A church mission statement lays out what the church stands for and why it exists. It helps bring the congregation together and shapes the church’s work. To make a strong mission statement, it needs to be clear, true to the church, and reflect what makes the church unique.
Finding the ideal church mission that God has called your church to can be challenging. Even more so, when you need to find a vision your audience can get fired up about.
If you are trying to find your church mission or example church mission statements you are in the right place.
Let’s get started.
What Is A Church Mission Statement?
A Church Mission Statement is a concise explanation of the church’s reason for existence. A church mission statement describes the church’s purpose and overall intention.
A church mission statement supports the vision and serves to communicate purpose and direction to church members and church staff.
Church Mission Vs Church Vision
People frequently get a church’s mission statement and its church vision statement confused with one another.
When elaborating on the mission of your church, it is important to recognize the significant distinction between these two statements.
Here’s the difference.
Church Vision: A vision statement for the church should describe the kind of world that the congregation hopes to make in the future. A vision is how you want the world to look after you have succeeded in implementing your church mission. To learn about church vision, check out our article: Church Vision: How To Create A Powerful Church Vision.
Church Vision Example: To see Zambia’s youth transformed into a generation that knows God and who is able to reach the rest of Zambia from within their own country.
Church Mission: When writing a mission statement for a church, it is important to address the challenges that must be confronted before the church’s vision can become a reality.
Church Mission Example: We exist to open 20 orphanages in Zambia in the next 20 years, and provide a safe, loving atmosphere and Biblical education for 2,000 children.
You need a distinct church vision and church mission in order to effectively communicate both the direction in which your church is headed and the work that will be done by your congregation.
In the following part of this article, we will describe where ministry leaders can find a church mission statement.
If you are enjoying this article on church mission statements, you might also like this post titled: Church Vision Statement: How To Discover & Write Powerful Church Vision.
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Where Do I Get A Church Mission?
God’s heart is where the mission starts, and it spreads from there to provide opportunities for service all over the world. For example, Jesus drew upon God’s heart from the Old Testament book of Isaiah for his mission:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” – Luke 4:18-19
In the passage above, Jesus is saying that he only desires to fulfill the will of God in the mission of his ministry.
In the New Testament book of Matthew, Jesus commissioned his disciples (the Church) with the following:
“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 keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20
In this passage, Jesus set the overarching mission of the Church for all future believers.
Thus, the church (Jesus’ disciples) should stay near the heart of Jesus and utilize his commission as the foundation when defining their own church mission.
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Why Do We Need A Church Mission?
All churches have a mission statement. Because of the confusion surrounding the utility of a church mission, many churches have ill-defined, or poorly expressed church mission statements.
Your church mission statement should be deliberate, clear, and concise.
When you look at what churches actually do, where their resources are allocated, and how decisions are made, you can learn what churches consider to be their primary mission in the ministry.
Churches that do not have an explicit statement of their mission tend to live out a mission that is either based in the past or driven by the interests, preferences, or biases of their members, or they adhere to the party line of some denomination.
It is difficult for a church and for church leaders to swim against the prevailing tides of tradition and comfort zones if the mission of the church has not been clearly defined. For example:
Certain places of worship make it abundantly clear that the primary focus of their ministry is the payment of their mortgage and the upkeep of their physical property.
Others appear to be dead set on protecting their current membership at all costs and avoiding doing anything that makes them uncomfortable.
Still, others are set on keeping their pastor, maintaining long-cherished but largely ineffective ministries, or avoiding meaningful interaction with the surrounding community, whose demographics are undergoing rapid change.
Churches that are intent on making a difference in the kingdom and are unwilling to merely “go with the flow” require a mission statement that elaborates on who the church is, what the values of the church are, and where the church intends to go in the future.
If churches don’t have a mission statement, they won’t know what they are supposed to be doing, which makes it almost certain that they will never be effective.
What If I Don’t Have A Church Mission At Heart?
It is possible that you have followed the procedures outlined in this article in an effort to discover the mission that God is calling your ministry to, but that you have not been successful in doing so.
In many cases the personal vision of the lead pastor may conflict with that of the church they are leading. This can lead to tension between the lead pastor and the ministry.
In other situations, the leaders of the ministry may not have a mission because they tend to adhere more closely to the mission that was established by others.
In either scenario, it may be time to investigate other options for ministry in which you have the ability to set a powerful mission, or it may be time to seek roles in which defining the mission is not your primary job.
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How Committed Should I Be To The Church Mission?
No one else will have the same level of dedication to the mission as the head pastor.
If you don’t care all that much about it, it will just be a mission statement in a binder on a shelf, or it might be a slogan on a wall, but it won’t make any difference in your day-to-day church or in your community.
You have to be willing to sacrifice yourself for the cause if you want other people to commit to the mission of your church too.
What If My Church Mission Sounds Like Other Church Mission Statements?
It is beneficial to have a mission for your church that is comparable to that of other churches. The mission doesn’t develop in a vacuum.
We are much better at modifying and adjusting existing examples of other missions than we are at developing new ones from the ground up.
Therefore, we are on more stable ground if the mission that we pursue is comparable to that of other like-minded churches.
At the same time, you don’t want your church mission to be so bland that nobody knows what makes your church different than other churches.
Churches should use the great commission as the foundation for their mission. With this, you will want to specify who, what, by when, where, and why you will be accomplishing your mission.
Be aware that overly broad statements will not inspire your congregation. Specific vision statements are what people get excited about. Try to avoid overly broad missions like “Reach, teach, send” or “to take the gospel to all nations.” Paul, nor the 11 disciples took the gospel to the “whole world”.
If God has called your ministry to world missions, own it. You should be the missions church. If God has called your congregation to the homeless, say so.
Reaching “everyone” is the job of the capital C Church, not just your church.
How To Write A Compelling Church Mission Statement
If you want your mission statement to become a rallying cry that your entire church can get behind, it typically can’t be something that the pastor develops on their own and then delivers to everyone else.
Instead, it needs to be something that the entire congregation collaborates on. The most effective mission statements are the result of a process that includes generating ideas, working with others, refining language, and iterating.
But even more than that, the best church mission statements articulate how your particular congregation will work toward God’s overarching mission for his church.
That being the case, you shouldn’t waste any time in your mission statement talking about “going into all the world to make disciples.”
That is something that each and every church ought to be doing.
Spend some time together to figure out how your church will specifically carry out Jesus’ Great Commission in the specific time and place that you call home.
Church Mission Statement Examples
Here are some example mission statements to get you thinking:
Example Mission Statements of Popular Secular Organizations
- Google: “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
- Amazon: “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.”
- Facebook: “Giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.”
Example Mission Statements of Popular Christian Organizations
- Salvation Army: “To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination.”
- Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: “Proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all we can by every effective means available to us and by equipping the church and others to do the same.”
- Compassion International: “In response to the Great Commission, Compassion exists as an advocate for children to release them from their spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.”
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Example Mission Statements of Churches
- United Catholic Church: Our mission is to carry the gospel, the sacraments, and God’s love and fellowship to the unchurched, the alienated, and the excommunicated (the church’s homeless).
- CenterPoint Church: We exist to give everyone on Long Island multiple opportunities to hear and respond to Jesus, by being a missional and attractional church that leads people into a deeper relationship with God.
- Hawley Alliance Church: The mission of Hawley Alliance Church is to reach every man, woman, & child in the Hawley area with the good news of Jesus. We aim to teach, equip, and send all who become followers of Jesus to reach and serve others in His name locally and around the world.
If you are enjoying this article on church mission statements, you might also like this post titled: Church Vision Statement: How To Discover & Write Powerful Church Vision [2023]
Church Mission Statement FAQs
A Church Mission Statement defines the church’s core purpose and direction, guiding its activities and communicating its intentions to members and staff.
While a mission statement outlines the church’s current role and primary objectives, a vision statement describes the future state the church aims to achieve.
A clear mission statement provides focus and direction, helping to align church activities with its core purpose and prevent drift from its foundational goals.
Developing an effective mission statement involves understanding the church’s core values, consulting with church members, and ensuring it aligns with the broader mission of the Church.
When creating a mission statement, a church should consider its unique role in the community, its core values, and how it plans to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission in its specific context.
This concludes the post on the church mission statement, including how to discover your church mission and what to do with it once you have it.
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Responses
thanks for the great guidance to help churches make great impact in the Great commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s my pleasure!