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Why Your Church Mission Statement Isn’t Effective

A mission statement defines the purpose of an individual, group, business, or institution. Ostensibly, a mission statement defines the “end result” of the organization’s activities. “Shareholder profitability” may sound self-serving, but that is exactly the results expected of a publicly held corporation.

The reason so many churches’ mission statements don’t achieve the expected results is because too often these mission statements are about what the church wants to be doing rather than what it is expects to achieve. For example, the following mission statement falls into this category. “To Welcome, Grow, and Serve in the Grace of Christ’s love” are all activities that the church is expected to be involved in, but the end results are unclear. From the mission statement, there’s no real sense in what this church is trying to accomplish … and beyond that, whatever it is they’re doing, they’re expecting someone to show up for something (to grow and be served or to be a server?). Sure, this may sound nit-picky, but if a mission is about defining the “why” we exist, and since the vast majority of North American churches are either declining or plateaued (a politically correct word for we’re declining but aren’t willing to admit it1), then it’s pretty clear the church is pretty unclear about what it’s meant to be all about.

Many mission statements suggest the church exists as a do-good organization. That's not the picture Jesus painted. @billtb Share on X

Too many mission statements, including the one above, presumes that the church exists to be a nice, safe, do-good-things kind of organization. But that’s hardly the picture Jesus painted of “his church” (Matthew 16:18). Ultimately the church does not exist to do good things and relieve the world’s suffering. That’s United Way’s mission. The difference between the church and United Way is that the church’s mission is to make disciples … and every good thing the church does is meant to point directly in that direction (Matthew 5:16). Welcoming and growing and serving and doing good deeds are all a part of what the church does, but all of those are a means to an end. The church’s task is to do all that “good stuff” with one end in mind: To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ.

1 If a church maintains its attendance for ten years, then it has declined, at least in terms of “market share of the population” by nearly 10 percent.

Question: How does your mission statement stack up? Join the conversation and share it with us in the Comments section below.

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5 Comments

    November 7, 2015 REPLY

    I may be squabbling over words or may not understand the difference between vision and mission, but I thought the vision is where you were going (the end result) and the mission is how you got there (what you did to get to the end result). That is, the vision is (example) “We want to see 25 churches planted over 20 years by being the church planting church” and the mission would be “to make disciples who make more disciples” so that we can plant the churches.

    I’ve always struggled with the difference between the two and have noticed others I know have struggled too. What makes each their own?

      November 7, 2015 REPLY

      As I look at my post, I can see where I wasn’t quite as clear as I could have been.

      Mission: This is the purpose of the organization. It’s not “how” you get there, it’s what you expect to produce. What is your “deliverable”? In the case of the church, of course, as you say it’s making disciples. Disciples are the product – they’re the end results of everything you do, but they are not where you’re going.

      Vision: Where you’re going. But a vision that’s numbers laden is rarely inspiring. And without inspiration, the organization will lose focus and wander away from its mission in pursuit of something more inspiring (like listening to the choir while sitting on padded pews).

      An example would be Coca Cola. The mission of Coke is to provide a refreshing beverage. But their vision is to refresh the world.

      Mission: Deliver a beverage.
      Destination: Refresh the world.

      Now, I’ll be the first to chime in and say that the Coke vision is not a great vision statement in and of itself. It’s not measurable, but their larger vision description takes care of that: 1 Billion Servings a Day (I believe they may have achieved that vision and likely have a new one).

      My book If You’ve Got to Herd Cats, You’ll Need a Bigger Mouse works through this process. It’s not yet available, but should be released sometime in 2016. Until then, I’ve already created a couple of posts on Vision … and will ultimately have a Big Mouse website. I’ll share the URL when it’s up.

        November 9, 2015 REPLY

        This is helpful. Thank you. As a note, “what we produce,” for me, is extremely similar to my phrase “how we get there.” In other words, how we get there….to that end of seeing our vision as reality….is by producing what we produce on mission. Is that a correct way of seeing it or am I still off?

        Thanks,

        Luke

          November 9, 2015 REPLY

          Minute Maid (A division of Coca Cola)

          What We Produce: A beverage
          How We Produce It: Contracting with a grower; harvesting the oranges; shipping the oranges to the producer; sorting the oranges; washing the oranges; etc.

          Church

          What We Produce: Disciples
          How We Produce Them: Preparing believers through discipleship and Christian ed; Encouraging disciples to get out of the Christian ghetto and spend time with non-Christians; Building relationships with unbelievers; having spiritual conversations with unbelievers; Answering faith-questions; Sharing my experience and relationship with Jesus Christ; Discipling unbelievers; etc.

          The mission is to make disciples.
          The vision varies depending on the church, but is the essential and inspiring answer to “What would happen if we were successful in the implementation of our mission?”
          The “How we get there” depends on context and how mission-aligned the church is willing to be. This is the church’s strategy.

    November 23, 2015 REPLY

    Very helpful article! I will be meeting our leaders this month and for sure we will re-evaluate our mission statement. I am reminded of the most important mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Thanks a lot!

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