Developing an Effective Mission Statement for your Church Startup

As the leader of a church startup, many pastors or ministers find that during their church startup and growth phases, many responsibilities automatically fall upon their shoulders. There are many different topics to discuss such as where to hold church meetings, what type of church outreach programs to launch, selecting board members, acquiring funding, etc. During these beginning phases, it is crucial to lead your congregation with purpose and vision. As your congregations begin to grow and define the church purpose, there are some helpful steps that should be considered. Including your congregation can be both beneficial and impending on the final decision for a mission statement. If you have a congregation of more than thirty people, the use of a selection committee should be considered. If you choose to build a committee, make sure that all demographics of your church congregation are represented. Once you have selected the committee of people that are going to assist in the process of creating a mission statement, present the committee with four key questions. The first question to consider is, Why does the church exist? By defining why you exist you will aid the committee in clarifying the vision and organizational purpose. A common example would be a church that exists to build and edify families. Defining your existence and purpose will help your church startup to attract the demographic that you are ultimately trying to reach. The second key question to put into consideration is, What are we to be as a church? This helps to define the who we are and what we are aspects of your church mission statement. What specific beliefs will the church adopt and which denominational creed or faith beliefs govern the congregation? These also help in guiding the process to creating a mission statement for the church. Once you have defined why you exist and what you are to be, the next key question to consider is,What are we to do as a church? What goals and church outreach programs are you being called to complete? Which passions exist among the congregation that can be turned into goals that are accomplishable? Will you have a global mindset or will you focus on the mission field within your own backyard? What specific goals will the church continue to have over the years, regardless how large the membership continues to grow? Now that you have defined what you are going to do, start to consider, How are we to do it? and How will church outreach programs exist? These types of questions, while difficult in manner, will help your purpose to be measurable. Its important to be able to measure and gauge the success of how you are going to do it for future church outreach programs. Once you have answered all of these questions you should go back and summarize all of your findings into one or two complete sentences. In the end you want your mission statement to be: 1. Biblical 2. Specific 3. Transferable 4. Measurable Gather your selection committee and ask them if the mission statement fits the above four criteria. If you are unable to answer yes to all of those questions, go back to the drawing board and revise the statement. Don't lose hope; once you have an effective mission statement you will be able to use that to communicate your mission clearly and effectively.