I've made a commitment to work on our mission statement during the month of October. I've organized a series of parish meetings at which we're brainstorming ideas about the mission of our parish. At each session we write on post-it notes what we think are the purpose, activities, and values of our parish. Later we'll meet to put those ideas into a mission statement.
So far it's been helpful to me to listen to people talk about our parish. I've heard a lot about how we care for each other, and how we're a friendly and welcoming parish. Worship always comes up as an important value.
I've also encountered a lot of apathy about mission statements. I guess people have been subjected to long boring meetings that produced long boring mission statements, not only in the church but in other organizations. Mission statement = boring.
Somewhere I read this: "What we need is not a mission statement but a mission." I think that's pretty valid. The important thing is not to produce a document to sit on a shelf, but to know who we are and what we stand for.
My personal goal for this exercise is to be able to stand up in front of a group and say, "St. Antony's is a ___________ church. We're all about __________."
So I'm learning a lot and I hope as we continue these meetings we'll be able to coalesce in our thinking and come up with some pithy, tangy language that expresses who we are and what we do.
Mission statement!!
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