Church Business

As my church is in the midst of a pastoral search, we are also taking a look at our "mission statement" and our ministries.  While some of this is good, I have never been a fan of church mission statements.

It seems to me that Jesus was rather clear in what the church was to do in Matthew 28:19-20: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 


Why we, as the church, think we need to add or subtract from this statement is beyond me.  The other problem I have with church mission statements is that the idea is stolen from the business world.  The church is not a business!  While there can be good ideas from business that the church should apply (like accountability), mission statements are not necessarily the best idea.  


Mission statements are designed to provide a purpose for the organization.  A way to unify the workers toward a common goal.  Again, it seems that Jesus has already done this for the church in his last directions to his disciples.  When we synthesize our own purposes and ideas of what church should do, we tend to leave out some of Jesus' directives, selecting our favorite ideas like baptism or evangelism or world missions.