Each church must answer three questions: Why? What? How?
WHY? Why do we exist? Why are we here? What is our purpose of mission? A good mission or purpose statement fills in the blank: “We exist to….”
WHAT? What should we look like? What is our identity? What makes us different? What would we look like if we were doing what we are here to do? This is sometimes called a vision statement: This is a vision of how we look when we are fully accomplishing our mission. Other times it is called a goals statement–what are our goals, where are we trying to go, what is the end result? Notice that an identity or vision statement is is different than the mission or purpose statement.
HOW? This is a strategy question. This is “how” we will accomplish our mission and reach our vision.
With this in mind, the following is a possible identity or vision statement for a local church.
We are a local body of Christ, but we are also part of the larger body of Christ.
We devote ourselves to doing the will of God as it is revealed in his infallible word, the Bible.
We exist to glorify God in our collective worship, to reach out to the lost with the gospel, and to build up one another in love.
Because we are saved by grace through faith, every member is encouraged to use the talents given by God to serve others and to grow in faith toward God and his Son Jesus Christ.