When was the last time you looked at your church’s mission statement?
If your church has a mission statement, everything your church does should honor that statement. If it doesn’t, your efforts reflect false advertising.
If your mission is out of touch or out of date, it’s time to tweak it — or throw it out and start all over. I know for some churches the latter would require military action or an act of Congress, but your mission statement should really guide your church and your church marketing efforts.
Business consultant Patrick Lencioni, speaking at the 2012 Global Leadership Summit, said a proper mission statement should answer six critical questions:
- Why do we exist?
- How do we behave?
- What do we do?
- How will we succeed?
- What is most important, right now?
- Who must do what?
Once you have a mission statement, work to make sure the church body knows it and moves forward with that mission in mind. If the mission statement is something that hasn’t been considered in awhile, dust it off, frame it, promote it inside the church, and use it to guide your ministries and let people know why you exist.