Hawaii Lay Speakers

You may download this session from this link: Session III

 In this session you will be able to:

·         describe the terms mission, vision & focus as it applies to yourself and your church leaders

·         analyze and compare the mission statement of your home church with that of the UM mission statement as found in BOD

 

Devotional

Sing: Pass It On  go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCjR4dlY33k&feature=related

To sing along.

Read  Matt 28:19-20

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Pray 

Oh God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.  Save the community of your people from cowardly surrender to the world, from rendering unto Caesar what belongs to you, and from forgetting the eternal gospel amid the temporal pressures of our troubled days.  For unity of the Church we pray, and for fellowship across the embittered lines of race and nation; to growth in grace, building in love, enlargement in service, increase in wisdom, faith, charity and power, we dedicate our lives through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen  (Harry Emerson Fodick, USA, 2oth Cent., Book of Worship #506)

 

Developing a Mission Statement

Developing a Mission Statement can be a long process.  Some of your churches already have Mission Statements that you may have helped developed. 

 

The United Methodist have the Book of Discipline to guide each church in g their own mission statement.  Read paragraphs 120-122, 126, 123,124 & 127

 

http://umcneb.org/media/2008BookOfDisciplinePDFS/CONS001936QK004001A.pdf

 

Vision is defined as the desired or intended future state of an organization in terms of it’s fundamental objective and direction.

 

Mission is defined as a formal short written statement of the value proposition of an organization.  Why does the organization exist and what it does to achieve it’s vision.

The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  It is that simple.  However, to define discipleship or what does transformation means each person and each congregation must define that for themselves.

 

Below is a mission statement a church.

Our church lives as congregation of believers who strive to embody the gospel of Jesus Christ by reaching out to others in love, nurturing one another in the life of the church, and sending one another in service for all persons with whom we have contact, principally in the greater community area and in the world throughout connectional affiliation.

 

What is your church’s mission?  Does it sound like the one above?  Do you even know what it is? 

 

After much discussion, seeking out meaning of what this congregation wanted, they came up with the following mission statement.

We are a community of Christ-followers growing in the love of God and neighbor.

 

In the What Every Leader Needs to Know About Mission and Vision several suggestions are given to help you begin the process of defining your mission.

 

If you are satisfied with your own church’s mission statement you might want to find out when and how it was developed.

 

If you need to work on your own church’s mission, you might outline some beginning steps.

 

Say your own prayer of thanksgiving to end this session.

 

Resources

·         Alban Institute www.alban.com

Resources for congregational excellence, including, books, a magazine, consulting, seminars, podcasts. Search the articles archive under the topic of governance or leadership to find material that meets your situation.

·         Best Practices (www.gbod.org/)

·         Cokesbury www.cokesbury.com Cokesbury is an online bookstore for curriculum, books for church leaders, and official United Methodist resources such as the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, the United Methodist Book of Worship.

Comments are closed.