After 25 Years of Vision Consulting, Here’s Why We Started RunFree

Thanks for grabbing your copy of the Vision Frame Cheat Sheet.

If you already know the five irreducible questions that make up the Vision Frame, you’re good to go. If you don’t, stick with us for a minute. Even if you’re deeply familiar with the framework, there’s new context below worth reading.

What Is the Vision Frame?

The Vision Frame is a simple, repeatable church vision framework that helps leaders name their mission, values, strategy, measures, and vision in one shared language. It turns fuzzy vision talk into a tool your whole team can actually use on Monday morning, not just a plaque hanging in the lobby.

At its core, the Vision Frame is about church vision clarity: getting everyone on your leadership team answering the same five questions the same way.

The Story Behind the Vision Frame

Since 2012, the Vision Frame has reached over 40,000 church teams worldwide. After years of refinement, we’ve developed an even more powerful approach through the Pivvot Process.

The Vision Frame is the cornerstone of Will Mancini’s book Church Unique, which introduced churches to the five irreducible questions of leadership clarity. That work later evolved into Future Church, which outlines the 7 Laws of Real Church Growth. Together, these resources form the foundation of our Vision Clarity work today.

Learn more about our story and mission, or explore the full books and media library.

The Five Irreducible Questions

The Vision Frame Cheat Sheet gives you a quick-reference guide to the five questions every church must answer. They’re simple to ask and surprisingly hard to answer well:

1. Mission. What are we doing?
2. Values. Why are we doing it?
3. Strategy. How are we doing it?
4. Measures. When are we successful?
5. Vision Proper. Where is God taking us?

How to Use the Cheat Sheet

The cheat sheet works best as a team conversation starter, not a solo exercise. Here are a few ways church leaders put it to work:

• Run a team warm-up. Ask each team member to answer all five questions in their own words. Compare notes. The gaps reveal where clarity is missing.
• Audit an upcoming decision. Before launching a program, hiring a role, or adding a ministry, run it through the five questions. Does it serve the mission? Reflect the values? Fit the strategy?
• Onboard new staff and elders. Hand them the cheat sheet, then ask them to answer from memory a month in. You’ll learn a lot about how well your vision actually travels.
• Diagnose where you’re stuck. If the team can’t agree on one of the five, that’s your next body of work.

Who This Helps

The Vision Frame Cheat Sheet is built for:

• Lead pastors carrying vision with a tired team
• Executive pastors trying to align multiple ministries around one direction
• Elder teams and boards in a strategic planning season
• Church planters laying the foundation for a new congregation
• Denominational leaders equipping the churches they serve

Ready for Deeper Work?

The cheat sheet is a great starting point. If you want to apply the Vision Frame to your church in a guided, team-based process, there are a few natural next steps:

• Not sure where to start? Take the Vision Readiness Check. 12 questions, a score out of 48, and a 90-day plan based on your result.
• Want proof it works? Read church case studies from Bellevue, Community Bible, Faithbridge, and more.
• Need a stronger team first? Run a Team Coaching sprint before tackling a full clarity process.
• Ready to clarify vision? Start a Vision Clarity sprint with our coaching team.
• Want to talk it through? Book an intro call to discuss your church’s next step.

For more Vision Frame insights, follow us on Instagram @runfree_co.

More From The Blog