A visitor to a mental health institution was given a tour by one of the officials and they came to the place where the patients were exercising. To the shock of the visitor, there were only two guards for the patients that numbered well past hundred.
"How come there aren't more guards to make sure the place is secure?" the visitor asked the official.
"Oh, that's easy," he replied. "Lunatics never unite."
Sometimes I think we are going to look back, whether when we're older or in eternity, and wonder, "Why didn't we do a better job of partnering together?" "We were crazy for allowing the enemy to distract us and divide us from our mission."
The church has recently accomplished one of the most important tasks in getting a group of people to do great things. The church has established its mission statement and God has called me to lead the leaders to lead the church to fulfill its mission. We don't want our mission statement to simply lay next to a logo, on a shirt, a letterhead, or webpage. We want it to permeate everything we do, or plan to do, by God's grace whether it's with people, buildings, finances, programs, ministries: everything.
I recently sat down with our staff and asked them to write down what our mission statement is, and half of us got it right! It was about the same for the PST. I wonder what would happen if we asked you to write down our mission statement, could you state it? Now, don't worry, there is grace here because the statement is fairly new - praise God for grace!
But here is what the church affirmed what we should be about:
"Buildinging believers who reach others for Christ."
Our mission statement is biblical, essentially it's an echo of the Great Commission the Lord Jesus Christ gave His disciples before He ascended to His Father's throne:
"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:18-20).
Another strength of our mission statement is that it is memorable. You may not be able to quote the Great Commission but surely we all can remember, "Building believers who reach others for Christ."
This statement will help us to determine alignment and effectiveness when measuring our work, as well as encouragement when we're on target. It's so easy and common to miss things even when they are right in front of us; kind of like the squares...
Perspective drives what we see. For example, most churches count by seeing how many people show up on Sunday. But I think God also counts by seeing how many people do not show up! There are over 43,000 in our city, and 90% of them are unchurched! Do you know what our church's budget for evangelism is? The grand total is 2,800 dollars. This amount equals .5% of our budget. We must ask ourselves whether this reflects a serious commitment to fulfilling our mission of building believers who reach others for Christ.
Pray that God would grant repentance to us; that the lost would come to know His salvation; and that God would cause a holy stirring among us, a hunger to fulfill our mission in a way that glorifies Him greatly.
I am so honored to be your lead pastor! Please remember my family during this transition, and pray that our house would sell soon.
Yours for fulfilling our mission,
Dr. Mark L. Richardson, Lead Pastor
First Baptist Church, The Colony
