What is a vision statement?

Your women’s ministry vision statement is a simple declaration stating what you feel God will do in your ministry. It’s not intended to be unchangeable or set in “stone.” Think of it as a fluid creation tool expressing the desired end result of your women’s ministry efforts. The vision statement is your practical first step toward defining the purpose of the ministry, the scope of the work, and its desired impact. 

Creating a compelling vision statement is an important part of setting the direction and focus of women’s ministry efforts. 

Writing a successful vision statement requires taking the time to reflect on your long-term goals and ambitions, as well as having an understanding of how to effectively communicate them. This comprehensive guide covers just about everything you need to know about writing a successful vision statement.

A women’s ministry vision statement is typically congruent with the brand of a ministry or business. This means when opportunities are presented, you can use your vision statement as a gauge for whether or not the activity is in alignment with who you are as a women’s ministry. 

For example, if your ministry’s vision statement is “connecting women to Jesus one Bible Study at a time”, then if someone invites your ministry to start a coed baseball league, you’d likely pass because it’s not in the vision statement. 

I like how Markus L. Pfeiffer describes a vision statement in his 2002 dissertation. He states “the vision statement serves as a compass to guide believers toward their God-given destiny.” I agree and this is also true for women’s ministries. 

Companies write vision statements. Visit a vision statement by James Ike Schaap, Ph.D. Click here to read his white paper: https://www.subr.edu/assets/subr/COBJournal/Vision-Statement-Study—Final.pdf

Lindsay Kolowich Cox wrote an insightful article on Hubspot called “27 Mission and Vision Statement Examples That Will Inspire Your Buyers.” Her article says vision statements “are a look into a company’s future or what its overarching vision is.” Click to read it in its entirety.

A women’s ministry vision statement guides you. 

Your vision statement is a guiding declaration to which you can refer often to ensure you are consistently operating with the integrity of what the ministry was created to accomplish. In other words, it gives you a benchmark for your ministry effort. 

You may also think of your vision statement as something of the dreamed or highly desired state of being for your women’s ministry. It’s aspirational. 

It’s the vision of the women’s ministry just as God likely presented it to you. It could be a room full of women crying in gleeful worship, ladies learning about God’s Word, or maybe hundreds of women reading your women’s ministry blog posts. 

Vision statements for ministry are aspirational and ambitious!

It’s what the world will look like if you’re successful. A vision statement captures all that emotion, excitement, and success in one statement.

After all, what good is a vision statement that doesn’t evoke excitement and even a little trepidation? When God gives us a vision, it’s rarely a small, easy-to-accomplish one. No, it’s usually one that will require some bravery and some courage to even think about. 

God wants us to dream big for Him and to rely on Him to bring it all to pass. Therefore, dream BIG, Women’s Ministry Leader- dream very big in Jesus’ name!

Every time you see that vision statement, I want you to feel butterflies in your tummy because it is so wonderful and invigorating. 

“A vision statement should be possible but not easily attainable”

Understand your women’s ministry and define your goals.

Before you start writing your vision statement, it’s important that you take the time to understand your women’s ministry endeavor inside and out. 

Make sure you know who you are targeting, what problem(s) your ministry effort solves, and how it creates value for those it serves. 

Once you’re aware of these details, consider defining your broad set of core values that define your mission and help identify the goals which will serve as the foundation of your vision.

Why write a women’s ministry vision statement? 

Again, the vision statement is the first step for a new women’s ministry. It will serve as a foundation and a guardrail for the ministry goals and even the name of your women’s ministry – if you haven’t already thought of one. Your vision statement will also help with your values statement which outlines what your ministry values are. 

Have you ever been bowling with small children? If so, you know about those little guard rails on either side of the bowling lane. It’s there to prevent the bowling ball from going into other lanes. It keeps the ball in the proper lane. The same goes for your vision statement. If referred to often, it will keep your ministry focused and in the appropriate “lane” of what you should be doing and focusing your energy on. 

How to begin writing your ministry vision statement. 

When writing a vision statement, it’s important to keep in mind that your statement should be succinct and clear. 

It is best to keep the total word count between 25–50 words to ensure it does not become too long or overly complicated. 

Make sure that at the crux of the statement is the unique mission and ambition of your women’s ministry, so your pastor and other stakeholders can easily understand the core direction and goals of where you are heading or hoping to accomplish.

You need more eyes than yours in the process of creating your vision statement. If you plan to have an advisory committee or board of directors, drafting the vision statement is a perfect role for them. I suggest devoting 2-3 meetings to creating the vision statement. 

Meeting One: Brainstorm to the moon and back. Have a hearty conversation about what today’s Christian woman needs and what is not available to her as it relates to the passion God has given you. If it is prayer, ask and discuss “what resources do women need to cultivate a strong prayer life?” or “why do women not pray?” 

If your women’s ministry focuses on elderly women, discuss and brainstorm from their perspective. Whatever your “lane” is, brainstorm: 

1. What currently exists (i.e. what we’ve got)?
2. How it can be improved (i.e. what’s wrong with what we’ve got)?
3. What additional resources are needed (i.e. what’s missing)?

Each meeting could be focused on each of the above items. But, I recommend spending two meetings on each. Devote a fun, free-wielding brainstorming session for the first meeting. No editing or qualifying, just let the women dream and say the first things that come to mind. 

About a week later, have the second meeting. This is the meeting the group narrows the list. Ask more questions for clarification. 

Take the “temperature” of the room and see if everyone feels the same way about the items. You may find after a few days, some of the items are not as exciting nor seem as relevant. If this happens, cross those items from the list. 

In the entire process look for trends and concepts that reoccur. These are the seeds for your vision statement. From these items that generate passion and concuss, you can begin drafting a vision statement. Once you do, give it some time and then reach out to women outside the leadership committee. 

Involve other women (stakeholders) in writing the ministry vision

In order to keep your ministry vision statement balanced, invite about 5-10 women to a meeting. Have some donuts, coffee, and tea, and use the time to brainstorm and imagine. Writing one alone is a risk because you may have blind spots you’re not aware of or be narrow in scope because it just… you …are…one person. 

Having diverse opinions, ideas, and experience backgrounds will position you to have a comprehensive, far-reaching vision statement that will grow with the women’s ministry.

If your governing committee was productive, you can use the work they did to get feedback from the other women, but NOT IMMEDIATELY! I recommend you allow the women to brainstorm fresh and uninfluenced. 

Walk them through similar processes you did with the board or advisory committee: what we’ve got, what is insufficient, and what’s missing entirely. 

Explore what ministry gaps exist in women’s ministry…again. 

For the group of women, make it fun, light, and conversational. 

Ask them what is needed in the ministry areas you’re pursuing. Exploring what’s missing is a great first start to writing your ministry vision statement and to generating some good ideas. 

Ask: 

• “What sort of words come to mind when you think what this women’s ministry can do?” 
• “Who do we serve? What do they want and need? How do we know? How can we know?
• What are our values as a women’s ministry? 
• “In a perfect world, what could we do in _________________?”
• “What do contemporary Christian women need in the areas of ___________, _____________, ____________.”
• “How can we get Christian women excited about _____________________________”
• “What do you wish we had more of in women’s ministry _______________________”
• “What do we want our women’s ministry to look like?”

You can ask the above questions as a large group or, if you have enough women, I recommend you break them into small groups with chart paper and markers to record their thoughts. Afterward, they can share what they came up with with the whole group. Feed the creativity with some upbeat music and a relaxing atmosphere. 

If you want, you can share what the governing group generated and allow them to see how close they came to what was generated. Be sure to praise their efforts and thank them for their input. 

Compare and Contrast

By now, you should have lots of data to review. This information is your launching ground. It’s where you begin drafting your vision statement. I recommend returning to the governing group with both the work they generated and the work the women’s group created. 

Now, the fun begins!

Writing a women’s ministry vision statement. 

Try a visual imagery exercise to stimulate your creative thinking. If you’re wondering what visual imagery is, click here: https://dictionary.apa.org/visual-imagery

First, imagine yourself at an amazing women’s conference. 

You’re a speaker and the mistress of the ceremony is introducing you. As she comes to the part about your women’s ministry, what is you would like to hear her say about it? For example, would you like her to say something like:

“Precious Ministry has hosted 200 Bible studies in 
40 prisons across the country. It has advocated for
women to have Christian libraries in 30 prisons and has 
tenaciously advocated for prison reform in women’s prisons 
outside the U.S..” 

This part of visioning can really help you define your vision statement and from it actionable goals and objectives can be formed. I love visioning activities because they activate my faith. 

How a vision statement begins

The first words of your vision statement can prompt you to define it and complete it. Try words such as the following to craft your women’s ministry vision statement: 

• “We exist so…”
• “To create…”
• “To be…”
• “To design”
• “One day…” (ex. What is something good that will happen as a result of your women’s ministry?) 

In his article on Business News Daily entitled “Writing a Vision Statement”, writer Sean Peek provided some stellar guidelines for writing a mission statement. He said a visions statement writers should consider the following: 

• Project five to 10 years in the future.
• Dream big and focus on success.
• Use the present tense.
• Use clear, concise, jargon-free language.
• Infuse it with passion and make it inspiring.
• Align it with your business values and goals.
• Create a plan to communicate your vision statement to your employees.
• Prepare to commit time and resources to the vision you establish. 

Isn’t that helpful? You can read the entire article here: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3882-vision-statement.html. It was one of the best, easy-to-read pieces on vision statements I found.

Want to see an example of a vision statement? Check out Tesla’s: 

“to create the most compelling car company of the 21^st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.” 

How long should a women’s ministry vision statement be?

I believe a sentence is long enough to convey your vision for your women’s ministry. Anything longer becomes something else. What do you think? Remember, this vision statement is nothing more than the desired end state of your ministry or what it accomplishes, if successful. 

It is not the strategic plan for the women’s ministry, it’s just an essential part of it. 

Finally, be prepared to amend. 

Sometimes you may find your vision statement just doesn’t feel right or that you’ve outgrown it. I want to affirm you and remind you that’s ok. It’s like anything else in life, sometimes tweaking is needed. Go ahead, and tweak it as often as you need to to make it a functional part of your governing documents. 

Have you written a vision statement for a women’s ministry? If so, please share your best tips below. We learn from one another.

I really like this video on writing 
a vision and a mission statement. 

Reference: 

Pfeiffer, M. L. (2003). Christian Vision and Destiny: A seminar workbook and Christian leader guide to developing a life vision statement (Order No. 3097398). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305248042). Retrieved from https://ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/dissertations-theses/christian-vision-destiny-seminar-workbook-leader/docview/305248042/se-2?accountid=10223