I've been slaving over the creation of a variety of statements that are poetic, punchy, meaningful, profound, pithy, etc. Because when you express an interest in planting a church, you're supposed to have a bunch of statements like that. You have to have your purpose statement, your vision statement and your mission statement. You have to write out your goals, your strategy and your values. You need 10 words that all start with the letter Q that describe the church's DNA, and an acronym like "P.R.O.S.E.L.E.T.Y.Z.E" that outlines your outreach strategies.
I love dreaming about the possibility of a great, Biblical church in downtown San Diego that reaches people in need of God. I love talking about it with others. But I'm not very good at that other stuff. What I am pretty good at is stealing. So I've borrowed some Vision/Purpose/Mission statements from great churches (luckily, most good churches do basically the same things).
"to help people to find and follow Jesus Christ." (hmmm, definitely familiar)
"love God, love others, serve the world."
"to bring people to Jesus and membership in his family, develop them to Christlike maturity, and equip them for their ministry in the church and life mission in the world, in order to magnify God’s name."
"We are a community of followers of Jesus Christ, committed to live by faith, to be known by love, and to be a voice of hope."
"... to create environments where people are encouraged and equipped to pursue intimacy with God, community with insiders, and influence with outsiders."
I'd love to hear what others think. Don't get me wrong, we're not voting. I just want to hear your opinions...
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::about me
- Jon Llera
- I've spent the majority of my life in churches, working and volunteering in a wide variety of roles. I'm currently laying the groundwork for a new church launch in Chula Vista, CA.
1 comment:
Here is my opinion:
“love God, love others, serve the world.” This one seems to diminish “the world” by saying serve as opposed to love. Love is probably implied, which is why we serve; however, it can also be read that the world is debajo de (underneath) love. Also, who are others? Fellow believers or the world or both?
“to bring people to Jesus…” The word membership sounds a little cultish ::shrug::. It has nice progression, but is a little wordy.
“… to create environments…” I like this one. My critique would be on the word “outsiders” because it sounds like people who are not in the church are outsiders and I think they would disagree with you on that. Also, if we consider the church in our postmodern society ::cough:: we are the outsiders =)
I have some experience in wordsmithing vision/mission statements and the like. If there is a statement you’d like help with, some words tweaked, all ya have ta do is call. Also, when I was checking out purposes I really liked www.oasisla.org. Their purposes are at the top “iConnect, iServe, iGive, iReach, iLead” and you can click on each one. Check it out if you have the time.
Great progress my firend!
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