Mission Statement - Bible reading week 6, day 1

Today is an in between devotional as we go onto chapter 7 of Ecclesiastes on Wednesday.

I would like to share with you this morning some thoughts I shared with the Overseers just recently about execution.  Many times we have great goals but the follow through to see them become a reality falls short.  Many times it is hard to measure those goals because they are not things we usually measure.  In a church we can easily measure attendance and offerings but how do you measure people Knowing Jesus, Growing in Him, Going where He leads, and Showing His love, which is our mission statement at OUC?  It is not as easy.  It requires more than counting heads or counting pennies.  To measure our mission statement takes a lot of communication and accountability.

Studies show that we spend 5% of our time on the important and not the urgent.  When we are dialed in to the important it is only 5% of our time.  We spend 10% of our time on the urgent and the important.  We bump up our time when the urgent rears its head.  We spend 15% of our time on the not urgent and the not important.  This is the time when we are doing things that don't have much significance to ourselves or the church.  Finally, we spend 70% of our time with the urgent and the not important.  We get sucked into crisis mode very often and go from one fire to the next trying to put it out.  This is usually because we are not actively in execution mode of what is important.

What is our WIG?  What is our Wildly Important Goal?  Our mission statement is our WIG.  I think we could even reduce it down farther.  Our church, the Christians who gather here, are to make Jesus known.  The results of doing so are others and ourselves Knowing Jesus, Growing in Him, Going where He leads, and Showing His love.  Can we measure if this is happening?  "Yes" is the answer.  We can ask the questions of any gathering or ministry, "Was Jesus made Known?"  "What was in place to help people Grow in Him?"  "What challenge was given to take Jesus beyond the four walls of the physical church building and Go where He leads?"  "What application was shared to put what we have experienced into the action of Showing His love?"

An article I read recently had the line, "We've also acknowledged that we are better at teaching, preaching, and speaking than training."  Training centers measure their success by how many graduates they have going into the field and that they are prepared for what is ahead of them.  Are we a training center that is producing disciples of Christ who are willing to die for Him?  These are the things we grapple with in our Overseer meetings.

Here is a great illustration from the same article that equates the church with being like a theater.

"The director is in charge of the entire production--he picks the play, modifies it, and casts a vision of its presentation.  It's the director who shapes the actors and has input even into costumes and set design.

When the play is in rehearsal, his role is very involved and visible.  He is training the actors to be able to tell the story and present their characters in a way that will make the story authentic and alive for the audience.

But on performance nights, the director goes to sit in the sound or light booth and he becomes invisible.  Most of the time, no one meets the director or sees him around.

Instead, the actors take ownership; the play is in their hands.  The director only comes down after the play to offer 'notes' on how they could do it better the next time or suggestions for each actor."

The article concludes with these thoughts.

"It's supposed to work that way in the church.  Ephesians 4 says the pastor is there to equip the saints for ministry.  In other words, the pastor should become invisible.

But the reality is, all too often, the pastor's paid to do the entire play while we sit, applaud, or critique.  But God's mission is not for the pastors alone to do.  The story of God told through your church should be told by the 'actors' who live in that community and are 'playing their part' in His calling on their lives."

My responsibility is to keep that WIG, wildly important goal, in front of you.  Not just to tell you about it but to be providing training to execute it.  It might come directly from me or resources that I pull in via video or live events to help us make our mission statement a reality at OUC.  The goal of OUC is not to just have more butts in the pews or to have plenty to keep the heat and lights on but to be a training center for Christians who have come to Know Jesus because He is being made known here; to Grow in Him through the Word of God that He has given to us; to Go where He leads with an outlook that my life and your life is His to direct; and to Show His love with visible physical actions touching the lives of those God has put around us.  

Why am I writing all of this?  Because I too am someone who has come into this church and received this mission statement like anyone new walking through the doors of this church.  I have to own it even though it didn't come from me.  I have to embrace it Biblical foundation so I can play the director role and when others are trained to get out of the way as the members of OUC put it in action.  

Let me leave you with Ephesians 4:11-16, which reads,

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.  Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.  But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the Head--Christ.  From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Let us pray.

"Lord, help us to see when we are not executing Your plan.  Help us to spend more time on the important than on the urgent.  May we execute the important so that the urgent comes less frequently because it is put in its proper place and not emerging because it has been dealt with a mission focused mindset and regular application.  May we be a place where the actors are increasing for the glory of You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam