A Mission Statement - A Message from God

After many hours of study, conversation, prayer and hard work, the people of First Christian Church have heard from God. We have a mission statement.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

We are called and empowered by God to love, serve, grow and share God’s message of healing and hope with all.

More than that, we have a mission; the mission God has given us. Doesn’t that sound both strange and presumptuous? To say we have heard from God makes us sound like religious mystics. But we have heard from God. I was there every step of the way and I saw and heard it happen with my own eyes and ears. We find it difficult to believe we are capable and worthy of hearing from God. Somehow, we believe that kind of experience is reserved for special holy people who sit quietly in mystical places, meditate and fast for days and entertain only somber, serious, “godly” thoughts.

But we have heard from God. We heard from God by studying His Word, praying together, worshipping, laughing, and discussing what we felt we were hearing from God. We opened ourselves to God, each other and the leading of His Spirit as we spent time sharing ideas, hopes and dreams. We were led by God to a place of understanding and agreement – a holy place.

At the end of our meetings together, I asked each participant who desired to write a mission statement for our church and send it to me. I was stunned at the number of responses I received. The depth of commitment to this project from so many people in First Christian was heartening. And I was astounded and encouraged as I read the marvelous statements I received. They were amazing. They were wonderful. As each new statement came to my desk, I became more and more excited. Excited by the thought, prayer and work God’s people had done. Excited by the consensus I was seeing being reached. And I am most excited to see the possibilities in store for this church.

But we are not done yet. There is more foundational work to do as we prepare to move into the exciting future God has for FCC. This weekend we will be looking at our Values. Our Values are those things, our way of thinking, what is important to us, that will drive us as we seek to fulfill our Mission from God. Remember the formula I gave us as we began: M-mission + V-values = V-vision. And out of our vision will come the ministries we will put in place to fulfill our mission and make our vision a reality.

A mission statement, even if it is a message from God to the church, is worthless if it is not pursued. We must empower this mission with our values to obtain a clear vision of how God would have us fulfill the mission we have been given. Then we must put hands and feet on this mission by the ministries in which we choose to invest our time, energy, talents and resources. And also, those ministries we choose not to do. Our mission and vision must be revisited each time we are making decisions concerning the church. If we are to be “successful” we must stay on course toward fulfilling our mission. And most churches seem to suffer from severe cases of attention deficit disorder (ADD). In no time at all we could find ourselves completely immersed in a project or ministry that may be a wonderful thing but, in reality, have nothing to do with what God has called us to do.

We have a clear, compelling mission from God. Now we must stay the course.

Copyright © 2012, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved.