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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Church      Leadership Board      Mission Statements
 New Mission Statements under consideration.

The 3 mission statements, along with the biblical background for each, can be viewed by clicking on the statements listed in the left column. 
The variables, listed below, are those that the mission statement writing team used to stay focused during the creation of the statements.

If you would like to cast your vote, click here.
 Variables:
Our task was to pen a new mission statement that our members can take ownership of and be active with. I will outline the variables that we took into consideration when trying to put words on paper:
 
1. When reviewing the mission statements created at the last summit, one theme held true in all the statements. That theme was the Great Commission. We knew that the new statement needed to have this as a focal point because it was important to the congregation. That was very evident. We also felt that the congregation had very little time to work on the statements at the last summit and the fact that there were no bibles to use was an oversight, so bringing God's word to bear was a must.
 
2. We knew that the mission statement needed to be very brief and simple, yet very powerful and memorable. It needed to pass the t-shirt test. We decided this could hold true because it was up to us to put flesh on the short statement and make it live in our lives. There are many ways to take a very brief statement and make it mean so much more. This would be part of the congregation’s ownership of the statement. Our current mission statement is too long. Most members cannot recite it and in fact we have it written different ways on different forms of communication.
 
3. We felt it important to choose the right main verb. After much deliberation the verb "connecting" became a clear winner.
 
4. We wanted to make sure the language was not "churchy", but use everyday and understandable language.
 
5. We felt that the statement needs to focus on a dual relationship. One that is vertical between us and God and one that is horizontal between each other.
 
6. We felt that the statement needed to be understood by our members and at the same time needed to be able to excite Christians that may be looking at our church and not overwhelm or scare non-Christians.
 
7. Finally, we felt that the statement needed to: focus on the Word, always be striving for improvement (moving forward), and be active the way God tells us to be.