Most people think of vision as the ability to see the future. But in today's rapidly changing world, vision is also the ability to creatively assess current changes and take advantage of them. Vision is being alert to opportunities. For the successful church or business, somewhere the vision is translated to a set of words and committed to paper. Often this is known as a mission statement.
Vision answers the what question and comes after the why question has been addressed.
Many churches and denominations have a purpose statement somewhere in the official documents. They tend to reflect Scriptural statements. They answer the basic question of why the church exists, its ultimate purpose. The vision statement deals with the specifics of what it is the church does to accomplish the overarching purpose. Out of vision come the specific goals and objectives, often translated into programs within the congregation.