How to Develop a Church Mission Statement

Wakefield First Parish Church

A church's mission statement is a short summary of what the church sees as its mission to it congregation and the world at large. Writing a mission statement can be as easy as having a few phrases to a few sentences. Here are some tips for coming up with a great mission statement for your church.

Things You'll Need

• Elders/Board of Directors
• Bible
• Mission statement examples

Instructions

1. 

   Gather the elders and/or board members of your church together to begin brainstorming ideas for a mission statement. Before this initial meeting, you may want to have some examples that other church's are using to give the group ideas. A great place to visit for some ideas is "Mission Statements" online. There is a link to this website provided below in the Resources section.

2. 

   Make sure the mission statement states how your church helps the congregation, as well as the world at large (evangelism). More importantly, make sure the mission statement shows your congregation that the church is in-line with God's commands and purpose for life. To this end, you may want to base the mission statement on a Scripture. One church uses Matthew 22:36-39 as the basis for their mission statement, which is, "Loving God, Loving People, and Introducing the World to Christ." This is a simple, but powerful mission statement.

3. 

   Once you have developed a good mission statement, get the congregation used to it. Base a sermon around the Scripture used as the basis for it. Help the church become comfortable with why the mission statement was adopted by explaining it in detail. I'll use the mission statement above as an example.

4. 

   Loving God - Involves many different aspects. It includes praise, worship, and recognizing that God is Creator and Almighty. This is our first commandment according to Matthew 22:36-39. Loving People - The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors. This is where caring for your congregation comes into play, and training them to be followers of Christ, who can bring others to Christ. Introducing the World to Christ - This lets the congregation know that not only does the church care about the disciples, but also about every human who needs to hear about Christ (missions).

5. 

   Make certain that the mission statement of your church is one that can be accomplished. Don't make it fancy words that people just see and never regard. Make it something powerful where the congregation can get involved and feel a part of the church by connecting to the mission statement.

Tips & Warnings

• It takes time and many heads to come up with a good mission statement for a church. Take the time to get it right, so you are not changing it at every whim.

Resources

• Church Mission Statements - Examples