Most organisations, including churches, not-for-profits and companies, have a mission statement. We use mission statements to help us focus on our shared purpose. A mission statement needs to be memorable, quotable, repeatable and inspiring – something that can be shared visually and demonstrated in a story. A mission statement needs to address being and doing – this is who we are, who we are called to connect with, and what we are commissioned to do.

Here’s a few samples of mission statements used around the world. I’ve chosen examples that are memorable, quotable, repeatable and inspiring.

Nike’s mission statement is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete”.

McDonald’s mission is “To be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.”".

The Amazon mission is “To build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online”.

Google’s mission is “To make the world’s information universally accessible and useful”

Willow Creek Church’s mission is “Turning Irreligious People into Fully Devoted Followers of Christ”.

What’s the best mission statement you’ve seen?

The questions we ask in the Dreaming time are about what could be. What is our potential future? How can we imagine God working around us, with us and through us in the future? Here I’ve listed six “dream questions” that tie in with the discovery process embedded in the Mission Stories DVD resource coming out this month. See my earlier article on Dreaming Together.

1. How might our environment be different? What could we do to respond to changes in our community?
2. How could we embody the gospel as a community of compassion and generosity? What expressions of the gospel could we explore in practices of faith?
3. How might we resource people as everyday disiciples of Jesus?
4. Who might we partner with, in our local community and beyond? What could we do together?
5. Which people groups could we be connecting with? How might we do that?
6. How might we more fully integrate the whole mission of God?

We could look at responses in terms of how we worship together, the programs we run, the ways in which we use and develop property, the ways in which we use our financial resources, planning for staffing, collaboration with other congregations, agencies, companies and community organisations.

We can foster provocative shared visions that need significant investments of time and resources. We can foster equally provocative visions that can be picked up and implemented by individuals and small groups without large budgets.

Kennon Callahan, in Twelve Keys to an Effective Church, reminds us that mission is most effective when it comes from the grassroots, not from a “top down” committee or task group. He suggests we ask our members five invitational questions.

1. What specific human hurts and hopes do you have longings to help with?
2. What concrete strengths do you have with which to share effective help for those specific human hurts and hopes?
3. What three to five persons do you know who have similar longings and strengths in your church or in your community?
4. What events in the community would make this mission effort timely?
5. In what specific ways is this emerging outreach one in which God is calling you to invest your life?

The fifth session in Mission Stories, the resource DVD I’m launching next month, focuses on how we connect with particular people groups. Christianity is a universal movement, with a faith that can be adopted and adapted by people in any culture. We can attempt to work on a generic expression of church for a generic population, or we can nurture welcoming expressions of church that take on the colours, flavours, smells and tastes of local communities. Melting pot or spicy tossed leaf salad. Here’s a few questions from the Mission Stories material…

So how do we identify the people groups that we might connect with?

1. Is there a culture that has developed in the local community, associated with shared experiences and shared perspectives on the world? Rural and mining communities have economies that shape their culture, for example. What are the best expressions of that shared culture? This is an easier question to explore in smaller communities.

2. Are there particular ethnic identities in which people share a common understanding of the world? These people may have an existing connection through a soccer club (Spanish, Portuguese for example), a cultural dance group (Maori, Filipino, Cook Island). People may be scattered and disconnected, and looking for a place to be themselves.

3. Are there particular life stages or transition points that you have an affinity for? Pre-schoolers, school children, teenagers, young adults, students, parents of young children, engaged couples, parents of teenagers, divorcees, newly arrived immigrants, retirees, widows and widowers…

3. What about generational focus points? Do you have a natural affinity with the aspirations of Baby Boomers? Gen X? Gen Y? Not to be confused with life stages.

4. Are there particular clusters focused on needs that you could relate to? Think grief recovery, parenting support, disabilities, people on low income, single parents, mental health…

5. Are there shared passions that you could connect with? Gardening, fishing, music, art, food, sport, craft, biking, exercise, writing, movies, technology, gaming, photography, shopping, philosophy, travel, clothing, animals, science

6. Are there shared world views and spiritualities that you connect with? Progressive and careful thinkers? Passionate seekers of supernatural experience? Contemplatives? Activists?