Offer one-way communication (such as newsletter articles) as the
primary means of communication. Engagement of individuals through
open dialogue is the best way to move the process along and gain buy-in.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 76
6. Do: Help people examine the roles and processes that are changing.
Encourage them to articulate the required changes—in themselves and
others, and in how the congregation will interact and function with the
vision, mission, and covenant process.
Don’t: Create new structures or processes too quickly. You need to have
buy-in for the process to work, and moving too quickly or in a group that
is too small means that you will inadvertently leave too many people
outside the process.
7. Do: Allow the norms of the congregation to be examined and challenged.
Too often congregations continue with what they’ve always done, and
inertia and fears stop them from moving ahead. By questioning what has
always been, new possibilities can emerge.
Don’t: Hold fast to tradition and familiar rituals just because this is who
you are. Make sure that you make a positive choice for the future,
especially if the choice is to continue as in the past.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 77
Appendix F
Additional Resources for Small Group Work
In addition to the ideas presented in the text, here are some other possibilities for
engaging the membership in vision, mission, and covenant work. These ideas can
work in congregations of any size, and they may be particularly helpful in larger
congregations as ways to bring people together in smaller sessions to focus on the
issues. There are benefits in gathering people together in new ways; when members
tend to socialize primarily with the same people, they may not be aware of the
diversity that exists in the congregation as a whole. Mixing and matching can
provide a new kind of cross-fertilization and understanding. Pay attention, though,
to the group dynamics; some people may need to be in groups that they perceive as
similar to them to feel empowered to speak out. Providing a number of different
ways to gather, share, and report back to one another deepens the conversation.
Small Group Pilgrimages. Small group pilgrimages allow people to gather and
listen to one another’s religious pilgrimages. Allow each person in the group a
chance to talk about her or his own religious orientation, upbringing, and values. By
encouraging active listening rather than one-upmanship, the participants can more
easily hear the values and diversity that others bring to the congregation.
Values Clarification. Provide participants index cards, and ask them to respond to
the following: “Name a religious value that is important to you that is affirmed by
this congregation.” Values could include such things as peace, justice, honesty,
liberty, faith, love, kindness, persistence, and so on. Go around the group, and ask
each person to name the value and explain its importance. You may also consider
having people answer a second question: “Name a religious value that is important
to you that is not currently affirmed by this congregation.” Again, this should be a
time for active listening rather than debate. When everyone has had a chance, look
for common values, themes, and ideas, as well as those things that people feel are
missing or could be done better. This session could close with a brief service during
which the values would be written down, placed in a common container, and
affirmed by the entire group.
Building the Vision, Mission, and Covenant. This session provides the
opportunity to physically build the vision, mission, and covenant by using visual
material as a learning strategy. The results can then be displayed for others to see.
Some examples follow:
• Make a “tree of values.” Have people list their most important value on
a piece of paper or cardboard, and build a common tree from these
pieces. Values could include such things as peace, justice, honesty,
liberty, faith, love, kindness, persistence, and so on.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 78
• Place a vision, mission, and covenant bowl in the meeting house. Ask
people to bring objects, thoughts, or whatever symbols express their
values, and place them in the bowl. Over time, begin to collect the
results, and write them up or display them for use in a special
celebration.
• Make a banner or collage that represents the group’s understanding of
the vision, mission, and covenant. If each small group does so, these
banners can be brought together for a celebration at the conclusion of
the overall process.
• Ask people to make a clay representation of what they mean by vision,
mission, and covenant. Ask people to share their models.
• Group people together to create collages that represent the vision,
mission, and covenant with used magazines and other art supplies.
Display these collages, perhaps along with written explanations if the
deeper meanings aren’t immediately accessible.
• Gather people to act out, model, or stage the vision, mission, and
covenant to make them come alive in reality. This allows for people
who learn best by movement to be engaged in the process.
• Enlist the aid of artists, poets, musicians, and others to give creative
expression to the vision, mission, and covenant. Someone might write
new words to a hymn, compose a song, write a poem, or make a
painting. All of these creations can be used in celebration.
• Create a videotape of vision, mission, and covenant, perhaps using
comments from the small groups, songs, poems, and so on. The
videotapes can be shared with the congregation and retained for
future use, such as orienting new members or recalling the process.
Network Mapping. Network mapping is yet another exercise that helps you
understand the geographic context of the congregation—not by who is present or
who surrounds it but by how the congregation fits into the routines of work, leisure,
and consumption of the members. Most people, when they review where they drive
in a week, find that they have dominant routes between the places they go. Looking
at how these individual maps overlap can reveal pictures of community relations and
organizational ties that are invisible parts of your congregation. This exercise, which
should take about forty-five minutes, is adapted from Studying Congregations: a
New Handbook, (refer to Resources list page 96). More details on this process can
be found in that volume. A simplified version of the process follows:
• Obtain several detailed maps of your city or locale, and attach them to
corkboard. Gather pushpins with colored ends and yarn. You will also
need several large sheets of newsprint and markers, as well as paper,
pens, and pencils for every participant. Having a copy of the
telephone book may be helpful in locating certain buildings.
• Divide participants into significant constituencies, such as those who
live near the church, those who live in particular communities,
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 79
newcomers and long-timers, or members of ethnic groups. Have the
members help you understand the various constituency groups they
believe are in the congregation, and ask people to gather into these
groups.
• Ask each participant to answer the following questions:
• Where do you live?
• Where do you work? Where do others in your household work? If
you are not currently employed, where do you spend the most time
during the day?
• If you have children, where do they attend school?
• If you have pets, where is your veterinarian?
• Where do your parents and siblings live? Or if your parents are
deceased, where are they buried?
• Where do your two closest friends reside?
• Where do you do your grocery shopping?
• Where do you purchase your clothing?
• Where are the clubs or voluntary organizations you attend? If you
participate in any other groups, where do they meet? If applicable,
where do you play golf, tennis, or softball; work out at a gym; or
attend football, basketball, or baseball games regularly?
• After everyone has answered the questions, ask each group to choose
a representative, knowing that each group will be able to add
information that differs from that of their representative later.
• Next ask the members of each group to plot the various points on the
map for the representative. Connect the pins, or points, to a pin at the
representative’s residence with lengths of yarn.
• Once completed, ask the group members how they imagine their own
network might differ from their representative’s map.
• After all have had a chance to share, the representatives present their
maps to the whole group, adding in the points of difference that the
others from their group had.
• Engage the group in conversation about what this exercise has taught
the members about their congregation, the community, and their
networks, and how they believe this affects their congregation’s vision
and mission.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 80
Appendix G
Additional Background Exercises
The following exercises could be helpful in the process of either preparing for, or
carrying out, vision, mission, and covenant work in the congregation. The first
exercise helps people understand that this work must be experienced in the
relational life of the congregation. The second exercise helps members understand
the history of their congregation, and the third helps them understand how their
congregation is seen (or not seen) by others in the community.
As with most of the activities in this manual, these are often best done in groups
rather than alone. Being in groups gives people the chance not only to experience
their own answers but also to understand how others either share or differ in their
perceptions. Additionally, congregational life is all about relationships, and these
exercises provide yet another way in which people can develop those relationships.
Exercise 1
Intent Since vision, mission, and covenant work is relational, it must be
experienced in the life of a religious community and not just be thought about.
This exercise is intended to illustrate the differences between thinking about an
idea (“freedom of belief” in this exercise) and experiencing a “holy place” (such
as vision, mission, and covenant).
Using the Exercise This exercise can be used individually, but we suggest that
people share their reflections in small groups. This exercise is an excellent way to
begin the vision, mission, and covenant process and to help people understand
its dynamic qualities.
Step 1. Ask the participants to close their eyes and take a few moments to
center themselves. Tell them that as words or pictures clutter their thinking
(which is normal), they should let them go and just sit quietly.
Step 2. Ask the participants to spend a few moments thinking about the words
freedom of belief. Ask them to stay with the words, and let whatever comes to
mind, come.
Step 3. Now ask the participants to envision someplace that is holy for them,
whether it is in a church, by a lake or stream, in the mountains, or any other
place that fits their own definition of holy. Ask them to stay in that place for
awhile and let whatever comes to mind, come.
Step 4. Invite the participants to return to the group, slowly opening their eyes
and coming back to the present place and time.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 81
Step 5. Ask the participants to get into small groups of three or four people. Ask
them to choose a recorder, and then have them share their reflections by
responding to two questions: What images, thoughts, feelings, shapes, colors,
and odors came to mind when you reflected upon freedom of belief? What
images, thoughts, feelings, shapes, colors, and odors came to mind when you
reflected on your holy place? The recorder should note the similarities and
differences between the group members in their answers, as well as the
similarities and differences in the answers to the two questions.
Step 6. Ask the participants to return to the larger group, and then ask them
what surprised them about the process. What did they learn? After a chance for
people to reflect and respond, collect the notes from the recorders. Consider
pulling together the responses and publishing the results for those members who
were unable to attend the program.
Exercise 2
Intent The question of identity is crucial to the formation of religious
community. This exercise, based on a model developed in Handbook for
Congregational Studies, (refer to resources list, page 96) provides a way to
explore current congregational identity.
Using the Exercise This exercise can be used individually or in a small group as
a means of reflecting upon identity issues in one’s own congregation or religious
group. If done in a small group, each of the elements should be dealt with
separately, with participants invited to offer their insights. Someone should write
these insights on newsprint. When the list is complete, the group should discuss
the findings, looking for common themes.
Various factors affect the identity of a religious community, be it a congregation,
district, or special interest group. The following aspects of congregational life are
most important:
Tip: This may be a useful exercise for
the vision, mission, and covenant team
to use as they gather information prior
to presenting the process to the
congregation. By understanding the
congregation’s past and current
identity, the team can help answer
questions and clarify mistakes in
historical perception.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 82
• History. What is the history of this congregation—the stories that have
helped to shape it and give it purpose? What are the community’s
significant happenings? Try to locate only a few major stories.
• Symbols. What are the signs or symbols in the life of the congregation
that provide understandings about life and reinforce the identity of the
group? For example, the flaming chalice is often an important symbol.
What does it mean to this congregation?
• Rituals. What are the repetitive actions or ceremonies that the community
uses to express feelings of joy, grief, gratitude, and so on? A common
affirmation or covenant or a congregational song are other examples of
rituals.
• Tradition. What is the wider tradition to which this particular community
belongs? How does your congregation relate to the wider story of
Unitarian Universalism?
• Character. What makes this congregation different from other groups?
Each congregation has something unique that sets it apart—its worship,
fellowship, other event, or identity. Name that difference.
• Demography. What are the basic characteristics of your community, such
as race, age, income, education, orientation, ethnicity, and other
characteristics? Try to develop a general profile. Then try to describe the
general characteristics of the community that your congregation serves.
Are the characteristics of your congregation similar to or different from
those of the wider community, and on what points?
• Outlook. What can be said of the general outlook of your congregation—
its description of the way things are and the way they ought to be? There
may be a general feeling that the world is unjust, for example, and needs
to be reformed.
The results of this process can be written up, shared with members of the
congregation, and saved for future celebrations of the history. They can also be
useful when the congregation needs historical and contextual information during
a search for religious leadership.
Tip: The results of this exercise will be
helpful in understanding the paradigm of
the congregation. By articulating answers to
these usually silent questions, the
congregation can begin to see the nature of
the “water” in which they swim and move.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 83
Exercise 3
Intent This exercise is designed to help people conceptualize vision, mission,
and covenant in terms of their own congregation by taking them on a guided
mental tour of the facility. Vision, mission, and covenant are not simply language
but also other modes of expression. Space, for example, says a lot about the
vision, mission, and covenant of a congregation—about what the congregation
values and where it places its resources.
Using the Exercise This exercise is best used in small groups. The leader
guides participants through the exercise first and then asks them to report their
findings and record them on newsprint. After discussion, the leader asks
participants to reflect on how the vision, mission, and covenant might be better
expressed in the building itself. Because each congregation is different, with a
unique vision, mission, and covenant, it is difficult to provide guidelines that will
apply to every situation. If, for example, the congregation has a clear mission to
serve its community, it might express that mission in terms of space as follows:
• The facility is located in the center of the community it serves.
• Signs or other external displays clearly indicate the location of the building
and its identity.
• The building is accessible to people with disabilities.
• The entrance space is well-lighted, attractive, and welcoming. Information
about the congregation is displayed, and there are clear directions for
newcomers about what can be found in the building and where to find it.
• A schedule of events or community groups using the space is posted in a
conspicuous spot.
• Symbols of community involvement (such as posters for community
events or information about community groups) can be found throughout
the building.
• Portions of the building have clearly been reserved for use of the
community (for example, office space is provided to local community
groups or a recreation hall is used by after-school programs).
Tip: This exercise is similar to “Sample Vision
Program 1: Guided Imagery for a Group,”
(see page 33), but it is focused specifically on
the facilities itself rather than on the
programming and feeling of the congregation
or that which it may do beyond its walls.
However, by looking at the physical plant
alone, you can gain insights into the values it
represents.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 84
Visualization Exercise This exercise should be read by the leader several
times prior to sharing it with the group. Participants should be encouraged to
find a comfortable position and then be asked to settle in, let go of other cares
and concerns, and take several deep breaths to center themselves. Then, when
people are settled in, the following visualization should be read:
Close your eyes for a few moments. Begin to imagine your congregation—the
actual physical space or building in which your congregation is located. Try to
frame a picture in your mind of the whole facility—of how it looks from a
distance.
Now begin to walk up to the building. What does it look like? What feelings
does the whole facility evoke? What immediately attracts your attention? How
is the landscaping, the parking area, the outside of the building? Pause for a
moment to note the overall impression of the building and its grounds. Does
it appear warm, inviting, interesting, boring?
Start to enter by the front door. What attracts your attention? Are there
stairs? Are there handrails? Can everyone get in there, whether walking, with
a stroller, or in a wheelchair? Where can people with mobility problems get in
the building? Does the front entrance beckon you inside?
Now tour the facility. Note whether there are signs telling you the locations of
various rooms when you first enter. Look into the areas reserved for various
activities, for example, religious education, the office, social activities, and
parents with fussy babies. What are your immediate feelings about what
happens here? Does the building welcome you, put you off, leave you warm,
or leave you cold? How might someone of a different generation than yours,
or from a historically marginalized group, feel about it?
Quietly enter the meeting room, sanctuary, or worship area. Sit down and
look around. Look at the windows, how the seats are arranged, whether or
not there are colors, what is in the space the congregation faces, what
symbols are apparent, and so on. Take in the whole space. What feelings are
aroused as you sit quietly? How do you feel being here? How might someone
of a different generation than yours, or from a historically marginalized
group, feel about it?
Gently welcome the participants back to where they actually are, and invite them
to take a few moments to reflect silently on this visualization exercise in terms of
what they know about vision, mission, and covenant. Ask participants to answer
the following questions for themselves, jotting down notes for discussion later:
• Based on your tour of the facility, what did you learn about the vision,
mission, and covenant of your congregation?
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 85
• What signs, symbols, posters, and arrangements did you discover that
seemed to point to vision, mission, and covenant?
• Did your overall sense of the facility indicate to you that this is a place
occupied by people who have a clear sense about who they are and a
clear vision and mission?
• Does the facility give the feeling that this is a religious community that
wishes to fulfill its covenant, activate its mission, and live into its vision?
After a period of silent reflection and writing, invite the participants to share their
responses. A recorder should capture the themes, ideas, and answers to
preserve them as a record of the proceeding and as an aid to use as the vision,
mission, and covenant process continues.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 86
Appendix H
Consensus Models
A consensus model is a decision-making model that empowers participants to
cooperate with one another in order to reach an outcome that is in the best interest
of the group as a whole and that furthers the group’s stated purpose. It is a
structured process that ensures that all voices are heard and yet provides for an
efficient means to reach decisions. The consensus model encourages active
participation by establishing a collective ownership of all proposals, concerns, and
discussions. It provides for various levels of assent while still reserving the right to
say no; however, that no generally is reserved for exceptional circumstances.
Consensus is not the same thing as unanimity. It is not that all participants must
agree to the proposal; rather, they must agree not to stand in the way of the
proposal. Consensus is reached when no participants hold strong concerns that are
based on the group’s stated purpose or values.
Success of a consensus process depends on several things:
• Having clearly stated the group mission and values or covenant.
• Designating certain key roles as essential for the process, the most
important of these being the facilitator.
• Having the commitment of the participants to cooperate, speak in a
disciplined manner, listen attentively, and show respect for the
contributions of every member.
Consensus works best in an atmosphere in which conflict is encouraged, supported,
and resolved cooperatively with respect, nonviolence, and creativity. Conflict is
desirable, as it brings the differences in opinions and feelings to the surface; it is not
something to be avoided, dismissed, diminished, or denied. Rather, conflict is
something to be welcomed when handled well. When members feel as if their
different opinions and feelings will be heard and taken seriously, and when there is
Tip: Much of the following information on consensus
is taken from the Web site of First Parish in
Lexington, Unitarian Universalist, Lexington,
Massachusetts. The Web site can be found at
www.fplex.org/consensusintro.shtml. In addition, by
searching on “consensus decision making” in an
Internet search engine, those interested in
consensus work can find hundreds of articles and
suggestions for processes.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 87
an agreed-upon and shared covenant of behavior, conflict can allow for creativity in
resolving problems and in finding better options than would surface without it.
Consensus also needs time, but it is not inherently time-consuming. Teaching the
congregation about consensus—what it is and what it is not—is helpful. As the
congregation matures in its use of consensus, this way of handling decisions
becomes very effective and efficient. However, commitment is required to educate,
learn, and follow even when the going gets a bit touchy.
Depending upon the version of consensus being used, participants are given three
or more options for their response to a proposal. In every case, the congregation
will have to decide ahead of time the criteria for decision making: Will it proceed
with up to a certain percentage of blocking/nay votes, or will one block/nay vote be
sufficient to halt the decision? Some groups say that the “purest” form of consensus
requires that a group not accept any proposal for which there is as few as one block
vote, whereas other groups have found that they will use a “consensus-minus-one”
format to prevent one person from stopping the group from doing what is clearly
the desire of the vast majority of people. Large organizations might find that their
“minus one” becomes “minus 1 percent” or some other measure as a compromise
form of consensus governing. Again, it is important to remember that these
decisions must be made ahead of time, and the congregation needs to be educated
in the practice of consensus decision making.
Two options for the response choice range are listed below. Some groups find
themselves creating their own list of options. The only requirement is that there be
ways for people to indicate their less-than-wholehearted support without blocking
the process.
• A three-choice option can include the following:
• Approve. The participant feels confidence in the proposal.
• Stand aside. The participant is willing to allow the proposal to be
adopted, even though she or he has concerns or is indifferent.
• Block. The participant believes that the content of the decision might
conflict with the group’s stated purpose and shared values.
• A six-choice option can include the following:
• Assent. The participant sees a need for the proposal and assents to it
as the direction or decision that needs to be taken.
• Go along. The participant doesn’t see the need for the decision but will
go along with the group’s decision.
• Reservation. The participant thinks there is a mistake in the decision or
idea but will go along with the group’s decision.
• Stand aside. The participant cannot agree to the decision but will not
stop others from doing it.
• Block. The participant cannot support the decision, as he or she
believes it is immoral or in direct violation of the group’s purpose and
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 88
values; the participant has a dissenting opinion and is not willing to
stand aside, yet does not wish to withdraw from the group.
• Withdraw. The participant cannot go along with the decision or idea
and finds it so out of place with the group’s purpose and values that
should it be brought forward, he or she would have to withdraw from
the group.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 89
Appendix I
Leader as Change Agent and Advocate
This material is adapted from the work of John Kotter in his book Leading Change
(see the Resources list, page 97). Although these steps are from the corporate
world, they are effective in congregations and other nonprofit associations and
organizations as well.
1. Do: Establish a sense of spiritual and institutional urgency by focusing
on what the congregation needs to help it move forward and create
the shared vision, mission, and covenant.
Don’t: Allow too much complacency; if you do, the process will falter,
perhaps not to be started again.
2. Do: Create a guiding coalition focused on vitality and change. Lone
rangers don’t get much lasting change work done in congregational
life.
Don’t: Fail to identify motivated leaders and educate them on what is
required and how the process will unfold.
3. Do: Develop a vision that is both compelling and sensible about (1)
the process and how it will proceed and (2) the benefits and value of
the process to the congregation.
Don’t: Underestimate the power of vision. It is vision that will
motivate a congregation and move it along.
4. Do: Communicate the vision for the process ten times more often than
you think is necessary. Major change is impossible unless the majority
of the membership is willing to help. Use every vehicle possible to
communicate where you are going and why.
Don’t: Assume that everyone knows. Not everyone hears the first
time or as a result of the first method, and even those who “know”
need reminders to stay motivated.
5. Do: Empower broad-based action. Help congregants know that this
process won’t work without them.
Don’t: Permit obstacles to block the new vision. Help people to see
that the path extends beyond the walls they construct.
6. Do: Generate and celebrate short-term wins. Celebrate every
statement when it is passed, and ensure that the statements remain
live documents within the congregation by using them in worship and
in visitor and new member orientations.
Don’t: Fail to create and celebrate short-term wins. When you don’t
celebrate, people forget what they have done.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 90
7. Do: Consolidate gains and produce more change. Publicize the way in
which these statements are being made real, and help bring the
congregation’s memory back to what it has done.
Don’t: Declare victory too soon. Just passing the statements isn’t
enough; statements need to be made real.
8. Do: Anchor the new approaches in the culture. Make sure to clarify
the connections between what the congregation chooses to do and the
statements, and use the statements to make major decisions.
Don’t: Take for granted that people see the relationship between
changes achieved and vitality and growth. Be explicit about the causes
and results. Remind them that the work that they do matters, and how
it matters.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 91
Appendix J
Additional Questions
The following questions may be helpful for your congregation to discuss as you
move into vision, mission, and covenant work. These questions can help members
explore their spirituality and their sense of belonging in both the world and the
congregation. The questions can be used in theological reflection, as lead-ins to any
of the activities and processes set out in this manual, as stand-alone questions for
discussion groups, or as topics for small group ministry sessions. They come from
the Unitarian Universalist Association’s “Fulfilling the Promise” program.
1. What has deeply moved you in your life? What was it in you that
responded? Why were you moved? What does this imply for what this
congregation might do, or for what you might offer others in the
congregation?
2. Why are you here?
3. Whom or what do you serve?
4. Are you faithful?
5. If Unitarian Universalism were somehow not available, what would be
missing in your life? What does that imply for what our Unitarian
Universalist congregation might do better? Or for what Unitarian
Universalist congregations, in association with one another, might do
better?
6. What are the deepest yearnings of your heart? What does that imply for
what this congregation might do better? Or for what Unitarian Universalist
congregations in association might do better?
7. What is the core endeavor of our Unitarian Universalist congregation?
What is the fundamental purpose or reason for being of our congregation?
8. Many religious traditions developed beliefs related to some cosmic story,
such as the Jewish fall of the Temple or the Christian story of salvation. Is
there a story at the core of our Unitarian Universalist faith? Do we have a
fundamental story? Or is there another, more appropriate core? What
about some categories from universal aesthetic experiences, such as
rhythm, dance, and harmonies? What are we neglecting, or what have we
scarcely named, that might be profoundly important at a fundamental
level?
9. Given our congregation’s core endeavor, what is the model we use for
carrying out that core endeavor? Is there a better model that might be
more appropriate?
10. If being together in a congregation implies some kinds of promises to one
another, what are the subject areas of those promises? What promises
are required in order to be a Unitarian Universalist congregation? What
promises could be areas of choice for the congregation?
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 92
11. What work do we do in our congregation that involves relationships
among people? How relational is our congregation, really? Do we want it
to be more relational? Less relational?
12. In the light of our needs and aspirations as a congregation, how might
this congregation or individuals in it benefit by association with other
Unitarian Universalist congregations? What can we offer to others?
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 93
Appendix K
Uses of Vision, Mission, and Covenant Statements in
Congregational Life
The vision, mission, and covenant statements can be incorporated into the life of the
congregation in an unlimited number of ways in order to keep the statements in
front of the members. The following are some suggestions:
• The governing board and committees can set short- and long-term
goals as ways to live out the mission.
• The governing board and congregation can refer to the vision and
mission statements when making tough decisions about the allocation
of resources or choosing priorities for their efforts.
• The staff members’ responsibilities can be structured so that their
activities support the vision and mission.
• Vision and mission statements can be used in the annual review of
both the employees’ and the congregation’s ministry.
• Religious education for adults and children can be structured such that
classes are also the formation process for carrying out the mission.
• Vision, mission, and covenant statements can be used as part of
orientation for visitors and new members.
• T-shirts, bumper stickers, and other marketing tools can be created to
feature part of the vision and mission.
• The vision, mission, and covenant statements can be used in whole or
in part in the congregation’s liturgy, on either a regular or occasional
basis.
• Budget decisions can be made with a focus on the mission.
• In an annual vision and mission celebration, the congregation’s
members can celebrate the congregation’s purposes.
• The mission statement can be used to create a “mitzvah day”—a day
of service to the community that centers around the congregation’s
mission to that community.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 94
Appendix L
Stages of a Mission Budget Process
This material on how to create a mission budget is taken from the Planning for
Growth and Vitality Weekend Workshop for the Small Congregation. More resources
on fund-raising and stewardship can be found at the Unitarian Universalist
Association’s Web site, at UUA.org by going to the Leaders’ Library and by searching
“Fundraising.”*
Stage 1. Clarify and cultivate your overall vision for the congregation. Then
create a vision of what your programs ultimately aim to contribute to your
congregation and the community.
Stage 2. Determine the three to five mission objectives for the program year,
and as you aim toward the future.
Stage 3. With the help of the task force charged with implementing the
mission objectives, determine how the current programs will achieve these
objectives, and define critical success factors. Again with help from the task
force, identify new programs needed to fulfill the mission, and determine
whether any existing programs will no longer be necessary.
Stage 4. Focus the mission through current and potential ministry programs
by asking questions such as the following: Who will be served? What are the
spiritual, relational, and personal needs to be met? What is our overall
strategy? Why is this program important?
Stage 5. Determine the resources owned and needed for carrying out the
mission objective, including the human, financial, spiritual, and facilities
resources.
Stage 6. Develop your proposal for funding programs; be clear about whom
the giving will help, who will be doing the helping, how the programs will
further your congregation’s vision and mission, and how the present
programs and proposals prepare the way for future program goals and
funding.
After the above work is done, it may be helpful to form a special study committee to
look at the whole budget picture in relation to your congregation size. Once an
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 95
assessment has occurred, an overall financial strategy can be developed that
includes a variety of the following elements:
• Communicating a clear vision and the key steps needed to realize that
vision.
• Building a spiritual commitment to proportional giving as the basis for the
annual pledge.
• Incorporating new members effectively.
• Connecting members to ministries related to their talents and gifts.
• Educating members on the spiritual practice of giving, including planned
giving.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 96
Resources List
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Sharing Faith and Growing Congregations. Boston: Skinner House Press,
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Ammerman, Nancy T., Jackson W. Carroll, Carl S. Dudley, and William McKinney,
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Baker, Joel Arthur. Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future. New
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Bridges, William. The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments.
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Carroll, Jackson W., Carl S. Dudley, and William McKinney. Handbook for
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Carver, John. Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in
Nonprofit and Public Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Carver, John, and Miriam Mayhew Carver. Reinventing Your Board: A Step-by-
Step Guide to Implementing Policy Governance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
1997.
Friedman, Edwin H. Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and
Synagogue. New York: Guilford Press, 1985.
Heller, Anne Odin. Churchworks: A Well-Body Book for Congregations. Boston:
Skinner House Books, 1999.
Hobgood, William Chris. Welcoming Resistance: A Path to Faithful Ministry.
Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 2001.
Hoertdoerfer, Patricia, and Fredric Muir, eds. The Safe Congregation Handbook:
Nurturing Healthy Boundaries in Our Faith Communities. Boston: Skinner
House Press, 2005.
Hoertdoerfer, Patricia, and William Sinkford, eds. Creating Safe Congregations:
Toward an Ethic of Right Relations. Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association,
1997.
King, Jerald. Budgets with a Mission. Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association,
1996.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 97
Kotter, John. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.
Mann, Alice. The In-between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in
Congregations. Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 1988.
Mann, Alice and Gil Rendle. Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual
Practice for Congregations, by Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 2003.
Oshry, Barry. Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life.
San Francisco: Berrett-Koeohler Publishers, 1995.
Oswald, Roy M., and Robert E. Friedrich, Jr. Discerning Your Congregation’s
Future: A Strategic and Spiritual Approach. Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute,
1996.
Peers, Lawrence X., ed. The Congregational Handbook: How to Develop and
Sustain Your Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Boston: Unitarian
Universalist Association, 1995. See also UUA.org, click Leaders then Leaders’
Library, and search ‘Congregational Handbook.’
Rendle, Gilbert R. Behavioral Covenants in Congregations: A Handbook for
Honoring Differences. Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 1989.
Rendle, Gilbert R. Leading Change in the Congregation. Bethesda, MD: Alban
Institute, 1998.
Richardson, Ronald W. Creating a Healthier Church: Family Systems Theory,
Leadership, and Congregational Life. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press,
1996.
Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of a Learning
Organization. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
Shawchuck, Norman, Philip Kotlet, Bruce Wrenn, and Gustave Rath. Marketing
for Congregations: Choosing to Serve People More Effectively. Nashville, TN:
Abingdon Press, 1992.
Steinke, Peter L. Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach. Bethesda, MD:
Alban Institute, 1996.
Steinke, Peter L. How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations
as Emotional Systems. Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 1993.
Trumbauer, Jean M. Created and Called: Discovering Our Gifts for Abundant
Living. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1998.
Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 98
Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church. Los Angeles: Zondervan Publishing
House, 1995.
*Important note for searching UUA.org: All UUA resources mentioned are
available in the Leaders section of the web site, in the Leaders’ Library. Please use
quotes around the title when you search to bring up the resource or item you seek.
