5 Family Vision Statement Exercises to Get Vision into Action

You built a family vision statement, but now what? A statement but without realistic application is meaningless. Let’s reset on the purpose of a family vision statement and then you can start to put it into motion with these 5 family vision statement exercises.

THE PURPOSE OF A FAMILY VISION STATEMENT

Maybe you took a course online or you saw someone else with a vision statement printed up in their home, so you took that first important leap to create your own. It is an incredible, intentional step, but it is not always easy to maintain the action that is supposed to come from a vision if you don’t first understand what a vision statement is supposed to do in your family.

The real “why” behind your family vision statement is that it becomes a central, unifying force in your family when you have something bigger than yourselves individually to work towards. An authentic family vision statement makes you all need each other. You have to function as a team to accomplish God’s calling.

Take a minute today and look at your family vision through that lens:

• What calling is it helping accomplish?
• Is everyone bought into that?
• Does it require everyone’s effort?

5 FAMILY VISION STATEMENT EXERCISES TO STAY ON TRACK

To dust off your family vision and starting putting it to work, pick one of these family vision statement exercises and try applying it this week:

THE DAILY REVIEW: FAMILY VISION STATEMENT EXERCISE #1

1. Choose a different person each day to recite the vision.
2. Do a speed-writing drill to have kids race to write it out.
3. Focus on one word of the vision each day to talk about its definition and why it matters.
   
   

ADOPT A CAUSE: FAMILY VISION STATEMENT EXERCISE #2

To start connecting vision to action, a practice we see our most successful families use is the tool of adopting a cause. Find something closely tied to your vision that you all want to champion together, and you automatically have the perfect sandbox to test out how you act on your vision.

For example, let’s say your vision statement is “500 generations all following Jesus.” You could choose a cause like “family discipleship” to invest in, so you might look for ministries that help families study the Bible to support, or you could work on volunteering in your church to practice that muscle of discipleship. The good news is there isn’t a right or wrong answer. Find what works for your family’s unique dynamic!

THE PRESENTATION NIGHT: FAMILY VISION STATEMENT EXERCISE #3

A vision statement won’t fully connect in your family unless everyone fully understands it, so help encourage that process along with your own mini research assignment. Pick themes from your vision and assign every family member an area to work on and to come back to your next family night to present on what they learned and why it matters for your vision.

Adapt this as needed to the age of your children, but overall, the goal of this family vision statement exercise is to get people thinking about the vision but using their own words. From the families we’ve worked with, learning to articulate vision in their own words tends to make vision statements stick.

CREATE THE CHECK-IN: FAMILY VISION STATEMENT EXERCISE #4

Like the theme above, you need to keep your family talking when it comes to vision, so one of the most important family vision exercises you can integrate is the idea of the check-in question. Develop a key question that you can use to help your family stay focused on the vision. Choose one based on the type of support your family needs currently. Consider a question related to:

• How you are using vision to make decisions
• What the purpose is of your actions
• A refresher of the vision itself

WHERE’S THE STRETCH? FAMILY VISION STATEMENT EXERCISE #5

Probably the largest challenge to overcome with vision is that it requires futuristic thinking, and in our busy lives, we are lucky to pull our heads up to think about the next month, much less what you are trying to pass on for generations. To go even further from your check-in question, we like challenging families to identify their vision gap, the area where your family needs to stretch itself.

A good vision is challenging, impossible to accomplish on your own, so use this exercise to flip your perspective from the vision statement to your life itself. Where are you experiencing being stretched in life currently? That gives insight into your priorities and where you are growing. And next, consider how much that “stretch” aligns with your vision. What is missing? What needs to pull you together?

REVITALIZE YOUR FAMILY FUTURE THROUGH FAMILY VISION

These family vision statement exercises are just the start to turning your vision into real-life application. Stay accountable to the next steps God is calling you to as a family. If vision only stays as a feel-good idea that you give to on occasion or revisit at a family meeting when you think about it, you are missing out on its full power to be a transformative tool in your family’s life.

While a vision is about the big picture, it still holds daily relevance to what you do and who you are as a family. Keep growing!

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Worried about where your family may be off track? Use our Family Core Survey to assess the 5 key foundations of your family and get a report on where to pay attention to and where to grow!