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What’s Up
Your church’s mission statement is suitable for framing. The question is whether it’s suitable for making decisions.
If your mission never changes what gets funded, what gets scheduled, or what gets turned down, it has very little influence over your church. You’ve got the words on paper. Now it’s time to put them to work.
So What
Churches spend months debating mission statements. Committees agonize over whether to say “welcome” or “embrace,” “serve” or “transform.” Someone insists that fellowship needs to be included. Someone else wants worship. By the time everyone’s satisfied, the statement covers everything from conversion to the annual rummage sale.
Then the church adopts it, prints it, and gets back to doing exactly what it’s always done.
Meanwhile, the calendar stays crowded, the pastor stays exhausted, and disciple making stays on the back burner (and the burner isn’t even on).
Mission alignment means the church’s purpose directs its priorities. Your time, money, staffing, programs, and building use all have to serve the mission Jesus gave you. And yes, that requires saying no to things people enjoy, things people defend, and things somebody’s grandmother started.
The Point Is
Start with the Mission Jesus Gave You
Jesus already settled the church’s primary purpose: Make disciples.
Use whatever words communicate that clearly in your community. But knowing about Jesus doesn’t complete the assignment. Neither does feeling inspired or empowered. A faithful disciple follows Jesus, obeys his teaching, and works to bring their life into line with his values.
That produces evidence. Look for conversion baptisms, adults developing practices of prayer and Bible reading, people participating in discipleship groups, and members sharing their faith with the irreligious and unchurched.
Faithful disciples share their faith. If your church’s mission statement leaves disciple making optional, start by fixing the statement.
Make It Plain and Keep It in Front of Them
Take a cue from Habakkuk 2:2 and make it plain. Then make it known.
This starts with the pastor. The mission has to consume you. It needs to shape how you think about the church, how you spend your time, and what you talk about.
Work it into worship every Sunday. Reference it in the sermon. Connect it to the offering, communion, a prayer, or an announcement. Explain how something the church is doing helps fulfill the reason the church exists.
Having everyone recite the mission gives them practice remembering the words. That may be “nice,” but it’s not effective. The “Talk” is a LOT less important than the “Walk.” Your job is to help them understand what those words demand and then put them into practice.
Write about it. Bring it into conversations. Explain your decisions through it. The moment the pastor stops talking about the mission is the moment the congregation stops thinking about it. Getting people aligned with something they aren’t thinking about is more than just a tough sell.
Put It on Your Calendar First
Before you start scrutinizing the church’s ministry, open your own calendar.
Where are you building relationships with people outside the faith? Where are you forming disciples? (And I don’t mean teaching Sunday school.) Where are you equipping people to share their faith and make disciples themselves?
If those things keep getting pushed aside by meetings, member-care, and administrative chores, your schedule is teaching your members the exact wrong thing. Model what matters most.
Anything you’re doing that isn’t furthering the mission deserves scrutiny. Adjust it. Delegate it. Stop doing it. Then put the mission work on your calendar first and protect the time you’ve assigned to it.
Your people need to see you practicing the priorities you’re asking them to adopt.
Make Every Decision Pass the Mission Test
Someone in every board meeting and every committee meeting needs to ask the same question:
How will this further our mission?
Ask it about the proposed program. Ask it about Vacation Bible School. Ask it about the next staff position, the next purchase, and the next addition to the calendar.
“It’s a good thing” doesn’t answer the question. Neither does “People really like it” or “But we’ve always done it that way.”
Require a clear explanation of how the decision advances disciple making. Name the result you expect, then come back and see whether it happened. Over time, the mission becomes the basis for making every single decision throughout the church.
Give Nothing a Free Pass
Once your leaders are using that question for new decisions, apply it to everything already in place.
Audit the ministries. Audit the events. Look at the spending, the building use, and the commitments consuming volunteer hours. Your budget and calendar reveal your values more honestly than anything printed in the bulletin.
For each activity, ask how it furthers the mission of making disciples. Strengthen what’s working. Adjust what needs a clearer connection. Find a way to sunset everything that doesn’t advance the mission.
Don’t make exceptions for longevity. No exemptions for popularity. Church leaders have to become ruthless about aligning the church’s resources with the church’s purpose.
Jesus named the mission. We need to line up behind him.
Do This!
Bring one pending decision to your next leadership meeting and ask, “How will this further our mission?” Require an actual answer before moving ahead.
Then join me for this week’s free Catalytic Conversation. I’ll help you evaluate your mission, keep it in front of your congregation, and begin making the decisions that bring your church into alignment. Stay to the end and you’ll receive the Getting Mission Aligned workbook to put the teaching into practice with your leaders.