How to Move From a Mission Statement to a Mission State of Mind
Here’s the question you probably are not asking yourself on a typical Tuesday morning: How can we improve our church’s mission statement? If we just had a better mission statement, all of our church’s problems would fade away.
But, here’s the question you might be asking yourself: How do we make the flame of mission burn brighter in the hearts of our people—not just on Sunday at church—but every day in the places they live, learn, work, and play?
Most churches we spend time with aren’t all that interested, at first, in working on their mission statement. What they do want to improve on is helping their people live with a mission state of mind. But what if your mission statement could be used as regular kindling that helped your people live with the mission burning brightly in their hearts every day of the week?
At Clarity House, we help church teams craft leadership language that goes beyond a statement on the wall or words in the by-laws, making it central to leading and discipling their people. What if you thought about the mission as an “all-play, everyday call” that reframes the way we all live our lives every day?
But here’s the problem. Most mission statements aren’t crafted in a way that causes the congregation to see themselves as agents of the mission. They think mission is something the staff does and they may get to help from time to time by volunteering. Unfortunately, we as church leaders too often unintentionally reinforce this idea when we state our church’s mission.
Common Mission Problems
There are four common problems many churches struggle with related to their mission statements. See if any of these sound familiar.
1. Too long.
Your mission statement should be clear and concise—less than 15 words. Far too many churches have mission statements that are so long they cease being helpful.
2. Too generic.
Every mission statement is, in the end, a restatement of the Great Commission. But your mission statement should be contextualized to the uniqueness of your church’s potential, your team’s deepest passions, and your community’s greatest problems. Generic mission too often becomes a platitude that everyone agrees with but no one really ever thinks about.
3. Too theological.
Your mission statement should be strongly based on good theology—no question about that. But leaning into theological words in your mission statement will make it feel disconnected from people’s current reality. Remember, you already have a statement of faith or confession; you don’t have to restate it in your mission.
4. Too organizational.
Your mission statement must invite every person in your church to live on-mission every day, far outside the walls of your building or even the supervision of your staff. It should be phrased in a way that centers the main action of pursuing your mission where people live, learn, work, and play.
We’ve guided hundreds of church leaders through a step-by-step process of articulating mission. The temptation to create organizational mission statements that are too long, too generic, or too theological is strong.
Does the Mission Statement Activate Mission?
Dave Rhodes, one of the Clarity House co-founders, says it this way: “How do you move from making converts who become volunteers that serve to making disciples who become leaders that are sent out on mission?”
A mission statement defines what the organism of the church is supposed to be doing … not just the organization of the church. It answers THE question before all other questions, and it gives leaders a golden thread to weave through every activity of the church.
Test Your Mission
Once you have a mission that makes heroes, test it through a few articulation filters.
A good, helpful mission statement will be:
- Meaningful: Does it stir the heart?
- Memorable: Does it stick in people’s minds?
- Mobilizing: Does it serve your community?
Over and over, we see church teams draft mission statements that capture the meaning of God’s design for their church, but fall flat when it comes to stirring action. We see others that are catchy and memorable, but lose local context. The mission statement that passes all three of these filters is powerful.
5 Ways to Use Your Mission Statement to Stoke the Fire of Mission
Crafting a great mission statement is only half the battle. It doesn’t matter how good your mission statement is if you never use it. It also isn’t going to live into its full potential if the lead pastor is the only one saying it. Here are a couple of ideas on how to use your mission statement this week to fan the flame of mission in the hearts of your people.
1. A Sermon Spark: Ask yourself this question: How does our statement of an “all-play, everyday” mission fit into the sermon? There should be a natural place in nearly any sermon where the mission can strike the text in a way that reignites and reinforces it in the hearts of your people.
2. An Announcement Filter: It’s the most competitive three minutes in all of evangelicalism. Every Sunday the clamoring for who will get the most coveted spots that no one is listening to is arm wrestled by staff and lay leaders. Part of this is because we don’t lead with mission. So, even though we want our people’s lives to be better, all that they hear during the announcement is that we want their lives to be busier. How might working to craft these three minutes through the lens of mission change the way you both decide and frame what is being announced?
3. A Staff Meeting Pop Quiz: What if you opened your staff meeting this week just doing a pop quiz on your church’s mission? How many of your staff could recite it from memory? How many of them are actually thinking about their ministries through this lens this week? What might change if they did? Consider using the mission to reorient your staff meeting this week.
4. A Story to Tell: What recent story comes to mind of someone in the congregation living out the mission where they live, learn, work, and play? How will you share this story this week to inspire others?
5. A Note to Send: People gravitate to what we celebrate. Encourage your staff to have open eyes and to
spend intentional time looking for people who are living out the mission in their lives. When you or they catch them in the act, celebrate them! Don’t underestimate how powerful a simple handwritten note or a text can be when you catch someone living on mission and take the time to let them know that you celebrate that.
At Clarity House, we specialize in guiding church teams in articulating a shared vision coupled with disciple-making clarity. We’d love to help you and your team. If you want us to assess your current mission statement, feel free to set up a free conversation with our team.