My Problem With Mission Statements

Yesterday, a good friend and I had the opportunity to drive to Albuquerque and hear Brian Jones, pastor of Christ Church of the Valley in Philly. Brian had many good things to say. Perhaps I'll blog about a few in the coming weeks. If you ever get a chance to hear him, don't hesitate. Sadly, he's called it quits on the blog (although he was encouraged to begin again yesterday :).

One of the things I was struck with yesterday was how important we make mission statements in the local church. It seems the church always has to have the latest and "greatest" mission statment. The leadership provides some catchy saying in an attempt to get others to understand what the church is all about. What hit me yesterday is: Why do we (as the Church) use such things to market who we are? If we're being the church, hasn't our mission statement already been established?

Don't get me wrong. I've bought into the necessity of mission statement before. In the churches I've pastored, we've used A Real Church In a Real World serving a Real God, Reaching Up Reaching Out Reaching In, and now At the Heart of the Community with the Community at Heart.

Here's the problem: If we're trying to be the church and not allow the corporate world to inundate what we're doing, why do we need to establish a catchy saying so that it will sound cool and look good with our logo? Why not return to what we're supposed to be about? Why not have a mission simple enough so that everyone remembers and understands, while at the same time, it's not something we've created? Wasn't it Jesus who established His mission statement (and ours) as Love God and Love Others?

Sounds like a pretty good mission statement to me. What are your thoughts?