A set of three one-page leadership resources that asks how a church can align its structure, staff culture, and vision of discipleship around a single mission: to make more and better disciples. Free to use and adapt, from Vineyard Church Pearland in Texas.
A clear mission only helps a church if it shapes how the church is organized, how its staff works, and what it hopes to see in people’s lives. Vineyard Church Pearland has built all three around one statement: “We exist to make more and better disciples.” They’ve captured the result in three simple one-page graphics and shared them so other churches can learn from the approach. These pages work well for staff and board conversations, leadership training, or anyone working to clarify their own church’s mission and culture.
The Church Leadership Structure graphic presents the church as a pathway rather than a hierarchy. It begins with the unchurched community and moves through the church community, serving on a team or joining a group, membership, and team or ministry leadership, down to the board and church staff. Along the way, discipleship, ownership, and accountability grow as people move from disciple to disciple maker to maker of disciple makers. The whole diagram turns the usual org chart upside down. Oversight sits at the bottom with the words “The church does not exist to serve us, we exist to serve the church,” and everything points toward God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven.
The Staff Axioms page puts that mission into everyday working practice. It groups a series of short “we” statements under four headings: shared ownership and accountability, Spirit-led discernment, developing people for ministry, and executing with excellence as an act of worship. The statements are concrete. They cover things like leading from a posture of prayer, bringing recommendations to a supervisor early, debriefing serve experiences, and building in margin so others can take part. For churches working on their own staff culture, it’s a helpful model of how to state expectations clearly and warmly.
The Mission, Values, and Qualities of a Disciple graphic pulls everything together on one page. It pairs six church values, prayerful, intentional, joyful, generous, collaborative, and innovative, with six qualities the church hopes to see in every disciple: depending on God, humble surrender, living biblically, bearing fruit, being missional, and staying faithful by abiding in Jesus. Vineyard USA is sharing these resources from Vineyard Church Pearland with the wider Vineyard family, so use as much as helps and adapt them for your own church.