My "Mission Statement"

Recently, scanning my Facebook wall, I noticed a few friends had posted “mission statements”.  At first when I read them, I experienced some nasty flashbacks from corporate meetings of my pre-stay-at-home-mom days.  I’ve participated in think tanks tasked with creating corporate mission statements.  I think the idea was that we had to come upon some agreement as to where our focus should be.  And for a business, this is very important.  If a business lacks focus, it may bunny trail itself into bankruptcy.  I heavily doubted, though, that I could contribute to a mission statement destined to be instrumental to a company’s corporate success.  I majored in linguistics in college, not business. 

The term “mission statement” doesn’t appear in the bible by the way.  The word “mission” itself, though, does occur, but only four times in the ESV translation.  The first is in a conversation between Samson’s father and an angel.  The angel was announcing to Samson’s father that his wife would have a baby and that he would be under a Nazirite vow.  Samson’s father questioned the angel as to why this would be true and asked “what will be his mission?” (Judges 13)

The next two are within the same story in 1 Samuel 15, when Samuel and Saul have a discussion about the fact that Saul had been sent on a mission to destroy the Amalekites.  (And those who know the story know that Saul lost focus in his mission)

The fourth, in 2 Corinthians 11:12, is used in phrase “boasted mission” in referring to false teachers, which I suppose contributes little to this discussion.  But the other instances do seem to imply that having a mission is not un-biblical, but notice the missions were received from God.

When I look up mission, the definitions that seem to apply to this discussion are as follows

a. A special assignment given to a person or group: an agent on a secret mission.

b. A combat operation assigned to a person or military unit.

The second definition may seem at first not to apply to this discussion, but consider this, that we are soldiers of the Cross as believers. “Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  (Ephesians 6:12)  

Either way, a mission, biblically speaking, and even by its own definition, is an assignment.  Certainly as believers, we are not allowed to make up our own mission.

If you are looking to find a mission statement by which to live your life to achieve some earthly goal, even if it’s feeding the poor or healing the sick, then you might as well just come up with your own or maybe go check out something from the self-help section.  Search your heart, your desires, your willingness, but don’t search the Bible.  The Bible urges over and again for our focus to be on heavenly things.

Consider Jesus.  Jesus healed the sick.  Jesus fed multitudes.  But Jesus passed up many sick and there are many he didn’t feed.  Just look at what he said to Judas when he complained that the nard which Mary poured on Jesus was not sold to feed the poor.  Jesus said to him, “The poor you will always have with you.  You will not always have me.”  (Matthew 26:11)

Jesus rejected attempts of others to make him king.  He had no interest in delivering Israel from the Romans.  He wanted to deliver them from their sins, and he kept his eyes fixed ahead to the cross and the Church that would be birthed through his death, the kingdom that would be won that was a heavenly one. (Hebrews 12:1-3, Matthew 4:1-11)

Now the apostles were also on mission from God.  “Apostles” means sent ones.  Now we have to be careful, because not all are apostles.  In fact, apostles were personally sent by Jesus and also had to be witnesses to the resurrection (this excludes everyone living).  Be careful not to think too highly of yourself and receive as your own every mission given to the apostles.  Jesus told the apostles to go into all of the world. (Matthew 28)  And indeed the church is still tasked with sending his gospel into all the world, to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and to make sure this message reaches as many as possible. 

But is it really true, what Keith Green sang in his song, “Jesus commands us to go.  It’s the exception if we stay”?  Is everyone to go into all the world?  What then do we make of his commands to slaves to obey their earthly masters, for people to stay at home and not be busy bodies and work quietly with their hands and wives to love and serve their husbands and parents bring up their children in the training and admonition of the Lord and to manage their households?  What are we to do with Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 for believers “remain with God” “in whatever condition he was called”?  This should be considered carefully by every Christian.

So what do I know about God’s indisputable instructions to me from his word?  My focus, first of all, is to be on the things above and not earthly things. (Colossians 3:1-3, 1 John 2:15-17)  I am also warned that a woman who is “self-indulgent are dead even while she lives.” (1 Timothy 5:6)   I am to love and raise my children in the training and admonition of the Lord.  I am to obey my husband with reverence and respect (Ephesians 5:33).  I am to work with my hands. (Thessalonians)  I am to keep myself unstained from the world, for according to James, this is part of pure and faultless religion.  (So is feeding the poor, by the way, so I suppose I should also not resent cooking dinner for at least my family).  I am to practice hospitality (Romans 12).  I suppose I should at least practice this on my family until guests come along.  For if I treat my family worse than outsiders then God will not be pleased.

This list is getting awfully long.  I finally gave up giving specific scripture references for all these things, partly because they are repeated so many times in the New Testament it’s hard to miss them.  Go to the epistles and you will find all these things, or something similar, in almost every letter.  When I look at this list, a list that’s actually only partial, the more I see that I am neither focused on it nor achieving it.  In fact, I fail daily.  In the light of the Sermon on the Mount, I break the commandments daily.  So my mission is to repent daily (to beg for grace, in fact, to even want to repent.)  I will daily seek forgiveness for my sins and maintain a proper view of myself in the sight of God.  I will constantly bring myself to the mirror of God’s word to keep me focused.  I am lost without his light.  Without his Spirit and his word, I am aimless and wander in darkness.  Thanks be to God for not leaving us in darkness but blessing us with his precious Word and the gift of his Spirit.

I just want to give a word of encouragement to those who may seem overwhelmed at the idea of having a mission statement or that they are failing somehow not to have a “five-year plan” or something of the sort.  This is very popular to “preach” in business training seminars and such and I am sure it’s of value to entrepreneurs and those on in rigorous training for the Olympics.  But are we in “sin” if we don’t have such a plan or mission statement?  I’ve actually heard preachers teach as if it were sin of which we need to repent.

I would like wind up this post by quoting the Apology to the Augsburg Confession by Phillip Melanchthon as a defense of the refutation by the Catholic Church of the Augsburg Confession.  A short and perhaps inadequate definition for those unfamiliar with the history of the reformation, but you can go here to find a lengthier description.

“[There are] traditions [which have] obscured the commandments of God, because traditions were placed far above the commandments of God.  Christianity was thought to consist wholly in the observance of certain holy-days, rites, fasts, and vestures.  These observances had won for themselves the exalted title of being the spiritual life and the perfect life.  Meanwhile the commandments of God, according to each one’s calling, were without honor namely, that the father brought up his offspring, that the mother bore children, that the prince governed the commonwealth,--these were accounted works that were worldly and imperfect, and far below those glittering observances.  And this error greatly tormented devout consciences, which grieved that they were held in an imperfect state of life, as in marriage, in the office of magistrate; or in other civil ministrations; on the other hand, they admired the monks and such like, and falsely imagined that the observances of such men were more acceptable to God.

[These] traditions [also] brought great danger to consciences; for it was impossible to keep all traditions, and yet men judged these observances to be necessary acts of worship.  Gerson writes that many fell into despair and that some even took their own lives, because they felt that they were not able to satisfy the traditions, and they had all the while not heard any consolation of the righteousness of faith and grace.  We see that the summists and theologians gather the traditions, and seek mitigations whereby to ease consciences, and yet they do not sufficiently unfetter, but sometimes entangle, consciences even more.

Just because the traditions that we have collected may not match specifically with the traditions of monks, our consciences can be wearied by each new book we read with each new leadership or growth technique, just as much as quickly as the traditions insisted upon by Catholic monks of the middle ages or the Judaizers with which the Galatians dealt.  It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.  Stand firm then, and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5)