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Mission Statements
One of my pet peeves is when the language of faith is repackaged and sold back to the church as something new. I remember in the 90s when all parishes were challenged to respond to the latest trend from corporate management gurus—mission statements. I was a new priest, and boy, was I on board! I put all my congregations through the practice of coming up with mission statements. Not only that, the management gurus were also on to something. These statements did help my congregations focus and prioritize on our function and purpose. There followed vision statements and core values. I implemented all of it, hook, line and sinker. Not only that, they worked! The gurus were right.
I am embarrassed at how long it took me to realize that this management-speak was originally OUR LANGUAGE, the language of people of faith. Mission, vision, values—these come from us.
I do not mean to criticize coming up with mission and vision statements and lists of core values. This can be a useful exercise in congregations. However, something was lost in the double translation into management consultancy and back to the church.
Management is the practice of making any company or non-profit better at whatever they do. It is about the means not the ends. The tools work for any widget you'd like, be it hospitals, banks or weapons factories. They can define their mission and use these tools to get better at making their widgets, better hospital stays, more profitable credit cards, or more lethal landmines.
In the church, our mission is not whatever we'd like it to be. Our mission does not even belong to us. It belongs to God. We can either participate in that mission, or not. More than that, God is not waiting around for us to do God's mission. God is already at work in creation bringing that mission about. We either get on board or we don't.
I still use mission/vision/core values tools. The gurus are on to something, but I have tried to recapture this powerful spiritual language as our own.
Do you think you might know what God is up to in your neighborhood, in your community, in Tulsa? How might you...how might Trinity participate in God's mission? How would you know if you are doing so? How might we be called alongside others as partners in God's mission? This is our core practice, discernment, listening for God's still small voice, calling us into God's work.
Canon Steve
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