Month: June 2026

Vision, Mission & Values: Getting the Language Right

Editor’s note: Anthony Svajda serves as pastoral ministries associate for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and leads its Regenesis church health and renewal process. This is the second in a three-part series on healthy churches. The previous installment can be found here.

“Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” — Proverbs 15:22

Churches often talk about direction, but they rarely agree on the language. Terms like mission, vision, and values are used interchangeably, creating confusion rather than clarity.

This matters because language shapes strategy. If a church can’t name what it’s doing and why, it won’t know whether it is obediently pursuing God’s call.

We must define our terms and discuss how churches communicate. We do this by defining three common statement types churches use and then examining how these statements differ from a vision statement.

Value statements

In a church shaped primarily by value statements, conversations often revolve around culture. Leaders speak frequently about being welcoming, authentic, generous, or relational. When decisions are made, someone will ask, “Does this reflect who we are?” or “Is this consistent with our values?”

The experience on Sunday morning reinforces those priorities. Greeters are warm. Members linger in conversation. Hospitality is visible and sincere. When conflict arises, leaders appeal to shared values like unity or grace to restore harmony.

Yet when the church faces a major crossroads—such as declining attendance, a ministry plateau, or a changing community—values alone do not provide direction. People know what matters to them, but they are less certain about where they are going. The culture feels healthy, but the path forward feels unclear.

Doctrinal statements

In a church anchored primarily in doctrinal statements, theological clarity is central. Leaders frequently reference the church’s confession of faith. Teaching is careful and deliberate. When questions arise, members know exactly where the church stands biblically.

The experience in this congregation is one of stability and conviction. New members attend doctrinal classes. Sermons are rich in exposition. Unity is protected by shared theological commitments.

However, when leaders discuss the future, conversations often circle back to preserving belief rather than advancing mission. The church knows what it believes, but members may struggle to articulate how those beliefs translate into a specific direction for ministry in their context. Orthodoxy is strong, yet forward momentum can feel undefined.

Mission statements

In a church guided primarily by a mission statement, activity is central. The mission is printed on bulletins and banners. Leaders often reference it: “This is why we exist.” Programs are evaluated based on whether they align with the mission language.

The experience is one of energy and participation. Ministries are designed to fulfill action-oriented phrases like “make disciples” or “reach the lost.” People understand the general purpose and can repeat it easily.

Yet because mission statements are often broad and universally biblical, nearly every ministry fits underneath them. When new ideas surface, leaders struggle to determine what should take priority. The church is doing good things, but without sharper direction, it may find itself busy rather than strategically obedient.

It must be stated that these statements are not bad. If your church uses one or all these statement types, it is probably a good thing. However, vision can take your church further.

What true vision looks like

In a church guided by a true vision statement, there is a shared picture of who the congregation believes God is shaping them to become. Leaders speak not only about present ministries, but about the kind of church they are prayerfully becoming under Christ’s authority.

Conversations consistently connect identity, action, and destination. Members understand what the church is aiming toward and why certain priorities receive greater focus. Ministries are designed intentionally to move the congregation in that direction, not simply to maintain activity.

The vision is clearly rooted in Scripture and formed through prayerful discernment. Leaders seek not to invent ambition, but to discover where God is already at work and how He is calling this particular body to respond.

As a result, the church operates with clarity. Decisions align with identity. Efforts build toward a defined future. There is a growing sense that the congregation is not merely existing but becoming.

Without a clear vision statement, churches drift into comfort, pattern, and imitation rather than obedience.

Why language matters

In a church where language is clear, decisions become simpler. Leaders do not debate endlessly about preferences or personalities. They return to the agreed-upon direction. Every ministry, program, and outreach is weighed against the same question: Does this move us toward who God is calling us to become?

When direction is defined, focus follows. Some ministries gain renewed energy because they clearly align with the church’s calling. Others are reshaped or even released because they no longer serve that direction. Clarity removes unnecessary guilt from saying no and gives confidence in saying yes.

In a church where language is unclear, conversations drift. Meetings feel circular. Priorities compete. Good ideas multiply without cohesion. People grow busy, but not necessarily purposeful. Over time, the lack of shared direction quietly erodes momentum.

Language is not a cosmetic exercise. It forms expectations. It establishes guardrails. It determines how time, money, and leadership energy are stewarded. What a church consistently says about itself eventually shapes what it becomes.

When a congregation takes the time to clarify its language, it is doing more than refining words. It is aligning its identity and its future under the authority of Christ. And when calling is clarified, obedience becomes measurable.

Five questions to evaluate your church’s vision language:

  1. Can our leaders clearly distinguish between our vision, mission, values, and doctrine without blending them together?
 If language is confused at the leadership level, clarity will not exist in the congregation.
  2. Does our vision describe who God is calling us to become, or does it only describe what we already do? Language that merely names activity often reveals comfort with the present rather than obedience toward the future.
  3. Is our vision specific enough to guide decisions, or broad enough to avoid accountability? True vision creates boundaries. If every ministry fits under the vision, the vision is likely too vague.
  4. Could a member explain our vision in plain language and connect it to Scripture?
 Vision language that cannot be understood or biblically grounded will not be owned by the people.
  5. When evaluating ministries, do we ask, “Does this align with our vision?” or do we ask, “Have we always done this?”
 The language a church uses will determine whether it moves with purpose or remains trapped in repetition.

SBTC Collegiate Network Lead Team offers prospective planter connections, confidence

Cody Carroll is a church planting resident and former college director at Redeemer Church in Lubbock. He is also a member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Collegiate Network Lead Team, which connects and resources college ministry leaders across the state.

What is it about the SBTC Collegiate Network Lead Team that compelled you to get involved and serve?

Cody Carroll: The heart behind the lead team is that you have college ministry representation from all over the state and from all these different regions because Texas is so big. Among those representatives are varying kinds and sizes and styles of college ministries that all speak into how we can help serve all the other local churches in the state that are trying to do college ministry. You get lots of opportunities to serve other ministries.

What does your involvement with the lead team look like?

What that looks like is, take an event like Roundup, which is a conference for college ministry leaders. Our team [at Redeemer] has had moments at Roundup that have totally transformed our ministry because of the questions being asked, because of the tear-sheet assignments we do, and because we’re really just getting in the room with people who aren’t in our normal circles. Being a part of the lead team, you get to help teach some of that, help set some of the vision for that. On the other side you have Commons, which is a conference for helping college students live on mission, so there’s lots of collaborative work there, lots of brainstorming with local church-based college ministries. A lot of it is just showing up and serving and connecting with other people.

You’ve recently answered the call to plant a church in Norman, Okla., and now serve Redeemer as a church planting resident. How far along is that effort?

Carroll: We’re launching in the fall of ’27, Lord willing. We’ve got some of our folks up in Iowa being trained, [our family is] moving in February, and we’ve already got a few different couples that have moved to Norman over the past few months with more on the way. We have a lot of folks who are raising support coming on our staff team. We’re aiming to launch with about 80 adults and kids. … There is incredible work being done in Norman, but there is so much more room for opportunity, so much more room for a multi-generational church to love the city and love the campus [the University of Oklahoma] as well.

How has your participation on the Collegiate Network Lead Team helped equip you for what God has next in terms of planting a church?

Carroll: Networks don’t plant churches—churches plant churches. But being part of the SBTC and being connected with people like Mitch [Tidwell, former SBTC collegiate team leader] and Drew [Humphrey, SBTC collegiate mobilizer] and all these different people … they might not be directly planting churches, but they’re connected with people who are. The beauty of being in a network like this … is that the SBTC helps us realize we’re not alone in this and they help champion us. Being connected in this network has absolutely helped us.

The Collegiate Network Lead Team is one of many networks available to SBTC church leaders. Want to find out more about how to get connected with leaders like you? Visit sbtexas.com/networks.

How to teach your toddler to pray

Editor’s note: Martha Harvey is a longtime children’s ministry leader and co-founder of WITH Families alongside her husband, Dallas. This article was originally published through Southwestern Seminary’s Equip The Called. It is being republished here with permission.

If you’ve ever tried to teach a toddler something, you know two things are true:

  1. They are constantly learning.
  2. They are constantly watching you.

Which is why teaching a toddler to pray doesn’t actually begin when they can say, “God is great, God is good.” It begins long before that. In fact, the foundation for prayer starts the moment life begins.

Yes—I’m talking about the womb.

Prayer begins before your child can speak

When we think about teaching kids to pray, we often imagine folding little hands and repeating simple bedtime prayers. But the truth is, the practice of prayer for toddlers begins long before they can talk. It begins in the rhythms of your home. It begins with your own prayer life. It begins with the way faith is lived out inside the walls of your house every single day.

Scripture calls us to this kind of everyday faith in Deuteronomy 6, talking about the things of God when we sit at home, when we walk along the road, when we lie down, and when we get up.

So if you want your toddler to learn to pray, the first step is simple (and maybe a little convicting): You need to be a pray-er.

When life begins and your baby is still growing in the womb, are you praying with your spouse? Are you in God’s Word? Are you singing songs of worship? Those moments matter more than you might think. Babies begin recognizing the voices of their mother and father before they are even born. They hear rhythms, tones, and patterns. And in a similar way, those spiritual rhythms begin forming the foundation of faith long before your child can understand them.

Babies are learning more than we realize

When that baby finally arrives and you hold them swaddled in your arms, you’re holding what might be the fastest-absorbing sponge on the planet. Think about it. In about a year, a baby begins to understand language and often says their first words. How? Because they are learning constantly. They’re absorbing everything around them:

  • Sounds
  • Faces
  • Colors
  • Tone of voice
  • Smells
  • Touch
  • Facial expressions
  • Emotional responses
  • Patterns and routines

All of it is building the foundations for language, motor skills, emotional awareness, and social development.

The same thing is happening with their faith formation.

Even when you pray in front of a 9-month-old (who obviously isn’t joining you in the Lord’s Prayer yet), they’re still learning. They might not understand the words, but they notice patterns.

I like to think something like this is going on in their little minds: “My mom and dad do this thing every day where they close their eyes and say words. Sometimes they hold hands. Sometimes they kneel. Sometimes they’re happy. Sometimes they cry. But every time they do it … something changes. There’s peace. There’s calm. And they do it a lot.”

OK, maybe that’s not their exact internal monologue. But I like to imagine it sounds something like that.

Because kids notice everything.

And when prayer is consistently modeled in the home, something powerful happens when that baby grows into a toddler. They want to join in.

Step 1: Teach the posture of prayer

Once toddlers begin participating, one of the easiest ways to teach them how to pray is through posture. Yes, we can pray anytime and anywhere. But there is also something beautiful about teaching children the reverence of coming before a holy God. Simple physical cues can help toddlers understand what’s happening.

You might teach them to:

  • Fold their hands
  • Bow their head
  • Close their eyes

These actions do two important things. First, they help a child focus. Second, they remind them who they are talking to.

Posture becomes a physical signal that says: We are about to talk to God. A holy, perfect, and mighty God.

Step 2: Teach them how to pray

As believers, we know we can pray anytime with whatever words we have. God hears our prayers. He knows our hearts. But helping children learn a simple pattern for prayer can give them confidence and direction. One of my favorite tools is the PRAY acrostic.

  • P — Praise
  • R — Repent
  • A — Ask
  • Y — Yield

Now, those words might sound big for a toddler, so we translate them into something simple. Here’s what that might sound like with a child:

Praise: “Let’s start by telling God thank you and praising Him for how great He is. What can we thank Him for?”

Repent: “Now let’s tell God we’re sorry for the things we’ve done or said that were wrong.”

Ask: “Let’s ask God to help us with things we’re worried about or pray for someone we love.”

Yield: “And now we tell God that we want to follow Him and live the way He wants us to. Let’s ask Him to help us do that.”

This pattern reflects the heart behind the prayer Jesus taught in Matthew 6:9-13. It helps children learn that prayer isn’t just a wish list. It’s a relationship.

Step 3: Be the encourager, not the critic

When toddlers begin praying, remember something important: They are talking to their Heavenly Father. And just like any loving parent, God delights in hearing from His children. So when your child prays, your job is to be the encourager, not the critic. That means celebrating their prayers no matter what they sound like.

Sometimes my own child tells me in the car on the way to school: “Mom, today I want to pray in my brain, not out loud.”

And my response? “OK, buddy, I’ll be quiet so you can talk to God. Just tell me when you’re done so I don’t interrupt.”

Then we sit quietly while he prays. Later I might ask, “What did you talk to God about today?” And sometimes I include those things in my own prayer out loud.

I also remind my kids of this truth: Saying prayers out loud doesn’t make them more heard by God. But it does encourage the believers around you. Honestly, some of the most beautiful (and sometimes convicting) prayers I’ve ever heard have come from my children. And I tell them that. Encouragement creates a safe space for prayer to grow.

Step 4: Build rhythms of prayer

Just like toddlers thrive on routine, prayer grows through rhythms. Think about the way preschools use picture charts for daily schedules. Kids feel confident when they know what to expect. Prayer can become part of that rhythm. Some natural moments include:

  • Morning Bible story and prayer
  • Prayers on the way to school
  • Prayer before meals
  • Family worship time
  • Prayer before bed

These everyday moments communicate something powerful: Prayer matters.

Your kids see that faith is lived out beyond Sunday church. And that’s a big deal.

Step 5: Use prayer cues in everyday life

One of my favorite ways to teach prayer is through what I call prayer cues. These are little reminders throughout the day that prompt us to pray. For example:

  • When we see an American flag, we pray for our nation.
  • When we pass a school, we pray for teachers and students.
  • If we see a car accident, we pray for the people involved.

Suddenly everyday life becomes filled with small invitations to talk to God.

Start where you are

If you’re feeling overwhelmed reading this, let me encourage you: You don’t have to get this perfect. None of us ever will. But you can start today. Start right now. Ask God to grow your own prayer life. Ask Him to create moments with your children where prayer naturally flows. Because just like Scripture reminds us in Matthew 12:34, out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. What we love most will eventually pour out of us. So my prayer for you isn’t that you perfectly teach prayer to your children.

It’s that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And that out of that love, your prayers, your life, and your everyday moments become a beautiful billboard of faith for your children to see, learn from, and live out for themselves.