the making of a mission statement 

(part one)

((holy purpose))

at our vision day on january 20th, there were many parts of the event that impressed me and the rest of our long range planning committee. 

the fact that 108 people were present was the first. we guess-timated that number accounted for close to between 60 and 70 percent of the congregation collected in the sanctuary for worship earlier that morning. when we planned the vision day, i don't know how many folks from our congregation i expected, but it wasn't over 100. i think i would have been pleased if half that number showed. if half that number showed enough interest in the future of our church that they wanted to be a part of the working process of putting together a vision and mission statement, it would have been glorious. but 100 people did show up and i couldn't help but call attention to the fact to the room. i don't know what huffman's membership was in our "prime". i don't know what our average attendance was in worship on a sunday during that era. honestly, i don't really care anymore. what matters is now. and what matters is who we are and what we are moving forward. and so i shared and suggested a paradigm shift to those collected in our fellowship hall on the afternoon of the 20th. what if we were there in huffman to plant a church? 108 of us, called to gather together and make a difference on the corners of huffman and gene reed roads. what if 108 of us found each other and we happened into an empty facility built and ready for us to use? we'd use that facility, right? to the best and most exposed of our abilities? jesus started his active ministry with 12 committed guys. we had 108. what kind of potential would we, 108, hold? a lot of potential, right? and so, why wouldn't we decide to go ahead and make the world explode (in a good way) on the 20th? contrary to some opinions already shared on the matter, we had already done the hard work. we had survived years of abuse, some self-inflicted and some from outside influence. we had survived and for almost three years, we had gone through a process of self-discovery and self-evaluation. we were ready to redefine ourselves. and now, we have. 

truly amazing. 

in addition to the attendance, though, the january 20th vision day gave us meaningful and relevant stories shared from many caring and invested members of our church. we heard passion. we heard want. we heard testimonies. and we heard specifics. from all of those, what you see above is the mission statement your long range planning committee has drafted to put action and feet to our mission. here is what we were thinking with each point of our acrostic and some insight into the "why?" we thought it was important. 

"holy purpose" 

if there was one phrase that jumped out and grabbed every single person on the lrpc, it was when friend of the blog, kathy henson, shared the import with which she considered each and every member being willing and nurtured to find their holy purpose. her thoughts came at the tail-end of our gathering and they were in complementary contrast to the mission heavy meeting. much deserved praise has and had been heaped upon our missions committee, led by our tireless kathy george. kathy george and her group have been at the forefront of stretching our church out of our collective comfort zone and into the community. why has kathy and her group had so much success? well, it's clear to see, but kathy henson put a phrase to the obvious. kathy george has found her holy purpose. and she's allowed her passion to drive her and her group's ministries with ease. once you find something you are passionate about, you don't have to work yourself up for it. you can't help but be excited. we all know that feeling, right? we know that there are a few things in our life that no one has to talk us into. for those few things, we are going to go out of our way to be joined at the hip with our passion, for being one with our passion is what leads us to true happiness. 

that being said, what kathy henson articulated was important to the life of our church. not all of us may get as fired up about missions as kathy george. but, BUT if we truly believe that we are created in the image of an unconditionally loving god, we also are likely to believe that we are gifted in spiritual ways that we may not even realize yet. 

if the church corporate and the church humc has failed at any one thing, we have failed at helping our members and visitors, alike, find the key to unlock our holy purpose. we claim the bible to be our life road map, but, out of the 108 people in the gym on january 20th, we probably have 108 different opinions on what the bible actually means to our daily lives. too often we offer the same old same old when it comes to bible studies and small groups and even in worship because that's what we've always done, or that's all we know. this, during our new present and our future to come, we can no longer allow. 

for us to truly embrace our community with the transformative love of christ, we have to know what that statement means. not just to the church, but to us. and we have to be intentional about it in a way i'm not sure we ever have. we have to continue to stretch out of our comfort zones. we already find people in our congregation that are willing to lead our standard bible and pop-christianity studies. those are absolutely still worthy to many people. but, we also need to find people in our church willing to lead groups on spiritual transformation. willing to entertain leading recovery and support groups and coupon groups that will speak to us at humc, for sure, but serve practical needs in the community around us. 

in our mission statement, we pledge as a church to each other to make these new efforts a reality, not just good ideas that waste away in time. we pledge to offer good and relevant worship. good and relevant small groups. good and relevant sunday school classes. we pledge to help each other find their holy purpose. because if we don't, we are going to find it extremely difficult to accomplish the rest of our mission and nearly impossible to fully realize the thoughtful new vision. 

but what about numbers? 

kathy henson said it best. if the 108 people (and those that were not able to be with us on jan. 20) in that room can truly find their holy purpose, the numbers will take care of themselves. it won't just be that people will be finding us. it will be that we are so energized by our relationship with our unconditionally loving god that we won't be able to do anything other than find people to share our passion with. 

and it will be beautiful. 

because it is going to happen.