Video Transcript
00:00 hey everyone this video is gonna be a
00:04 little different than most of the other
00:08 videos that I’ll post in that you know
00:12 my website is called spreadsheets for
00:14 business so obviously it revolves around
00:18 spreadsheets but in this case wanted to
00:22 talk a little bit about mission
00:24 statements and in particular mission
00:28 statements for churches so why make a
00:33 video you know about something that’s
00:36 not spreadsheet centric like mission
00:40 statements as well because they you know
00:43 a lot of the spreadsheets that I make
00:46 fall within a particular theme you know
00:51 for instance strategic planning or cost
00:54 management performance measurement
00:56 things like that so in order to kind of
01:00 round out the the theme you know to to
01:07 put the spirt the videos that I make and
01:10 the the pages that I post on you know
01:16 spreadsheet related things like the
01:18 budgets operating budget capital budget
01:20 financial budget you know this these
01:25 types of things help give them posts
01:28 about like the softer skills that I call
01:32 them hope to put them in the context in
01:36 terms of you know things like the
01:38 mission statement it’s one analysis
01:40 strategy formulation in that so anyhow
01:44 get into it here and you know you
01:47 probably are familiar with the term
01:49 mission statement it’s pretty widely
01:54 used you know and you might even think
01:57 it that it’s kind of a business school
02:02 sort of thing and you know it wouldn’t
02:05 be completely wrong in that respect but
02:08 you know there is some benefit I think
02:11 actually it attentionally a lot of
02:12 benefit they can come from going through
02:14 the steps of creating a mission
02:16 statement and if you create an effective
02:18 mission statement that it can definitely
02:21 potentially help your church to make
02:27 decisions that are kind of consistent
02:31 you know not not all over the place so
02:36 you know a mission statement is a
02:44 [Music]
02:45 basically a sentence or any group of
02:48 sentences a couple of paragraphs that
02:53 serve as the basis and this is kind of
02:57 my definition of a mission statement
02:59 they serve as a basis in these words for
03:03 every decision that you make going
03:05 forward so it kind of it can also be
03:12 considered a definition for your church
03:16 what’s your church about well you know
03:19 if somebody were to ask you that instead
03:21 of kind of him lon
03:24 you know having to sit there thinking
03:25 about it hopefully your mission
03:27 statement and a lot of in most instances
03:32 would basically capture that in kind of
03:35 a short and sweet memorable saying so
03:40 you know but most for-profit businesses
03:47 have a mission statement you know and
03:54 you might think well you know most in
03:59 general most for-profit businesses are
04:03 different than a church obviously which
04:06 is not-for-profit you know in the day
04:09 their mission is to make money but you
04:12 know they begin most
04:13 for-profit businesses have a mission
04:16 that
04:17 goes above and beyond just making money
04:21 you know the the goal for profit is done
04:25 within the context of something else now
04:28 you know if that wasn’t the case there
04:31 would be less people getting into
04:38 businesses and in low-margin industries
04:41 like grocery stores you know building
04:44 materials and another retail and things
04:47 like that I think that if there were no
04:52 mission statement there customer service
04:54 even element in customer services and
04:57 always gradient well for-profit
04:58 businesses we know that but it would
05:00 also suffer so what it does is it
05:05 hopefully if it’s done right it can get
05:09 everybody on the same page you know if
05:11 if you have a an effective
05:15 organizational mission statement then
05:17 you have hopefully less of a temptation
05:21 for everybody within the organization to
05:25 kind of consciously or subconsciously
05:27 come up with their own mission statement
05:29 right so if you’ve got a hundred people
05:31 in your organization each other own
05:33 mission statement their own definition
05:35 for what the company is and they may can
05:38 be working in a hundred different
05:39 directions you know and that’s a trap
05:47 that you can fall into also if your
05:52 organization has a mission has a missing
05:55 mission statement excuse me it but
05:58 doesn’t emphasize it or just basically
06:00 and it goes through the exercise of
06:02 making one print you know puts it on the
06:05 website maybe puts it up on the wall
06:07 somewhere and that’s that it’s not
06:08 emphasized then you probably run in the
06:10 same sort of situation where people are
06:14 just going to fill that vacuum and come
06:16 up with their own individual missions so
06:20 the mission statement is kind of a
06:26 you know a fixed-point I use the example
06:30 of a mission statement you can um point
06:34 your organization in the right direction
06:36 you know north south east west north
06:39 west south east whatever but it’s later
06:44 on in the strategic planning process and
06:46 when you do formulate an actual strategy
06:49 that you’ll decide that the roads you’ll
06:52 take to get there so you know you might
07:01 be asking yourself if your church really
07:07 needs one and I mean Dean the truthful
07:14 answer is no it doesn’t need one you can
07:17 still operate your church function as a
07:20 church without one but hopefully some of
07:24 the benefits that are kind of just
07:27 outlined there they upside of doing so
07:31 of creating a mission statement I think
07:36 is bigger than the downside from just
07:40 disregarding doing it now more freedom
07:46 my next bullet point here and what that
07:49 means is you know eat you might think
07:54 the creating a mission statement and
07:58 then having it weigh in on all of your
08:04 future decisions you would make with for
08:08 your organization in your church would
08:12 give you less freedom because every
08:15 decision you might think has to fall
08:18 within the context of this mission
08:20 statement that’s one way of looking at
08:23 if you turn that on its head though it
08:26 can give you more freedom and then
08:28 you’re not spending time on decisions
08:32 that don’t fall within the context of
08:35 the mission statement okay it gives you
08:37 it gives you direction
08:39 you focus so that’s how having a mission
08:45 statement might give you more freedom it
08:48 frees you up from spending time on
08:51 things that aren’t moving you in the
08:54 direction of accomplishing your mission
09:04 so let me kind of wrap up the intro by
09:08 saying you know if I had a church if I
09:11 ran a church we would have a mission
09:13 statement I think the the exercise and
09:18 kind of going through the steps you know
09:21 my my interpretation of the the steps
09:25 that I would take again if I was
09:31 constructing the mission statement for a
09:35 church you know but keep in mind as I go
09:37 through these steps that there’s no
09:39 wrong way to create a mission statement
09:41 okay if you wake up in the middle of the
09:49 night and have an epiphany and you see
09:57 you know in in the dark there your
10:00 mission statement written clear as day
10:02 in front of you and that’s just it and
10:06 it’s you know this aha moment then by
10:10 all means you know go with it if there’s
10:14 no shortage of information out there on
10:16 how to create a mission statement so if
10:21 these steps don’t work for you then by
10:25 all means use someone else’s
10:27 step-by-step program you know it’s fine
10:32 I mean I if I’m being realistic honest
10:36 myself I know this is probably not your
10:39 one-stop-shop for creating a church
10:42 mission statement probably shouldn’t be
10:44 you’ll probably combine and for me
10:46 from several different sources and
10:48 that’s fine that’s exactly what I do
10:49 when whatever I’m learning something new
10:52 or under and they’re taking something
10:53 you know I’m I want to get a couple
10:56 different perspectives so that’s that’s
10:59 great I hope that this video and the
11:02 post which I’ll link in the comments can
11:06 at least give you a couple ideas a
11:08 couple of new perspectives on how to go
11:12 about it and you know can can help you
11:16 at least in some little way when it
11:19 comes to making a mission statement for
11:22 your church so speaking of a different
11:26 perspective if I want to be upfront and
11:32 authentic which I do you know I don’t
11:36 make these videos or write these posts
11:40 to sell you anything you know my all my
11:46 spreadsheets available for download on
11:48 my side are free you know so I don’t
11:53 have some ulterior motive
11:56 you know I’m my goal right now is to get
11:59 traffic to be honest and now to get
12:01 traffic get traffic by being helpful
12:05 getting likes and subscriptions getting
12:08 paid views things like that so that
12:13 being said you know I think so I think
12:19 by being authentic that’s how I can
12:22 accomplish you know what mine my goals
12:24 are here in the early stages of my
12:28 website and when YouTube channel so be
12:31 completely upfront I am NOT a churchgoer
12:34 a frequent churchgoer I’ve been to
12:36 church I you know have family that goes
12:44 to church regularly so I’m no stranger
12:47 to it
12:48 it’s obviously beyond the context of
12:52 this video too
12:56 get into some sort of diatribe about why
13:02 you know why I do what I do or that
13:06 don’t do what I do however you want to
13:08 put it but you know let me just say this
13:10 I certainly respect the purpose that a
13:16 church serves in a community and I think
13:18 there are a lot of positive things that
13:23 take take place in church and you know
13:28 in service and outside of the service
13:29 and that so I certainly respect what it
13:35 is most churches set out to do and you
13:40 know so I’m not I’m not trying to do
13:43 this solely for views or anything like
13:48 that so you might ask yourself well okay
13:51 you’re not a churchgoer then why why
13:54 making the video on and they you know a
13:59 whole see Sierra do on church mission
14:04 statements and a whole series of posts
14:06 on strategic planning for churches and
14:07 the answer is quite simply because
14:09 that’s what there’s a demand for you
14:12 know and the way I looked at it it was
14:15 no different for me to make these videos
14:19 and post and for an industry that I
14:26 don’t frequent then it would be for me
14:29 to make them for you know a nail salon
14:31 for instance I don’t
14:33 I’ve never gotten a manicure pedicure
14:36 don’t know that I ever will
14:38 you know maybe but I you know it’s a
14:43 these principles those strategic
14:46 planning you know kind of like I touched
14:49 on earlier for-profit not-for-profit
14:53 manufacturing retail service you know
14:58 what they they transcend industries you
15:03 know the the particulars certainly can
15:05 be a little different you know between
15:08 industries but
15:10 it what the steps that I’ll go through
15:15 here for how I would suggest drafting a
15:19 mission statement are no different than
15:20 like I said if I were no different than
15:24 what I would suggest for you know the
15:26 restaurant down the road here okay here
15:30 then you know retail store or whatever
15:35 you know are the the small manufacturer
15:38 it so that’s why I chose to you know
15:47 chose to focus on churches in Franklin
15:50 cuz it got me a little bit it isn’t you
15:52 know there’s a lot is the same but a
15:54 little bit as different than
15:55 not-for-profit most of my education and
15:57 experience in that comes from the
16:01 for-profit arena and that there was an
16:04 opportunity for me to think of things
16:06 from a different perspective you know
16:07 particularly churches who might not
16:10 major everything in terms of strictly in
16:13 terms of dollars and cents so you know
16:17 yeah I think it was beneficial for me to
16:21 look at things from a different
16:24 perspective and if you’re not completely
16:27 turned away by the fact that I’m not a
16:30 frequent churchgoer perhaps you might
16:33 find that my perspective as an outsider
16:37 so to speak is beneficial for you when
16:41 it comes to not just writing a mission
16:44 statement for your church but the whole
16:47 strategic planning in general because
16:49 like I said there’s videos and put the
16:52 posts already exist all the line and the
16:54 financial budgeting posts but you know
16:57 there’s more videos to come on this
17:00 subject so anyhow let’s move on to kind
17:07 of the steps that I would suggest in
17:12 acting these steps gonna rep myself
17:16 there I think these steps apply whether
17:23 you’re starting from scratch in terms of
17:28 mission statement or you know looking to
17:30 to freshen up I think you know that it
17:34 doesn’t matter whether you’re coming
17:35 into it ice cold or kind of looking to
17:38 build upon or you know change an
17:41 existing mission statement so the first
17:44 step is good old-fashioned brainstorming
17:46 and that you know I think the benefit of
17:55 brainstorming is that it kind of if you
18:02 do it right it can kind of help get rid
18:05 of the pretense okay you know because if
18:09 you and the other key individuals in
18:11 your church are coming into this and
18:13 everybody has kind of their maybe even a
18:18 rough draft of what a church mission
18:21 statement should be already you know
18:23 those mental rough drafts might not line
18:27 up and could you know could lock things
18:33 up like the whole process up and make it
18:36 more difficult you know brainstorming
18:39 doesn’t right you probably know you know
18:43 is supposed to kind of be a situation
18:48 where any idea is allowed even if it’s
18:50 silly ridiculous or that it just kind of
18:54 helps hopefully to get you open your
18:56 mind up take the blinders off and you
19:01 know make sure you are looking for you
19:05 know looking at this this task of
19:07 drafting a mission statement for your
19:09 church from every every appropriate
19:12 angle that you can so this isn’t just
19:15 let’s plan out brainstorm a mission
19:21 statement there are different techniques
19:28 that a person can use or a group of
19:32 people some of these techniques require
19:34 people
19:38 in order to brainstorm and some of
19:42 them you know are pretty novel you know
19:44 I use them in other aspects of my life
19:48 what I yeah when I want to really open
19:51 my mind up and be open to be open and
19:55 honest with myself I you know I’ll use
19:58 some of these techniques or that and
20:01 it’s simply a matter of searching for
20:04 brainstorming techniques okay you’re
20:07 gonna get a big list of you know several
20:11 pages goes on and on of different
20:13 techniques there’s no shortage of sites
20:16 that have written on the topic and you
20:21 know I I think it would be good before
20:23 you start Matt to browse those and find
20:26 some that some topics are I’m sorry some
20:30 techniques that you might want to use
20:31 some I copied one site or link to one
20:36 site in particular here just shows me
20:38 it’s 25 techniques on brainstorming and
20:42 you know all you know in some of these
20:45 you’re selling and brainstorming it’s
20:46 kind of a silly thing you know but it
20:50 that’s the point is when it’s you know
20:52 when it’s silly it gets can get you out
20:55 of your your funk out of your tunnel
20:57 vision like I said so definitely before
21:01 you start brainstorming I would you know
21:05 browse and pick some of these techniques
21:08 to to utilize you know rather than just
21:13 doing traditional brainstorming like
21:14 saying okay everyone what should our
21:17 mission statement be and just start
21:20 rattling off ideas you know it’ll help
21:23 you approach it like like I said it from
21:26 a couple of different angles so from
21:32 then after you brainstorm and
21:34 everybody’s
21:35 kind of had there been able to weigh in
21:42 on the subject and things have been
21:46 looked at from a couple of different
21:47 angles you know now I would suggest
21:50 start creating rough drafts and you’ll
21:53 notice that that is plural not just one
21:57 rough draft I would you know set a timer
22:02 if you want and say and just start right
22:05 see how many you can write you know
22:07 rough drafts that’s a mission statement
22:08 and you know this is just a one step
22:10 removed from brainstorming and that
22:12 that’s fine you’re gonna probably throw
22:15 away all but one of these if one you
22:17 might combine them or whatever you know
22:20 you don’t necessarily have to use one of
22:22 these but it’s like let’s take all of
22:24 our our brainstorming ideas about what
22:28 we want to include it in a mission
22:29 statement or what we want to want it to
22:34 be about and let’s start turning them
22:37 into actual mission statements so again
22:41 don’t overthink this part you know get
22:45 the get a get a big number of mission
22:48 statements rough drafts created okay and
22:52 from there then you can start kind of
22:55 sorting out what those you like those
22:59 don’t really pass muster and you know
23:03 the cream will start rising to the top
23:04 so to speak so you’ll probably find that
23:08 the your best mission statements rough
23:13 mission statements will resonate with
23:16 almost everyone okay don’t give people a
23:18 good feeling they’ll make people nod
23:21 their head they’ll you know you’ll just
23:24 you’ll know it when you hear it you’ll
23:26 know when you read it okay so I narrow
23:29 it down to the your your top view right
23:32 and from there then it’s time to make a
23:35 decision now again touched on a second
23:39 ago
23:43 don’t need to you can still polish it
23:46 from there don’t need to just choose one
23:47 and then that’s it these were rough you
23:50 can polish them there and you can
23:51 combine you can subtract things from
23:55 your mission statement but you know it
23:59 comes a point of course that you have to
24:01 start to narrow it down from ideas that
24:07 you came out brainstorming to rough
24:10 drafts to fewer rough drafts to one
24:13 final mission statement and hopefully
24:19 for the most part you can really narrow
24:22 it down and settle for the money and
24:27 alibiing what you begin to settle on
24:30 will resonate with everybody and
24:33 hopefully everybody will or or less be
24:35 in agreement you know we’re all human so
24:39 that’s probably wishing for a little too
24:42 much and it might be an instance where
24:45 ultimately person with the most
24:47 authority has to make a decision and
24:49 that’s that even though but I mean
24:52 here’s the thing so after giving it as
24:56 much thought as you have and if somebody
25:00 does have to make a final decision
25:03 you’ll know that hopefully you and
25:06 everybody else will know that you know
25:11 it’s after all that scrutiny and all
25:13 that thought but into it that you know
25:16 this is a pretty good ideal for your
25:18 church to live up to this is a pretty
25:20 good direction for your church so you
25:24 know it it it might not be exactly with
25:28 this individual that individual wanted
25:30 to see but it should be after all that
25:33 time and effort it should be good some
25:38 that will be a good feeling I’m sure
25:41 when you’ve settled on a mission
25:43 statement but does that mean you’re
25:45 finished will the time being yeah it
25:48 probably does but you know life is
25:53 dynamic situations are dynamic things
25:56 changed
25:56 just know that it probably pays to
26:02 revisit this at least briefly maybe not
26:05 as much detail if you had this time
26:07 around but you know when you do your
26:10 annual your church does its annual
26:12 strategic planning to at least make sure
26:16 that this is still the direction that
26:21 your church wants to go you know if your
26:22 head and due north which this is not my
26:26 strength but if that’s zero degrees you
26:30 know
26:30 maybe over the past year things have
26:33 changed enough you need to tweak that
26:35 two degrees okay more or less the same
26:37 direction just a tiny little tiny little
26:40 tweak you know no shame in it and it’s
26:43 beneficial I think to to be dynamic to
26:46 be flexible so for the time being though
26:50 after going through those steps should
26:52 have a mission statement that you can be
26:56 proud of and that will serve your church
26:59 well so if all that if even after going
27:10 through those steps you can’t settle on
27:12 something you just not able to
27:16 accomplish what you set out to it’s fine
27:19 there’s still a another path you can
27:25 take and that is to look at other
27:30 church’s mission statements and
27:32 potentially build upon them or you know
27:37 they say what is it imitation sincerest
27:42 form of flattery just to use another
27:45 church’s mission statement so I will
27:49 touch on that again here shortly you
27:54 know let’s go briefly about why your
27:59 church might not want a mission
28:01 statement so you know for the sake of
28:04 being thorough and
28:09 you know addressing everyone’s concerns
28:12 there might be object objections that
28:14 you have thinking that you know this is
28:17 too much trouble I don’t see the benefit
28:18 and you know don’t think that a mission
28:24 statement is for you these are a couple
28:25 of reasons that I came up with why that
28:27 might be the case you know the first is
28:30 that it’s the wrong mission for the
28:34 wrong Church you know I’m sure you know
28:40 that churches full along like most
28:46 things along a spectrum and there are
28:50 strict letter letter of the law churches
28:56 you know there are more and you want to
29:01 put it just flexible churches okay if if
29:09 a more flexible Church tries to have a
29:12 mission that was you know the same
29:16 mission as the letter letter of the
29:18 Bible Church it’s probably not going to
29:24 work if if you know conversely if the
29:28 more structure ch translating the same
29:32 mission as the more flexible Church
29:36 probably not going to work it’s
29:39 pointless and it could potentially
29:40 create more harm than good so the steps
29:44 kind of went through earlier you know
29:47 should help you avoid in a situation
29:51 like that the next reason Church might
29:57 not want a mission statement is because
30:00 it’s a facade you know
30:02 you probably notice when I talked about
30:04 the steps to making a mission statement
30:10 that a lot of it was you know talked
30:12 about having a group involved the key
30:15 individuals in the church how many
30:17 individuals that is well it depends
30:19 probably a large part on the size of you
30:22 church in just the culture the nature of
30:25 your church and everything but I can
30:28 envision a scenario where if one person
30:31 at the top takes it completely upon
30:34 themselves to write a mission statement
30:36 and says this is it you know no input
30:42 from anyone else that it could do more
30:49 harm than good because you know if
30:53 they’re just using the mission statement
30:54 as a tool to control the point – you
30:57 know I created the mission statement but
31:02 I point to the mission statement so I
31:05 can make the church do X Y or Z you know
31:10 I’m deflecting it off myself and but
31:15 pointing is something that I created
31:16 nonetheless you know so if if a mission
31:21 statement is used kind of as a tool of
31:23 control like that I can envision where
31:26 it might be more harmful than good
31:29 the other two reasons that you’re you
31:34 you might think these aren’t these have
31:39 a little different tone than previous
31:41 two but you know I think that you’re too
31:42 small and you know I suppose if your
31:49 church are super small it might feel
31:54 gratuitous to create a mission statement
31:57 but I would still argue that there are
32:04 plenty of businesses with you know fewer
32:07 than 100 members which my understanding
32:11 would qualify as a pretty small church
32:12 but with fewer than 100
32:15 stammers and you know very small staffs
32:17 that still have a mission statement it’s
32:19 for the exact reasons that I outlined
32:20 earlier that you know it helps give you
32:25 direction and one hundred people still a
32:26 lot of people 50 people’s a lot of
32:28 people you know and having that mission
32:31 statement would still help you have more
32:36 freedom would still help you move
32:38 everybody in the same direction and then
32:40 you know finally I talked about earlier
32:45 a little bit how mission statement might
32:47 be viewed as a you know kind of business
32:51 school mumbo-jumbo too formal too rigid
32:55 or whatever and you know that is a valid
32:58 concern but I think the extent to which
33:04 your mission statement is formal or
33:06 informal rigid flexible whatever will
33:10 depend on what the mission statement is
33:12 you know so buying brainstorming making
33:19 rough drafts getting a lot of input from
33:23 other individuals that will be affected
33:25 by the mission statement I think that
33:28 you know it you’ll end up settling on
33:32 something that’ll have just the right
33:34 amount of formality so like I mentioned
33:42 that you know if you’re you reach the
33:47 gridlock and you can’t you feel stuck
33:51 and even the the steps that I outlined
33:55 earlier are just not getting anywhere
33:59 then you might look to other churches
34:04 and their mission statements you know
34:07 for inspiration for to borrow them to
34:10 tweak them and make them your own and
34:11 and frankly looking at other church’s
34:13 mission statements is probably a good
34:17 exercise to do beforehand anyhow is
34:20 again it just puts you a little bit in
34:23 the mind of other individuals who’ve
34:24 been in similar circumstances
34:27 we’ll kind of get get your your mind set
34:30 in a mission statement setting so I
34:35 outline on the the page like I said
34:38 which would be linked down in the
34:39 description on church mission statements
34:45 briefly I cover three random mission
34:51 statements that I found and states
34:53 across the country and they’re all very
34:55 different and kind of touched on you
34:59 know from my point of view as an
35:01 outsider what I like what I maybe would
35:04 have done different and you know again
35:09 that is quite simply an opinion I’m sure
35:11 these churches hopefully their mission
35:14 statements serve them well and that’s
35:16 fine they didn’t make them you know for
35:19 for Chris they they made up for their
35:22 congregation and rightfully so so you
35:25 know I got three different ones on the
35:27 website the web page and I picked in
35:31 preparation for this video three that a
35:37 look looking at kind of with a fresh
35:41 perspective I’ll admit my intention was
35:46 with these to look at him completely
35:48 sight unseen and give my input but what
35:53 happened was I recorded this video once
35:56 already and it recorded wrong because
35:58 I’m still getting the hang of recording
36:01 videos so I have seen him before it’s
36:03 not not a I’m not completely fresh on
36:09 him so what I what I did here is real
36:12 simple and it’s again just something a
36:14 technique that you might use and all I
36:17 did was search for random state state
36:21 being took a state of course and just
36:23 searched random state I don’t think
36:25 Google would know what to do with that
36:26 or whatever search engine you use so
36:32 that is basically a matter of
36:41 doing this and you’ll see that there’s
36:47 no shortage of results okay we can go
36:54 ten pages deep I bet here yeah here we
36:59 are you know about talks about mission
37:04 statement I guess that’s a college not a
37:06 church but ma’am this is just one state
37:09 you know just little little Arkansas you
37:17 find the same thing for any state you in
37:19 or so lots of inspiration to be had out
37:22 there okay and plenty plenty of people
37:27 who gone to this process before to pull
37:31 like I said pull inspiration upon so we
37:37 look at the first one here
37:38 Arkansas church mission statement I just
37:41 pulled this at random mrs. Furr Arkansas
37:48 Baptist Church fellowship community
37:52 church they do what you’ll find a lot of
37:58 churches do not surprisingly in
38:01 reference either directly or indirectly
38:05 from verses in the Bible their mission
38:09 is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by
38:12 leading people into a growing
38:13 relationship by seeking serving and
38:15 sending so that’s their mission and then
38:19 they expound on that which I think is
38:21 good since it’s such a kind of short one
38:24 sentence mission statement and uses
38:26 terms that are a little
38:29 up for interpretation so they expand on
38:32 that what they consider seeking serving
38:34 and sending so it’s the mission
38:38 statements unique in that respect that
38:43 it kind of has a you know expounds upon
38:52 some of the terms used and it’s like I
38:54 said I think that’s I think that’s neat
38:59 neat right the second church is in West
39:08 Virginia in its West Virginia presbytery
39:21 and they also go with a simple
39:24 one-sentence mission statement you’ll
39:27 see that that’s there’s a wide variety
39:30 of course in the length of mission
39:33 statements the several of them I have on
39:36 my website are paragraph or in some
39:41 cases couple paragraphs so it’s up to
39:45 you what suits your church best you know
39:52 another individual who is kind of in the
39:57 church consulting niche is
40:03 his name’s Audrey ralpherz and I
40:05 referenced a lot of his work kind of
40:07 putting together you know particularly
40:08 the the post on the soft skills and in
40:14 regards to the church strategic planning
40:16 and he’s a bigger proponent of shortened
40:21 to the point memorable I think is how he
40:24 put some mission statements and I think
40:29 there’s something to that but if you if
40:31 if you go that direction
40:33 you’re probably gonna spend a little
40:35 more time on it fine-tuning it
40:37 substituting one word for another and
40:39 that sort of thing but you know it there
40:45 is a benefit to it it is a statement not
40:47 a mission book a mission you know
40:52 treatise it’s a mission statement so you
40:57 know I would I would still say do don’t
41:02 don’t hold yourself you know you feed to
41:07 the fire in it has to be a one short one
41:11 sentence memorable mission statement of
41:13 whatever provides you direction whatever
41:15 outlines that direction north south east
41:18 west that you want to move your your
41:20 church I think that’s the most important
41:24 thing not the the link if it if that
41:26 takes a couple paragraphs and okay you
41:29 know maybe it’s time yours only tweak it
41:31 you can find that certain things don’t
41:35 contribute to pointing your church in
41:38 that direction that you know it that’s
41:45 you know one individual respected
41:47 individual in the church consulting
41:50 industry who that’s his thoughts on the
41:53 matter so anyhow the Presbyterian West
41:56 Virginia yes they did and with a short
41:59 one sentence mission statement and
42:03 that’s the presbytery of West Virginia
42:05 is the baptize covenant people called by
42:08 God to reflect Christ’s love through
42:10 mission ministry and relationships and
42:14 they unlike the was an Arkansas Church
42:20 that we looked at don’t expand upon that
42:24 it’s those terms mission ministry and
42:33 relationships I think ministry and
42:35 relationships is pretty straightforward
42:40 and that most people to agree what that
42:42 means but I if it strikes me as a bit
42:46 odd I’m not sure they have their reasons
42:47 but that they would reference their
42:49 mission in the mission statement you
42:53 know to say that they want to reflect
42:57 Christ’s love through their mission but
42:59 this is our mission it’s kind of
43:00 circular reasoning so there might be
43:03 something I’m missing there but I do
43:08 find that a bit curious it’s not as neat
43:13 with all due respect was virginia
43:16 presbyterian
43:18 folks they again and besides they make
43:22 that mission for me so the fact that it
43:27 doesn’t quite ring you know doesn’t
43:33 resonate with me that’s perfectly fine
43:38 the last one here is the native american
43:41 church of god
43:42 and South Dakota and it always had to
43:48 look for it in here it’s kind of buried
43:51 which I I would not recommend they do
43:56 [Music]
44:00 here it is you know kind of hidden away
44:05 and I would personally have encouraged
44:12 them to make it stand out emphasize it a
44:16 little more for people who might visit
44:18 the site and people are curious about
44:19 what the Native American church of god
44:20 ministries is that in any event their
44:25 mission statement is expressing the love
44:26 of God by practicing the ministry
44:28 presents building meaningful
44:31 relationships loving without hurting
44:33 working or partnering to disciple the
44:37 lost so of the three I know this is
44:41 probably my favorite and that probably
44:43 is why I would encourage them to
44:45 emphasize it a little more no I would
45:03 make that stand out a little more as an
45:06 individual that one resonates with me
45:11 probably the most of the thirty like I
45:13 said it’s it’s pretty simple it’s one
45:15 sentence you know with a handful of
45:18 commas a little drawn another long
45:20 sentence but you know that’s fine I
45:23 think I like personally its emphasis on
45:32 relationships and just understanding you
45:38 know that it has kind of that theme I
45:40 think of understanding so I think it’s
45:43 very welcoming for somebody who might
45:45 not be familiar with the church to read
45:47 and you know to feel like
45:54 when they got to the point if they were
45:56 interested in attending a church that
45:58 this would be you know some place they
46:01 were welcome or somebody who was going
46:03 through a particularly rough time you
46:05 know it makes a statement of partnering
46:08 to disciple the lost again somebody who
46:11 might be welcome there so anyhow that’s
46:16 just a little illustration of you know
46:20 how you can look to other churches for
46:26 for inspiration there if like as I
46:30 mentioned I would recommend doing that
46:32 no matter what just again to get you
46:36 kind of the right mindset but if you’re
46:41 completely stuck you know again plan any
46:44 of this is you don’t have to reinvent
46:47 the wheel and plenty of inspiration to
46:49 pull from so it’s kind of wrap things up
46:54 here I would be interested to know what
46:57 you guys thought in the comments there
47:00 and what what is your church’s mission
47:06 currently if it has one and what do you
47:09 like or dislike about it do you think
47:11 it’s too long do you wish that it
47:15 included something else what what would
47:19 you change about it you know the
47:20 Internet depends on how you signed up to
47:23 Google but Internet in general is an
47:27 anonymous arena so you know don’t you
47:33 you know feel free to be truthful and
47:37 you know I mean if you’re being honest
47:39 then there’s nothing to be ashamed of I
47:42 don’t think you know you know should
47:43 want to worry about any sort of
47:44 repercussions it you know be here’s the
47:47 thing and this is a good thing to keep
47:48 in mind when you’re making a mistake for
47:50 your church if it can’t stand up to a
47:52 little scrutiny if you can’t back it up
47:54 and say well this is why we emphasize
47:57 this or this why I included this didn’t
47:59 include that then you probably didn’t
48:02 give it enough thought and it’s probably
48:03 not as effective as it could be
48:06 you know if you can’t stand behind
48:09 itself you know the other thing then I
48:14 would ask for you guys to comment upon
48:17 is what do you think is essential it
48:22 related to the previous question you
48:24 know what do you like or dislike about
48:25 your church’s current mission statement
48:27 and you know what do you think is
48:28 essential is it something included in
48:30 your church’s mission statement
48:31 currently there’s something missing you
48:33 know what do you think every church
48:36 mission statement needs some a couple of
48:39 things I’d love your feedback on all
48:41 that I’ll leave you with the typical
48:45 spiel that youtubers close with you know
48:52 first of all appreciate if you stuck
48:54 with me this long I’m not sure they
48:56 didn’t at my time we’re going how long
48:57 the video is
48:58 I’m guessing it’s approaching 40 minutes
49:01 if not warm but stuff stuck with me this
49:05 long I appreciate it you know look I got
49:07 a couple more videos coming out on these
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49:20 just like this was okay you know I liked
49:24 what Chris had to say about this down or
49:27 the other then I likes appreciated you
49:29 know for better or worse this is the
49:33 Internet and it’s something of a
49:34 popularity contest so if you did hear
49:40 see something that you liked I would
49:42 definitely appreciate like everyone does
49:46 the like subscription notification about
49:50 all that I’m you know it it’s a way to
49:56 give a little bit of free feedback it’s
49:58 free tip love it that way so I am again
50:01 appreciate time thanks for watching
50:04 take care