On October 9, 2016, Chris Coyle launched our conversation on creating and affirming our mission as a congregation of faithful and a society in service. His sermon, posted below, describes the process of creating a Mission and is posted in the space our Visioin and Mission will eventually reside. We encourage you to read this over and feedback your ideas of what this congregation should have as it’s vision and mission. Please email your ideas to athol.uu@gmail.com
Thank you!
Sermon – Mission Possible, Creating Our Mission – By Chris Coyle
At the 2013 annual meeting Rev. Richards challenged us to develop a mission statement over the next church year. I heartily endorsed her challenge and during the June 16, 2013 service I presented on Church History and Covenants and I made the offer to coordinate this effort. Unfortunately many “things” happened over the next couple of years which precluded my working on this project. But I had not forgotten the promise I made so when Rev. Richards invited me to present a service this fall it seemed like a good time to start.
Let’s begin by defining just what a mission statement is and why it will be useful for us to adopt one. The terms vision, mission and covenant are often used interchangeably but each has its own distinctive meaning and they are not synonymous. In the 2005 UUA New Congregation and Growth Resources on Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together, these simple definitions are offered for the 3 terms.
A Vision is a carefully defined picture of where the congregation wants to be in five or more years. It is the dream of what the congregation can become.
A Mission is a concise statement of what the congregation wants to be known for, or known as, within the wider world; what the congregation wants to mean to the community.
And finally a Covenant is a statement of how members of the congregation will be with, and will behave toward, one another, as well as what is promised or vowed to one another and to the congregation as a whole.
In addition to helping to define who we are, a mission statement is useful in a practical sense when applying for grants, releasing public relations statements and for publicizing our church organization.
So what is a mission statement? I quote from the previously-mentioned 2005 UUA publication.
The mission is a carefully defined, concise, and focused statement of what the congregation wants to mean to the community, and for what it wishes to be known. It is a statement of who you are and what you value, and it should be the measuring stick for all the congregation does. The mission statement should incorporate answers to the following questions: A If this is our vision, where does this lead us in mission? A What “must” we do? A In what ways does our vision lead us in service toward others in the broader community? The mission should use active, not passive, verbs and should be the guide for congregational life. The mission should relate a congregation to the community context by establishing the congregation’s sense of religious identity, relating this identity to the needs of those the congregation aims to serve. The mission should answer the question of who is to be served, what service is for those inside the congregation, and what service is offered to those in the wider community.
Mission Statements can be found throughout the business world as well as many non-profit organizations. Darden Restaurants, which includes the Olive Garden and Red Lobster shops has a nice and concise mission statement – to nourish and delight everyone we serve.
Girl Scouts uses the mission statement: “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.”
Rev. Dan Harper, who we ordained here at First Church, Unitarian draws from the late Peter Drucker in an online discussion of mission statements. One hospital emergency room had this mission statement: “It’s our mission to give assurance to the afflicted.”
He disliked vague mission statements, such as the typical hospital that claims, “Our mission is health care.” Not so, says Drucker: “The hospital does not take care of health; the hospital takes care of illness.” Worse than that, such a mission statement gives us no indication of what we’re supposed to do, what action we are supposed to take.
Another typical problem is mission statements that try to say too much. Drucker called these “a kind of hero sandwich of good intentions.” Instead, Drucker said, a mission statement “has to be simple and clear.”
Rev. Harper came up with his own list of criteria for evaluating church mission statements.
- A church mission statement takes into account the limits of church resources, while also taking into account the needs of church members and friends (and potential new members and friends).
- The surrounding community must be able to understand a church mission statement — especially potential newcomers, and potential allies in community activities.
- A church mission statement must result in positive action. It must inform the actions of every aspect of church life, from the Board, to the Sunday school, to the worship service, to potluck dinners, to committee meetings, to pastoral calls, etc.
- A church mission statement must result in heartfelt commitment from church members and friends (which also means that it cannot violate unspoken or explicit church norms).
- A church mission statement must be short enough to appear on stationery, on Web sites, in the order of service, on every publication issued by the church. It must also be simple enough to be understood by a twelve year old.
- A church mission statement must tell why our church is different — we’re not just another social service agency, we’re not the Rotary Club or Masons, and we’re not an evangelical church nor yet are we the Baha’is.
Rev. Fred Hammond has posted a sermon online entitled Creating the Future We Want. He states, It is the same with a community that seeks to make a difference in the world; we must be looking outward together in the same direction. This does not mean that we all see the same things in the horizon nor does it mean that we understand everything at the same time or in the same manner. It certainly does not mean that we will always agree with one another. It does means that our intention for what is best for the community is headed in the same direction. One way of ensuring our intention is to remind ourselves daily of what we have stated our mission to be here in this time and place. The intention of this congregation could change, but for now, in this time and place, our mission is to be an open and nurturing community. Everything that we do from greeting people at the door to our sermon topics, from the artwork we display on our walls to the religious education we teach our children, from the leaders we elect to the landscaping outside need to be reflecting this mission statement. Together, we gaze our eyes in the same outward direction.
To give you an idea what some other churches have developed for their mission statements here are some examples which appeared in the Spring, 2014 edition of The Universalist Herald.
From First Church in Barre Vermont:
The Barre Universalist Church will provide a loving, caring community which honors, celebrates, and defends the diversity of Creation; nurtures spiritual and personal growth; and encourages its members and friends to commit their time, talent, and treasure to serve others and to fulfill this mission.
From the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania we have:
The mission of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration is to affirm and project the principles and purposes of the Association. This includes actively maintaining a spirit of acceptance and a commitment to theological diversity, both of which are central to our Universalist heritage.
One last sample mission statement is from the First Universalist Church of Denver Colorado and states:
We are Welcoming; We are Green; We are theists, atheists and agnostics; We worship Together; We work Together; We play Together; We support each other with friendships and our ministry to each other we support one another through life’s transitions.
I invite each and every one of you to think about the important development of a mission statement for First Church, Unitarian. We hope that you will write down your ideas over the next few weeks and submit them on paper or by email to me or in my absence to Rev. Richards. After we receive your feedback we will proceed forward with writing a draft statement for your consideration.
Please keep in mind that the mission statement we are developing is for here and now. Although useful when developing planning documents this is for the present. We want the final mission statement to be a document reached by consensus.