Rev Paige's Corner: Knowing Our Why
As part of my sermon last Sunday I spoke about work by Simon Sinek about "Knowing Your Why". Sinek has given Ted Talks around this idea such as this one:
Sinek TED Talk
And he has published books. In short, he has become a sort of guru for businesses. At the heart of his concept is his "golden circle." A few years ago, I attended a series of workshops on church development which lifted up this work. One thing that really jumped out at me was that for many churches, it is easier to talk about what we are doing and how then it is to clearly articulate the "why?" And yet, finding words for our "why" is grounding and empowering in important ways for us both individually and as a community. (It is also very helpful when searching for a pastor!)
Rev Andrew DeBraber, UCC national staff person for Generosity Ministries, talks about much the same thing in this year's UCC Stewardship materials where he shares an article: "Develop Mission Clarity:"
What would you like your world to look like 5 years from now? How about 10 or 20 or 50 years from now?
When we can answer that question as a church, conference, or other ministry setting, we are on the road to mission clarity and increased fundraising capacity. People give to make a difference in the world – and want to know exactly what kind of impact your ministry will make.
Answering that first question creates the vision – a picture of a future world we have yet to attain. The mission then becomes what we are doing to turn the vision into reality. For example, the UCC vision is “United in Christ’s love, a just world for all.” The mission states our actions to get there: “United in Spirit & inspired by God’s grace, we welcome all, love all, and seek justice for all.”
In one UCC church I pastored, our mission centered around “Everyone welcome – no exceptions!” Everything we did or considered doing was filtered through this lens. Proposed actions that didn’t fit this mission were gratefully declined. Each year we chose three objectives to focus on that fit the mission.
With this kind of mission clarity, people know what your church is doing, get excited about it, and are willing to offer more of their dollars to the effort. Too often in the church we try to be all things to all people all the time, which waters down our mission (and our ministry) until it’s so general that it could belong to any church. We cannot be all things to all people.
So what about you and your ministry setting? What makes you unique or sets you apart? Who are you called to be in your context? How are your congregation, community, and the world being transformed by your presence?
As an Interim Pastor, I often feel as if there is a bit of archeology to my work - digging around in the history, documents, annual reports, and the stories that people tell. So I have been looking for what this church has been saying about its "why" in days gone by. (See my next article for what I have been finding.) As we shift into the fall together, I suspect I will be asking you more about this! Which is timely, I think. The suggested Stewardship Theme this year is "Imagine Together". That seems like a wonderful way to summarize what we are about in this season.
Blessings! Rev Paige Besse-Rankin
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