I rarely find a leader who doesn’t recognize the importance of vision. I encounter many who struggle to identify what God’s vision for their ministry might be. In their frustration they wind up just copying a vision statement they heard somewhere.

Visioning the future is a spiritual process. It is also an intentional process. One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is to try to catch a vision of the future without stopping to look at present realities. It doesn’t work that way.

You can’t get a vision for the future until you have a clear and honest understanding of your present.

There are four primary lens we must look through in order to gain the understanding we need. This is part 2 of a 6 part series designed to help you gain the insight you need. This week we’re looking through the Structural Lens. To do that, ask yourself three questions.

1. Does our current skeleton allow for future growth?

Our middle son was in a car accident when he was 15 years old. He was already a big kid (5’10” and 210 pounds). When the doctor reviewed the x-rays with his mom and me he said, “Your son is going to be a much bigger man than he is now.” He pointed out growth plates in all of his major joints. He said those told him that our son’s skeleton was designed to carry more body mass than his current size. Many churches can’t grow because they are using the same organizational structure they used when they were smaller. There are no growth plates in their structure. A general rule of thumb is, “Your org chart needs to change with every 50% of growth.” Another great rule of thumb is, “No one can directly supervise more than five to seven people effectively.” (I know Jesus led 12, but you ain’t Jesus!)

2. Are our systems and processes effective?

You can envision all sorts of ministry ideas to catapult your ministry to the next level. Until you have systems and processes in place to support those ideas, nothing will happen! So what systems does your church have in place for welcoming guests, for mobilizing members, for discipling new converts, for raising up leaders, for reaching out to people far from God, etc. etc. etc. If you don’t have those processes worked out and working effectively, don’t bother asking God for a vision for growing to the next level.

3. How effective is our communication?

A small church might be able to communicate effectively by simply making announcements on Sunday. The larger a church grows, the more events and activities they tend to have. (How many they should have is a critical topic for another day!) No matter how many or how few your church has, people left outside of the information loop start to feel uniformed and unimportant. In time they drift away.

Just because you have cutting edge video announcements on Sunday doesn’t mean everyone was paying attention. Just because you posted it on Facebook doesn’t mean everyone saw it.  By all means, use every method available to you–just be sure the word is getting out!

There are more issues involved in the Structural Lens, but org charts, systems and communication methods are a great place to start. The more clearly you see your present reality, the better positioned you are to capture God’s vision for your life and ministry.

Next week, we’ll look through the Political Lens.