Multiplying Laborers for the Urban Harvest

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Why a Mission Statement Is Necessary

In order to be a good steward of your resources and opportunities, you must be careful to make all your decisions in light of your fundamental purpose. You summarize your purpose within a sentence called a Mission Statement, which becomes the most concise statement of why you exist and what you hope to accomplish. While it is quite normal for some organizations to produce mission statements and seldom if ever refer to them, successful organizations take them quite seriously, and marshal their monies, facilities, people, and resources to accomplish them. Your mission statement will be the first and most-quoted statement that sums up your work at your Institute, so take the necessary time to pray and consider options before you settle on it. 1. It allows you to quickly and succinctly state who you are, why you exist, and what you hope to accomplish. As a leadership training center, your mission statement provides an immediate and important means to voice your intent in the creation and operation of your entire enterprise. 2. It provides a yardstick or measure to review your effectiveness. A mission statement that is referred to often and taken seriously in strategic planning will help to determine in what ways you as an Institute are enjoying success, or need to change in order to become a success. 3. It makes readily available to all interested parties the core identity of your enterprise. A mission statement declares poignantly the essence of your work, and so can be used often as a shorthand to communicate your identity. In this sense it becomes a kind of natural advertisement for informing others of your vision and values. As you carefully draft the mission statement for your Institute, keep in mind the following very real benefits of possessing a clear, concise statement.

This material was adapted from the Evangelical Training Association’s Developing A Dynamic Bible Institute. Wheaton, Illinois: Evangelical Training Association, 1997, p. 39

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