On Mission Statements, Core Values and the Power of Three Adjectives
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I am sure house churches never have to deal with this issue, but as old fashioned church planters we're often taught to start out a church plant with a well-crafted mission statement. To which I say "A mission statement?" Can mission be put into a statement? How can you put the Kingdom of God into a mission statement? Well, some might say, any organization needs a direction. But does not such a well-crafted mission statement imply we know what the future will look like? Not to overstate my case here, but to quote one my favorite passages from Yoder:
"If we claim to justify the actions we take by the effects they promise, we shall be led to pride in the abuse of power in those cases when it seems that we can reach our goals by the means of our own disposal. … We are drawn into the twofold pride of thinking that we, more than others, see things as they really are and of claiming the duty and the power to coerce others in order to move history aright. If our faithfulness is to be guided by the kind of man Jesus was it must cease to be guided by the quest to have dominion over the course of events. We cannot sight down the line of our obedience to the attainment of the ends we seek."(Royal Priesthood p.203).Our church had so many mid course developments I don't know if a mission statement would have helped or hindered the development of our community. So I say scrap mission statements. And BTW, if we do go with mission statements, should not all churches have the same mission statement?
Also, according to church planting 101, after the mission statement, you are supposed to outline the core values of your church and then chart a path with 4 or 5 steps (some maybe call them "bases") that organize the way people get assimilated into the church program. These values distinguish you from other churches. They describe what you are committed to and how you are addressing the context of your local community. In other words, these are marketing niches? I don 't know, I am just asking.
What I fear from this approach is that by setting such a course, the community that comes together becomes merely participants in one person's idea, not the mission of God. The organic alive development of the community into mission as discovered in the discernment of the community together might be squelched. I can tell you the best discernments and moves our church has discerned, have come from someone other than me, the "senior" pastor. And now so many more people have ownership in what God is doing here at "the Vine." Furthermore, with all this mission-values-plan of assimilation stuff, there's a danger that this becomes all too original, new and improved and loses the continuity with the Body of Christ universal.
As our church evolved, we never really sync-ed with the mission statement value stuff. We moved towards "adjectives" - three beautiful adjectives that describe what we are striving to be in continuity with the work of God in Christ. TRANSFORMATIONAL, COMMUNAL, MISSIONAL. I suppose they could be a mission statement, some might say "these are your core values" but I look at them as the character of the Body of Christ wherever His presence is cultivated. They describe how we'll know we are actually part of a Body of Christ. These adjectives are not overly directive. They are not market driven. Yet they possess a theological depth that is compelling enough to give us direction and tell others what we are about. The simple power of three adjectives. These adjectives seem to describe a lot of missional churches I know. In fact I am sure other missional-type churches have used these or similar adjectives as well.
Transformational - worship is not a pep rally or a lecture hall. It is transformation through interaction with God, His Word, His Presence, His Table. There's accessible liturgy at our church. And our triads have Benedictine qualities to them for spiritual formation.(Rom 12;1-2). Communal - We have all family potlucks twice a month. We have missional home groups that meet in several places in the neighborhoods. Community and journeying together is what it means to be the Body (1 Cor 12, Eph 4). Missional - Evangelism is not a program. Missions is not a foreign outreach committee(only). We're learning that every activity in our lives is opportunity for mission. And so we spend time in the retirement home, the soup kitchen, as well as some of the most amazing one on one's with hurting people I've been involved in. And we've had great opportunities to make relationships with overseas efforts for mission. 2 Cor 5:17-19.
And so we put these adjectives on the back of the bulletin. Yes we have bulletins. We're in the suburbs, so we've got to have bulletins. For those who care : this is what is on the back of our bulletins.
Transformational
When we gather for worship on Sundays, or in triads during the week, may our encounter with God in Christ truly shape who we are. Seeking more than an emotional arousal or intellectual critique, let us join those who have gone before us and submit our minds, bodies, and souls to the living Lord.
Communal
Whether at a local house gathering, a church potluck, or the Lord's Table, may God grant us hearts of hospitality, embracing one another in the unity of the Spirit. Let us be an authentic community that journeys together, bearing one another's burdens and speaking truth in love.
Missional
Every day may we be Christ's presence to the hurting, lost, and victimized people of this often-unjust world. Let us welcome the stranger and offer words of life. Joining hands with churches around the globe, we participate in what God is doing everywhere to redeem the world to himself.
OK .. I've probably been a bit flippant on my analysis here. But where is everybody else at out there with mission statements, core values etc..
Blessings
Posted by David Fitch | 6:36 PM
COMMENTS:
I think I would say that what you have on your bulletin IS a mission statement don't you think?
as to the broader issue, I agree, I think we get too locked into that sort of stuff but it does help to have some direction that comes out of a broad vision. I guess that's how we look at it anyway.
our "mission" at Revolution is to "do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God" but we do go on to explain that in a mission statement sort of way for people who want to know...always qualifying that we're here to love God and love people and everything always points back to Christ and His mission.
8:03 PM
Great post. I love the Yoder quote too.
I understand the organizational benefit of a mission statement--it helps one stay focused. However, mission statements and other organizational trappings become an odd substitute for the Holy Spirit. I'm convinced that the church in America is in a pneumatological crisis of sorts. Even with the growing suspicion of formulaic approaches to church, we still seem to rely upon an ever-growing array of technologies and techniques to substitute good-old-fashioned communal discernment.
We have a sort of mission statement at Missio Dei, however (but it is one that we believe ALL churches should share). It is the "Spirit of the Lord" passage in Luke 4:18-19 (which I call "the Jesus Manifesto"). Instead of printing it on brochures and whatnot, we've decided to make it more of a formative statement for us by including it as part of our Sunday evening prayers in the Missio Dei Book of Prayer:
The Jesus Manifesto
With Jesus, we proclaim:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Father, anoint us with your Spirit. As you sent your Son, your Son has sent us; may we embody the presence of your Son in the world, and on the West Bank. Empower us to live and proclaim your good news on the West Bank, and in the world. We pray through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever, Amen.
10:07 PM
How bout Gateway's
The Way of Christ
1: Love God
2: Love others
3: Build Character
4: Build the Church?
I think this does a pretty good job of replicating the "bases" approach, while at the same time being thoroughly Biblical.
It is both Mission, and Goal
10:21 PM
D.F.,
This is something I've thought about before, but, not being a pastor (with the training) and not having taken "chruch planting 101", its not something I was confident enough to have a real, articulated, axpressible thought about it really...at least not very often and not to very many people. Thanks for the help. Interestingly, the only model in my expereince was my first job at "Cinemark Theaters", wehre we had a "mission statement", ect.
And Mark, "pneumatological crisis" is now my holy grail vocabulary phrase for the day. Thanks.
12:34 AM
My thoughts on mission statements and core values tend towards your own expressed in this mildly flippant post. I'm only writing to say thanks for giving me a good laugh - I love the things that are written on the back of your suburban bulletins. I'm glad my brother is a part of your community at LOV.
Peace,
Jenny
6:42 AM
Yoder sounds to me like a disciple of Jacques Ellul and "the Presence of the Kingdom." His references to "the spirit of technos" always recalled for me the words of Isaiah (2:5-11) which point out so clearly our tendency to depend on ourselves for security rather than the Lord.
As for the rest, Alan Hirsch argues for a covenant and core practices rather than a philosophy of ministry, which appeals to the head but in a pluralistic and individualistic and dualistic context leaves us untouched. That connects with me. You may have run across Gordon Cosby's famous words somewhere: "vision is the destroyer of essence." Whew. That is worth some exegesis!
Final thought.. I think we need to work through in more detail the relationship of vision and mission. I understood that relationship in the context of modernity, but in a non-dualistic and organic system context there is still a relationship, but it is vastly different.
9:12 AM
One of my favorite verses is "Go to a place I will show you." Mission statements strike me, after your questioning of them, Dave, as something akin to "Here's the place we want to go, God," like He's some cosmic chauffeur.
11:13 AM
Len,
I like that: "covenant and core practices." This is definitely where we've landed. But it freaks people out. I think mission statements are great in that they help churches move beyond simply being about "right beliefs" but instead move people towards an embodied faith. Perhaps we should be grateful for that. But such statements don't go far enough in their embodiment and often go too far in their totalizing focus.
2:25 PM
I forgot to mention why it "freaks people out." Often such a move seems to smack of legalism, especially for confessional folks. They see membership as a creedal commitment more than a commitment to orthopraxy--which is often seen as a misguided concept.
3:57 PM
Okay, my last was a bit harsh. I've been apart of a church that was so convinced it knew what Got was doing it was pretty much veboten to question their concept of it.
5:03 PM
Mike, I don't know, perhaps.. but there is no question that in a consumer oriented church culture God became our servant. Mark, I hear you man... its this reality that has held us back locally, believers.. often the most serious and dedicated, have been so wounded by the church that the word "covenant" is almost unusable. However, we can still go there in our relationships. But the word "covenant" is so important to who we have been historically as God's people, and to where we need to go, that we almost HAVE to use it. It is part of our imaginative story and our imaginative.. destiny? SOme things have to be articulated in order to become part of the ongoing narrative of a community, it's enfleshed fabric. Is this one of the paradox of words -- perhaps one more meaning of "by your words you will be saved and by your words condemned" (apologies to the exegetes).
9:35 AM
I agree with Makeesha that the adjectives act in some way as a mission statement ... but I would say in a way that is descriptive..rather than prescriptive i.e. tells you ahead of time what to do all the time ...
and boy .. i couldn't agree more with the sentiments of everyone above .. that commitments are necessary if we are to be a substantive people... In Len's comment .. a Covenant .. and yes I really do think Mark Van points to a key isssue. Do we blow people out of the water up front ... before they see the vision here ... with a list of covenantal commitments... Nonethless.. as Frost & Hirshc first made explicit in their first book.. and now it appears Hirsch is in this 2nd book (which I've got to pick up an read... Len tahnks for your great reveiw)... at some point .. deliberately we must discern our commitments to one another as to what it emans to be a journeying comunity a living Body inthe world ... To me this seems to be shaping up as we now discern membership issues at our church ...
So ... perhaps membership comes (the Covenant invitation) after opeople have spent enough time in the vision .. the description of what this place is becoming .. sufficient to join in a communal covenant ..
Thansk to all for clarifying ...
DF
10:17 AM
Great post Dave...definately worth reflecting on. I like the idea of adjectives, because they necessarily evoke conversation about their meaning and what they are describing. It seems that many churches with mondernist assumptions use words that function like dogmatic pegs rather than dynamic words that point to a fuller story in the life of the community. My community Mountainside Communion has chosen Micah 6.8 with justice, mercy, and humility. These three words become in a sense poles through which we read the Scriptures. When new people come to our community they often wonder how we came up with these three. I tell them way in the back of tht Old Testament, a prophet dude named Micah, says that is what God requires of his people. They're ususally unaware of this passage.
I'm enjoying your book. You remind me of Hauerwas and Willimon in Resident Aliens, except your discussion is really accesible to evangelicalism as a whole. Thanks for your clarity, passion and refusal to pull punches!
SPA
5:33 PM
Sam ... thanks ... Hauerwas has been huge influence on my thinking ...
6:19 PM
I'm enjoying the discussion. As we at the congregation I serve (www.brunswickgracecommunity.org) have just minted some words/ideas/statements that people can hang there hat on, I have grown disenchanted with the typical church planting/growth suggestions (i.e., get a mission statement, then a vision statement and just watch what happens).
I can never get away from Christ's sublimely pedestrian answer to the question about which is the greatest commandment: "love God, and love people." Seems such an understanding of the gospel lived out can give people something to hang their hats on, simply because it is transfomational, communal, and missional.
By the way, just recently began reading your blog. Really enjoying your zestful approaches to stimulating the Church toward being who we were called to become.
BMN
10:08 AM
David, I concur. Three words really at the heart of what our gathering and being as the Body of Christ in this world, is all about. Yet doesn't get in the way of God's initiative by the Spirit, or the living, breathing reality of who we are, in Christ, together.
2:34 AM
Thanks for the post on this issue. I am teaching this "making vision statements and values" etc. in class to undergraduate Christian ministry students and mostly do it to deconstruct the whole enterprise.
I love what you do. Thanks for Great Giveaway and the blog.
I have a post on the same subject:
Why pastors should be both goal-setting fanatics and cynics
Andy Rowell
Taylor University
Department of Biblical Studies and Christian Ministry
Blog: Church Leadership Conversations
10:21 AM
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