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Westminster Presbyterian Church Bradenton, Florida
Sermons
New Mission Statement
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This is the third in a series outlining and introducing our new mission statement. Our new mission statement is Loving God, Loving Life, and Loving our Neighbors. Read below to see how we got there...
New Mission Statement!
Matthew 22:34-40
The Reverend Chris Adams
January 24, 2010
Let me start this morning with a bit of a recap, just to make sure we are all on the same page; or wearing the same t-shirt, as the case may be.
Two weeks ago, we talked about mission statements and how a mission statement is not just something a church or other organization puts on its letterhead but something it actually is. We discussed how for us as a church, a mission statement is really our partnering with God in what ministry God is involved in here at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Then last week, Jason Onugha helped me unveil a new line of designer t-shirts. The early purposes of the church were on each shirt, and we talked about how those purposes are still the same even today so many generations later. I challenged us to imagine how we might hold all those purposes together in order to communicate what we are about as a church in total. We don’t want to just focus on any one aspect or purpose, but need to recognize all of what God is doing here.
So today is the big day! Today is the day when I want to share our new mission statement with you. It is merely my privilege to roll this out to the congregation, but I want to be sure you know that this mission statement has been the work of many, many people. I pray I can speak well for all of them.
You know, I have been watching the news coverage of the disaster in Haiti this week. By the way, remember we are collecting an offering to be contributed to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for Haiti relief. Just write Haiti Relief in the memo line when you make your check out to Westminster.
Now maybe it’s just me, with all that we have been talking about these last couple of weeks here at the church, but I noticed almost immediately the t-shirts. Many of the aid workers especially are wearing t-shirts that identify them as aid workers.
That’s a pretty simple idea. After all, they need to be identified as those there to help to keep someone from mistakenly thinking they are somebody else. Imagine if you were going into some neighborhood in Port of Prince and you looked like me, and someone thought you were there for harm, to loot or to take advantage. As I say, it’s not foolproof, but it’s a pretty good idea to be identified with such a t-shirt.
But that got me to thinking... two things.
One, what should it say on the shirt? What would the mission be, and two, and most importantly, how does a person get to the point of wanting to put such a t-shirt on and go to a place like Haiti at a time like this?
One image sticks out in my mind. One of the networks traveled to a place south of the capital city where an orphanage used to be. I say used to be, because today it’s just a pile of cement and debris.
The reporter told us that 54 orphan children lost their lives in that pile of rubble, and that they have not even been able to recover their bodies yet.
Then the reporter told us that over 130 children are still alive but have no place to live, and up until that day (I think it was Thursday) no relief had gotten to them. Imagine little children not eating or drinking, living outside in the street, with death and destruction all around, literally. If ever there was an image of hell on earth: that was it!
Then the camera panned and I saw the t-shirt. It was red, bright red, and across the front in big white letters it said, “Mission Mercy.” Wearing it was an African American lady from the United States. She was surrounded by crying children, and was carefully ladling out porridge as quickly as she could to feed these very hungry children.
There were other red t-shirts there as well. Some of them were holding babies with bottles, and others were bandaging scrapes and cuts. Some of the wounds were much more serious and the reporter told us these red shirts were making arrangements at that very moment to transport seriously ill children to the hospital. They weren’t sure how they could get them to the treatment they needed, but they were going to try.
Friends, again, maybe it’s just me and my late obsession with t-shirts but those shirts have stayed in my mind and have even become a representation to me of all the relief work being done in Haiti, even right now as I am talking.
Amazingly, the reporter didn’t even have to interview the red-shirt-wearing people, because when I saw their t-shirt, I knew immediately who they were and what they were there for. They were there to show mercy.
I still don’t know if they were a church group, I assume they were, or what church it was. They didn’t print their theology on the shirt, or the location of their church. It didn’t matter what denomination or whether they were liberal or conservative in their leanings, at least I should say it didn’t matter to those children anyway. All they cared about was a bowl of food and some band-aids for their “boo boos,” as my children would say.
Which bring us to our mission statement today. Friends, that’s what our mission statement should do too! It should show the world what we are here for.
Jesus said it in Matthew’s gospel, so many generations ago when asked what was most important. Jesus said love.
He said, love as an action verb. Jesus said the most important thing is to love God with everything you’ve got, all your heart, mind and soul. But that’s not enough. Jesus said, love others. He said the perfect expression of your love for God is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Church, that’s what we’re here for too; love!
And that’s what our mission statement says. Are you ready: The mission of Westminster Presbyterian Church today is Loving God, Loving Life, and Loving our Neighbor! What do you think about that...
That’s who we are, but more than that, that’s what we are here for.
Now let me tell you something more about this very simple, and yet I believe very powerful statement about who we are to be as a church. Remember those t-shirts from last week? Remember those purposes written on each shirt? Let me put them up on the screen for you. I want you to pay special attention to the colors of each of those words. Each color represents a part of our mission statement.
Loving God, well that’s worship. It can’t be much more simple than that.
Loving Life, well that’s a combination of Fellowship and Discipleship. When you live together with others, and when you live God’s way for life, we believe then you truly love your life.
Finally, Loving our Neighbors, well again simply that’s mission.
Last week, I asked how we could possibly get all four of those purposes on the same shirt, or in the same statement about our church. Well we believe the new mission statement does just that.
Loving God, Loving Life, and Loving our Neighbors! That’s it all together...
And every person seeing that on our t-shirt would know what we are here for. They won’t know our theology, our denomination, or even whether we are liberal or conservative. Because honestly, that just doesn’t matter to most people.
What most people want to know is “What are you here for?” Our new mission statement answers that question. We are here to Love God, to Love Life, and to Love our Neighbors. Because that’s what we believe God is doing here in the midst of our church.
But there’s more to it than that. Remember my second question to those wearing the red t-shirts in Haiti. What causes a person to drop everything else in their life, to put on such a shirt?
People don’t just do something like that on a whim. I mean it’s one thing to contribute money to the cause, and maybe even to collect some items to be sent to those in need. But how do you come to the conclusion that it is you that is to put on that t-shirt, get on an airplane, and literally put your life on the line to go to Haiti?
It seems like there is a lot more going on than first meets the eye. There seems to be some kind of progression, from thinking about mercy, to small acts of mercy, and finally to offering your very life. But honestly, I can’t answer that question very well for the red shirt wearing Mission Mercy. I just don’t know enough about them to know how a person joins that cause. What the steps are to getting them on the ground in Haiti.
But I do know something about our cause. And I also know that a similar kind of progression is a part of our new mission statement. It’s not just three concepts independent of each other; we believe the concepts themselves are related to one another in a very powerful way.
Remember the circles on the t-shirts last week. Remember how we noticed that people often come in to church through worship, that’s the biggest circle. Then they move to Fellowship and thus that’s the next largest circle of participation, and so on...
Well, in the same way we incorporated the purposes of the church, the new mission statement incorporates the progression. Now this is not meant to be prescriptive or rigid, but usually a person first loves God. Then God calls them to love others in that very special way we call Christian Fellowship. Then that love creates a deeper sense of purpose and love and a person seeks God more and more. We believe that is truly the definition of Loving Life. And finally that love of God, and love of self, creates a love for others we typically call our neighbors. It’s a progression. We didn’t invent it, we just identified it and tried to name it.
We believe once upon a time, the church used to pay more attention to the progression. We knew that not every person would automatically show up and be ready to put on the red t-shirt and go on behalf of their faith. We knew that was the third step, one that takes a lot of growth and commitment.
Today, it seems like we have forgotten this progression, and we assume that every person here today is in the same place. What if we advertised that following worship today, a plane would be waiting for us at the airport, and we would be putting on t-shirts that say, “Loving God, Loving Life, and Loving our Neighbors,” and going to someplace like Haiti? Would you be ready to go?
Some of you would, but it would be wrong to assume that everybody would be in the same place with our faith. Now don’t get caught up with the idea of taking a trip to someplace dangerous. That’s not what this is all about. The progression simply means that in order to become who God created us to be, individually and as a church, there are some steps that are necessary to take. Each of us has a unique ability to serve God in some special way, and when we Love God, Love Life, and Love our Neighbors, that gift comes out.
That’s the goal... The new mission statement not only identifies who we are and what we are doing, but also reminds us that our faith is a progression. We move from Loving God, to Loving Life, and finally to Loving our Neighbor.
The hope is that someday, someone might see us in the same way I saw those wearing the red shirts, and see our statement and wonder. I understand what those people are about, but I wonder how do I become such a person? How do I Love God like that? How do I Love my Life like that? How do I make such a difference in the world at a time of such need for my neighbor like that?
In closing today, I want to admit something to you. We have been making a big deal about how this statement is new. It’s really not all that new. If you read Matthew’s gospel, our statement is almost just a restating of what Jesus taught so long ago. How could that possibly be new?
What is new is our understanding and our commitment. What is new is the way we hope to live out what Jesus taught, the purposes of the ancient church in a way that makes them relevant and useful to the church of today.
What is new is that we can no longer assume that people arrive here ready to make our t-shirt the most important thing in their life. They might be willing to put it on, but then we have to be sure they understand what that might mean for them and for the neighbors they serve.
People often say to me, I wish we could go back to the way the church used to be. That’s what we are going to talk about next week... stay tuned.
When you leave church today, take this new mission statement home with you and begin to think about what it might mean for you and your family. Imagine how something as old as the church could be new again for you and your family!
Friends, thanks be to God for our church.
Westminster Presbyterian Church is Loving God, Loving Life and Loving our Neighbors!
Amen.
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