Again, while reading Essential Church, I have experienced a gelling of ideas from several other places about mission and vision statements for a church. This passage jumped out at me, speaking about why young adults leave the church in droves between the ages of 16-20:
Their parents assumed that the teachings of the church would be well received via religious osmosis. But the Great Commission explicitly commands us to teach and disciple. Neglecting this element of the gospel imperative creates an atmosphere of spiritual and doctrinal atrophy resulting in a nonessential church.
The passage about the assumption made by parents and leaders that their kids would “just get it” by coming to church stuck out at me. I was struck that training people to follow Jesus needs to be central to the purpose of any church. This made me think of Matthew 28:18-20. I am seeing a framework for a vision coming out of that verse.
“(18b) All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (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.”
I see in this passage bookends of worship: looking to God for our authority “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and his promise to be present with us “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”. Worshipping God for who he is and seeking his presence is the first and last thing a church stands for.
Then we have the mission of the church – to make disciples and baptize “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,”. We are here to bring lost souls to Jesus.
Then we have a mandate to train up the disciples we have been entrusted with. “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,”.
So a suggested mission statement of our future church plant could be, “To worship God, first and last, and guide his followers to him.”
A suggested vision:
Using Matthew 28 as our guide, we desire to pursue the mission that Jesus entrusts us with:
- To acknowledge our Lord Jesus as King, and worship him together;
- To guide our neighbours to be baptized as followers of Jesus;
- To teach and encourage each other in the love that Jesus has for us and the world;
- To raise up new leaders to pursue this mission everywhere;
What excites me about this is that it is short and sweet. It is not overly complicated with layers of process and form. It feels clean and simple, and that is what church should be, it seems to me. You look at any great movement, and it had a distilled message that was simple to grasp and follow. Like our faith. All God really asks of us is to love God and love our neighbour. That’s it. And the structure we are to use to accomplish this is the church.
Tags: church, church planting, mission statement, planning, vision
