Foothills’ Proposed Mission Statement: Engage people to put Jesus first for the sake of others
What is a mission statement (taken from Auxano, a Church Vision and Consulting group)?
- The Great Commission reworded for a unique context.
- It answers the question before all other questions, “What are we supposed to be doing?”
- It is a compass, a North Star, the heartbeat and a golden thread that weaves through every activity in the church.
- It’s the job description for every member.
- It reminds that the church exists for others!
Here’s some brief thoughts on our proposed mission statement:
Engage: The word engage is an action-oriented word. It means to occupy the attention or efforts of a person or persons. We’re proposing we engage people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To put Jesus first: This speaks to the greatest commandment found in Matthew 22:34-40, where Jesus tells us that every facet of our lives are to be yielded to Him.
For the sake of others: This speaks to the second greatest commandment where we’re to love our neighbors as ourselves. And again, the language is purposefully outward oriented. Too many churches are committed to themselves to the neglect of those that do not know Jesus.
Why should a church have a mission statement?
Without the mission a church is not a church; it’s just a group of disobedient Christians hanging out – J.D. Greear
Theology Along the Way 
How would you reply to those who say “Our mission statement is the Great Commission. It’s Scripture, why would we want something else?”
Tapp, good question. What we’ve sought to do is have a mission statement that communicates the Great Commission but reworded for our context. Thus, every church’s mission should in some form/fashion teach Matt 28 and other GC passages.
The same question could be asked concerning our proposed values (authority of Scripture, simplicity, lost people and better together [i.e. community])…we worked hard (over 100+ hours of meeting to discuss/exegete our context) to discern what are some values that we believe our church needs to be mindful of given our context.
Hope you’re well bro.