The first of the seven board practices is that of vision and mission discernment. Now, many congregations have vision and mission statements. And those are wonderful things. Such statements capture where a congregation is in its vision to transform the world, and what parts of creating that vision it has made its work. Its mission to work on creating right now. Often creating a congregational vision and mission statement is a congregational wide process, with a lot of input from members and friends. And this is a wonderful thing. And too many congregations complete the statements, put them on their websites, and think they are now done. When in reality, the statement is just a tool for the real work. Because the vision of what the congregation could be, and the mission of how to make that happen, takes continuous regular discernment by the congregational board.

The very first of the board practices, the one that is the foundation for all of the other work of a congregational board, is an ongoing conversation between the board members, deepening their own understanding of that congregational vision and mission. And applying that vision and mission to all the many different decisions that a congregational board must make. The vision and mission have to transform away from the words on the page of a statement, to become a lived center of shared experience by the members of the congregational board. It must become the lens through which all the work of the congregational board is viewed. And to do that, board members have to talk about the mission and vision of the congregation in every board meeting.

There are many tools to do this, but the one I most often recommend is to congregational boards that are just starting with this practice, is to reserve the first 30 to 45 minutes of every board meeting for a conversation about an open question. An open question is a question that cannot be answered with a yes or no, cannot be answered with facts, but instead must be answered by congregational board members sharing from their own values and beliefs. Congregational boards that do this well make the commitment that during a board meeting that begins with the discussion of an open question, there will be no decisions made about the topic of that open question because making decisions about it is not the point. Learning more about the vision and mission of the congregation, and about your fellow board members is the point.

So what could be an open question that your board might consider? What would it be like if our congregation had a campus ministry? Who would we be as a congregation if we suddenly did not have this building? How would it change us if we partnered with a church in town that was very different than we are, on a project? Where do patterns and systems of oppression show up in our congregation's life? The purpose of an open question conversation at the beginning of every board meeting is to learn more about what is most important to the congregation. It's to learn more about the values and beliefs of the members of the board; it is to dream together.

Doing this level of work with one another can create the feeling that a board meeting is like a covenant group on the future of the congregation and of Unitarian Universalism. And it roots the vision and mission of the congregation at the center of all that the board does, which is critical for every other practice of congregational boards, but most especially for the practice of fiduciary responsibility.