- Our Mission: To let God love us and love others through us.
Pastor Rick says:
Our church mission statement grew out of a discipleship model I had developed over the years. Before our church began, I prayed and studied to find a creative, biblical, and general model for discipleship that would be biblically and theologically accurate, while at the same time practically and motivationally strong. In other words, I prayed and studied and reflected in order to discover a simple and inspiring answer to the question, "What is God's basic will for the average Christian's life?"
The solution became: "To let God love me and love others through me." This was a personal answer to the question of God's basic will that was both simple and yet not simplistic, both biblical and yet motivational. My goal as a pastor, in terms of spiritual formation, became to teach, model, and inculcate this value. To any church member who was asked, "What is God's basic will for your life?" I hoped their quick response would be, "To let God love me and love others through me." Their response was tremendous - many people have mentioned how excited they were each morning to wake up and to realize they had another chance to let God love them and love others though them. It gave strong purpose and focus to their lives. It inspired them!
The visual model we used to illustrate this value was a River Model: a mountain stream remains fresh and healthy as long as the water is allowed to flow into and through it. But if the stream becomes blocked or dammed, and water is not allowed to flow through, the stream will stagnate and become unhealthy - even poisonous. In addition, it will become full and will have no more room for additional water. In a similar way, the key to the healthy and growing Christian life is to allow God's love to flow in and through us. God's basic will is to pour His grace and power and mercy (which all are expressions of his love) upon and into our lives, and then for that grace and power and mercy to flow through us and into the lives of others. We are to be channels of His life, not reservoirs; we are to be conduits of His love, not containers. To put it simply, the purpose of the whole Christian life can be summed up, "God wants to love me and love others through me." This is what I call the River Model for discipleship and spiritual formation.
As I prayed about this I realized that the River Model for spiritual formation was a personal-oriented mission statement. Could it also serve as a corporate-oriented mission statement for a local church? Yes - just by changing the personal pronouns from singular to plural. Our church's corporate-mission statement, therefore, came to be: "Our Mission: To let God love us and love others through us." Rather than trying to convince members to buy into and become excited about the church's overall mission, we simply concentrated on teaching from the Scriptures that God's will is to love each individual and to love others through each one. Since the church's corporate-mission statement was completely congruent with the personal-mission statement, the church members lived out the corporate mission by default as they lived their daily lives for the Lord. And as they became excited with their new-found personal mission statement, that excitement naturally transferred to the church's mission statement. How wonderful, both personally and corporately! These congruent mission statements have led both the church members and the church body as a whole to experience authentic spiritual formation and dramatic growth.
One example of the value of a congruence in mission statements came home to me, personally and literally, in December 2001. Among the many wonderful Christmas cards sent to my family, three surprised me. In each, members quoted our church's mission statement! One, for instance, was a pictorial card, complete with mom, dad, the kids and the family dog. On the side of the picture was embossed, "Merry Christmas! With love, the __________ Family. Let God love you and love others through you." I was astounded! I shouted to my wife, "Look at this - our mission made the Christmas card!" I wondered, "How many other church mission statements make it on their members Christmas card?" There is power in a congruence of mission statements!
