Purpose, Picture, and Plans

Jargon can get in the way. As you may know, from January to October our congregation sought God's voice for our future direction. We called this a "discernment process" because we tried to "discern" (discover) how and what God wants for us. We believe He spoke to us. We attempted to set forth that voice of God through a mission statement, vision statement, and set of goals and objectives. I want to chat with you about that. I hope to answer your questions of the relationship between those three and a simpler way to understand them.

I realize that the way we are using the words "mission" and "vision" may not make sense to you. When you hear "mission", chances are your first thought is to feeding the poor and evangelizing the lost. Often "mission work" is something a church does overseas. We are using it in the broader sense of "purpose".

"Vision" is also a tricky term. It can sound too mystical, as in "She has vision." Or it can appear too prosaic, as in "The optometrist checked my vision." Neither fits what we are trying to say. We mean a picture of what we are choosing to become.

Knowing that, I'd like you to read this word picture and imagine yourself and our church in it. "As devoted disciples, we worship passionately, seek God's direction, embrace transformation, and offer our lives for His work. Filled with God's Spirit, we respectfully nurture and love all who enter our doors, invite all to experience God's grace, and with abundance and joy serve others in Christ." That picture helps us know what we are doing.

The phrase "Goals and objectives" can also be confusing. All it really means is plans. Plans that we are undertaking to live out our purpose which is shown in our picture. Got it?

At our officers' retreat last Saturday, I suggested that we talk about the "3 Ps" -- purpose, picture, and plans instead of mission, vision, goals and objectives. The advantage is that you can clearly see how the three are related. Our purpose is to become like Jesus and serve in love. That is what we are all about. Now, to help us understand what that means we drew a word picture. That is what our vision is - a picture of who we are becoming. We are shown what it looks like to fulfill our purpose (which is to become like Jesus and serve in love.) Got it? The picture helps us understand the purpose.

Our goals and objectives are simply the plans to make this picture happen.

I hopes this helps you understand what we are doing. Just think the 3 P's -- Purpose, Picture, and Plans!

Let's get to it!
In love, Pastor Charlie