I am a big proponent of intentionality in church leadership. By this I mean that the things that we do, we do intentionally to accomplish or move closer to accomplishing our mission.

I like the mission of the EFCA as stated in its articles of incorporation.

“The Evangelical Free Church of America shall be an association and fellowship of autonomous but interdependent congregations of like faith and congregational government whose purpose shall be to glorify God through obedience to the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ by bringing individuals to personal faith in Christ and helping them toward maturity in Him.” (emphases mine)

EFCA also has a motto and tag line (“Multiplying transformational churches among all people” and “Biblical and Missional; United and Free”), but our purpose is to be a family of churches that do the Great Commission and by doing so bring glory to God. EFCA is clear about the action to be taken. EFCA and its churches are to be bringing individuals to personal faith in Christ and helping them toward maturity in Him. Our action words are “bringing” and “helping” - they are our specific actionable steps for obeying the Great Commission.

Our focus on our mission to obey the Great Commission brings me great comfort and encouragement. It gives me clear guidance about what it is that I am to do as EFCA West’s director of church health – I help churches become healthy or healthier so that they can and will effectively obey the Great Commission. EFCA West focuses upon three actions to do this: we help churches by strengthening their leadership community, helping them plant churches, and helping them reach their “all people.” Our purpose is not to help churches plant churches. It is not to strengthen churches’ leadership communities. It is not to help churches reach all people. Those three things are the actionable steps that we do to accomplish the purpose of seeing churches bring individuals to personal faith in Christ and to help those individuals toward maturity in Him.

A couple of years ago, my church’s new lead pastor modified our mission statement. The previous version was drafted in-house and about the Great Commission but always seemed a bit off to me. We had large posters in common areas with our stated mission, and it was painted on some walls. But it included the phrase that our purpose to “reach lost people.” I was reluctant to invite a non-believer to come with me to the church where my guest would learn that I thought of him or her as a “lost” person. Though doctrinally true, I feared it would be received as an insult rather than an invitation to non-believing guests to begin following Jesus by yielding their lives to Him.

Our church’s new statement is “We help people find and follow Jesus.” This statement is not unique – I see it popping up all over these days, and I don’t know who I should credit with initially using it. We have it on posters and painted on walls. And it has proved helpful and inspiring to our people and to me. I want to be used of God to help people find and follow Jesus. Don’t you? Shouldn’t we all?

Once we have figured out our mission and the words to describe it clearly, we need to figure out what actionable steps we will take to accomplish it. This is where leadership comes in, and it’s something to talk about. It is our responsibility to go first. Here are some conversation starters you can use with your team and your board:

  • Consider taking time in your team and/or board meeting to ask those in attendance to individually write out your church’s mission without any discussion or looking it up. Have each person read their version verbatim and note the differences among the members as well as how their versions might differ from the church’s stated mission. Does this exercise indicate that the leadership of the church has clarity about the church’s mission, or is it fuzzy, diluted, or otherwise unclear? If unclear among the leadership, what does this infer about its clarity among the congregation?
  • Consider asking individually several congregants to tell you what the church’s mission is. Ask of a wide demographic of ages, tenure at the church, as well as leaders and followers. Did you just dismiss this suggestion out of hand? Is it because you know there will be no clarity?
  • What is our church’s actual mission statement? Ask the team some questions. Is it clear? Is it compelling? Is it memorable? Is it doable? Is it the Great Commission? Would a guest feel insulted by it?
  • How often do we talk about our mission? Do we speak about it during our public gatherings? I believe our church staff must have the goal of saying it verbatim at least once during every congregational gathering. It seems to show up at least once during every sermon. Should we start our staff and board meetings by reminding ourselves of our mission?
  • Discuss with your team what ministries and programs we are currently doing and how they directly impact the accomplishment of our mission. I mean evaluating everything we do. Are our ministries and programs effective – meaning are we seeing people coming to faith in Christ and maturing in Him? If a ministry/program is not helping us accomplish our mission or is not effective in doing so, what should we do about it?

The only way to keep something moving in the desired direction, including avoiding occasional obstacles, is to keep our focus on the destination and make needed adjustments whenever we get off course. It’s pretty much a given that we will, from time to time, get moved off course. Vigilance is required. In my policing training we were taught that a bullet will go where the gun is actually pointed – not where we think it is pointed. Where is our church pointed?

What is your church’s mission? Is it the right target? Do we talk about it? Do our congregants know about it? Are the things we do aligned with it? Turning mission into actionable steps is something to talk about – and talk about often. Do we leaders have the courage to have those conversations? And remember, the EFCA West team is here to help you and your church stay on target. It’s what we do.

Let us know if we can help and how your conversation goes. Contact Bob Osborne by e-mail at bob.osborne@efca.org. 

This is one of a series of articles intended to facilitate and guide church leaders’ conversations about significant issues that often are not talked about among pastors, boards, and church leadership teams. Visit the EFCA West website to see prior Something to Talk About articles.