What's Your Mission Statement?

This morning at the Institute we had guest speaker Lloyd Reeb come and speak to us. It was quite a pleasure. In the short time that we had with Lloyd it became obvious that the Lord is using him to encourage, and motivate Christian leaders. Lloyd asked those in our class if any of us had personal mission statements. He encouraged us to ask ourselves questions like; “What is my purpose?”, “What are my skills/ abilities?”. He encouraged us to use these answers to form a mission statement that is specific. That the mission statement should include “Who”, “How” and “The Expected Result”. That once we’ve shaped our mission statement we can use that to become more effective for the Kingdom.

Here’s an example format he gave for thinking through and processing this: I’m trusting God to use my ______________ to serve ________________ so that ________________________.

He suggested that we should have a way to track our results, and evaluate if we are effective. That we should continue in efforts that produce results, and eliminate those that don’t.

Lloyd suggested that we make a chart of everything that we spend our time on and rate the level of value equated with each. That we should eliminate the activities of low value and find ways to overlap as many activities of high value as possible. His example was that he rides his bike to overlap times of prayer, exercise and solitude, by combining these he saved three hours a week and was able to reinvest those hours into other activities of high value within his mission.

Lloyd’s main point was that by having a clear mission we can free ourselves from the things that are not within our mission and those yokes that we tend to take upon ourselves that seem burdensome, overcrowd our schedules, and make us feel weary. In order to stay clear and focused we will have to say no to opportunities that are not in line with our mission.

All of this got me thinking…
1. What is my purpose?
2. What are my skills and abilities?
3. What are the things I highly value spending time on (and does how I use my time reflect that)?
4. What can I cut out (these may be good things, just not in contributing to my purpose)?
5. What can I overlap?
6. How can I be more effective for the Kingdom?
7. What is my mission statement?
8. How can I track my results?

Here’s my rough draft so far, I think this is going to be a prayerful process as I see how God is at work through and around me and where He’s producing fruit.

1. to build women up in Christ
2. encouragement, administrative/ attention to detail/ planning/ organizing, service, hospitality, cooking, crafting
3. time alone, prayer, journaling, study of Scripture, reading, connecting with my hubby, spending time with family, investing in friendships, exercise, serving others, time to be creative
4. time watching TV, classes at the Institute
5. go prayer walking, go for a walk with hubby… or prayer walking with hubby, go for a walk with friend or family… or prayer walking, crafting time with friends, crafting ministry opportunities
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?

Just for kicks and inspiration here are some mission statements from different organizations that I’ve been a part of;
-Your Next Step: Bring them in, build them up, send them out
-Christ United Methodist Church: Bringing People into Growing Love Relationships with God and Others.
-Kelly Services: To provide the highest quality service and solutions to our customers, employees, shareholders and communities.
-CarMax: To provide our customers great quality cars at great prices with exceptional customer service.

Shannon