UWM has a new Mission Statement that I think captures our mission, vision, and values in a really compelling way! At least I am compelled by it, which is part of it’s purpose! I love the way it captures our heart’s desire to see churches everywhere that are truly missional, contextual, and biblical, or to say it more simply: churches that make a Kingdom of God difference in their contexts.
I liked the process, too. We engaged all of our missionaries in an organization-wide conversation. I provided reflection questions for each team to discuss. Then, I met on each continent with our Area Directors and Team leaders for 2-3 day meetings to discuss the world today and our mission, vision, and values. As a result we have sharpened our mission statement to better express our focus, values, and passion.
Our mission is to serve with Christian leaders globally to plant, nourish, and reproduce churches that delight God and surprise the world!
I love that I and UWM get to work with gifted national leaders around the world. We never “do it ourselves” or do it “our way.’ We are the “anti-Frank Sinatra mission.” When in Vietnam, we do as the Vietnamese do. And that might not be transferable to Cuba or Senegal or Belgium. We listen to local leaders, and together with them we try to listen to God and follow His lead. And we’re aiming not just to build buildings, extend denominations, or even multiply a million groups. The quality of churches matters, or is it the depth of churches, or their heart? We give our lives to see the people of God delight the heart of God, and surprise the world with grace, hope, servant-love, and all the values of God’s Kingdom! “God-delighting, world-surprising churches everywhere!”
Check out the brief new video that brings the new mission statement to life (in less theological and missiological terms than I am prone to fix on…).
