Pastor Jacob Birch and My Leadership Heresy

“I did try to found a little heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.”

― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

I believe in a certain leadership heresy which gets me into trouble every now and again. 

It is that an organization's vision/mission/purpose statement, as a statement of the "preferred future" that it is pursuing should include the 1 or 2 major metrics that guides their operation. So for a church for example i think that their vision statement should include the size they want to grow to in terms of # of disciples and the date they want to achieve that by. For a social service agency I think it should include the number of clients they serve a week and the # of community partners they develop. For example: 

XYZ Baptist Church glorifies God by discipling 200 people by 2015. 

ABC Agency exists to serve the social, economic and health needs of 10000 clients per week amongst the urban poor of Rockatown by developing 25 strategic funding and service partnerships by 2020.

Whenever i propose this idea in meetings with boards and other leaders it is nearly universally panned for confusing goals with vision.

BUT if vision is the statement of a preferred future that the organization is trying to bring about through its activities how can it not include at least SOME kind of measurable item or items? Numbers give teeth. Numbers challenge. Numbers have a kind of "Gulp.. we better get serious about this" kind of influence over teams. Numbers also give a horizon where vision/mission/purpose and goals need to be revised, revisited and re-imagined. What is so wrong with all that? 

But then again maybe this is just my "little heresy" which i hope one day might become orthodoxy out there.