Expert: Griff Ruby - 11/11/2007

Question
Our church just formed a young adult group (YAG) with college students through age up to 30, and need vision (strategic) statements and goal (tatic) statements.    I understand that each church will have different vision and goals, but like to know what are possible/achievable vision and goals that our YAG might need to purse.   Based on the possible/existing ones as the model, I will need to build those for our YAG.   I know my question would be very broad and vague, but simply I am asking the existing/popular vision and goal statements so that our ones will be in the right track.   

Thanks


Answer
I won't be able to help you with finding any "existing/popular" models for vision statements as I am unacquainted with any of them.  However I do have some thoughts about the issue that may prove helpful to be mindful of as you develop your own:
1)  It is important that a group should have more to it than merely the entertainment or even education of its members, as such a group, turned inwards on itself, will tend to collapse as people realize that the only reason they bother to show up is so as not to be some certain elsewhere they might end up going to instead, where they know they shouldn't be.
There should be something the group does beside merely be about (or for) young adults.  This "something" should be something positive which the group is to be primarily about, and the fact that young adults are most particularly invited should be secondary.  For example a group could be about fighting abortion, or going door to door inviting people to church or visiting hospitals or prisons or organizing and hosting retreats, and so forth.  Without a mission, there can be no real vision.
2)  Having figured out your group's mission, then comes the other lesser questions, as for example whether it will be a men's group, or women's or mixed, if giving those involved opportunities to meet and get to know each other, perhaps towards some young men meeting so as to be able to perhaps one day marry some young women of the group, is to be a priority or not (either not at all, or else second only to the mission).
3)  Such groups must work at the direction of the priest of the Church.  He needs to have a "finger in the pie" and there must be accountability to him so that the group doesn't become somebody's little "cult."  Missionary activities work by far best when at least in some way directed and authorized by the priest, and better still if he is in attendance at most or all meetings as a kind of spiritual director.
4)  If a group is to be truly Christian, prayer must also be a cornerstone of its activities, but distinct and separate from its missionary outreach activities (though it is proper for the group to pray for those encountered providing that it does not become an occasion of gossip about others - "Let's pray for a woman I met yesterday in our ministry" is one thing but "she ... [all the sordid details of her life for which reason we are praying for her]" is not appropriate)  Ideally, group prayer should be a blend of known saintly prayers with more spontaneous lifting up of particular needs and concerns of the group and its members, as well as those it reaches out to.
5)  Finally, you need to have something for those who pass the upper age limit.  Can they stay on as "advanced" or "senior" members or must they leave?  Is there something else for them that they can join at that point if they are forced to leave once they turn 30?
So, while I have not given you any vision statement, I hope that the considerations listed above may prove helpful in drafting your own.  God bless!