When I was in high school I was hired to pick rock. It was an inglorious job. Hard labor. Long hours. Sore back. The only consolation I had (besides $5/hour) was in knowing the field would eventually be prepped for planting and farming. One day after finishing up a field, the farmer asked me and a buddy to start picking rock in a neighboring field that looked like it never had, nor ever would be, used to grow anything. It was not only full of stones and rocks, it was very uneven. I don’t know if he truly had plans to eventually do something meaningful with that land, or if he just knew I had an hour left on the clock and was trying to keep me busy. I remember asking the question, “Why are we doing this?” It was so demotivating. It felt like a waste of my time. At least when I was picking rock in the other fields I had a halfway good idea of “why” I was doing it.
I wonder how many people feel the same way about serving at church?
Unless people know WHY they are doing something and that “why” touches their innate desire to make a difference, they won’t be motivated to do it. Your church mission statement should connect the dots between people’s service and the church’s mission. I’m not talking about some wordy paragraph sitting in the church constitution or hiding on a website. I’m talking about an active, alive mission that everyone knows and wants to rally behind.
Defining, refining, and incorporating your mission into the daily life of your church can be one of the most healthy and strategic things you can do this year. Following are a few reasons (thanks to Aubrey Malphurs for some of these) why you should consider drafting (or re-drafting) your church mission:
1. Mission dictates ministry direction.
When you have a mission statement, you have somewhere to go. Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.”
2. Mission formulates ministry function.
You will never do ministry that matters until you define what matters. Your mission will help you clarify, “What are we supposed to be doing?”
3. Mission focuses the ministry’s future.
A mission gives you and your congregation something tangible to focus on. It defines you and gives you a hope for what is to come. The opposite is true as well. Without a mission statement the future will look fuzzy and out of focus. You won’t really know for sure where you are going or what you are aiming for.
4. Mission provides guidelines for decision making.
Mission is to ministry what a compass is to a navigator. It provides a framework for critical thinking and decision making.
5. Mission inspires ministry unity.
A mission statement can draw your members together as a team or community. It broadcasts, ‘Here is where we are going. Let’s all pull together and with God’s help make it happen.’
6. Mission shapes strategy.
It’s really hard to create and implement strategic plans and steps when you don’t have a target to aim at. Your mission provides the basic framework for strategy.
7. Mission shapes ministry effectiveness.
There would be no point, in the scheme of things, to draft a mission if it didn’t have the high potential to improve your overall effectiveness. It does. Studies show that organizations that have and operate from a well drafted mission statement are much more likely to succeed than those that don’t.
8. Mission ensures an enduring organization.
When you have a mission that the whole church knows and believes in, you have something that will last through multiple pastors and leaders and for years and years to come. It brings consistency and continuity to your church’s future.
9. Mission facilitates evaluation.
We’ve all heard it said, ‘You can’t expect what you don’t inspect.’ Well, you can’t inspect what you don’t expect, either. If you don’t have a clear goal to aim for then you can’t evaluate how well you are doing in getting there.
Bottom line, if you don’t have a clear and simple mission for your church, make it your goal to get one this year!