I have heard all kinds of church mission statements. Some focus on finances, some focus on the homeless, some focus on people, and the list goes on and on. So many different things to focus on and such little time.
Should each church focus on the same things?
I believe the church is not a building. I believe God gives specific spiritual gift and annointings on an individual basis to members of His house and so at any time he may have a host of ppl praying for the same thing, though they are not connected in anyway except their calling and spiritual gift. Wouldnt a person annointed to pray for deliverances make more of an impact praying for deliverances than say they would for praying for abundance if delieverance was their calling and gift?
I think the mission of each gathering of people (i.e. the local churches) should be whatever God tells it to do. Each small body is made up of different believers with their own gifts and those gifts and abilities are different from other local gatherings. Each local gathering has the ability to reach out to different people, so they should do that. If every church did the same thing, then they would reach the same people and that would leave everyone that doesn't match that type of person without a church that is attempting to reach them.
This can be taken too far, but in general I think churches should have a specific focus and then do it well. As long as they are doing what they think that God is leading them to do that is great.
Pastors and church planters need to hear from God before starting a ministry. The vision should be clear. No single church can do everything. In order to be effective, church leaders should agree on the direction the Holy Spirit is telling them. Once it's agreed, they should focus on that until the Lord tells them to do something else. I think the problem with most churches is that they try to do a lot.
my church's mission statement is to "Know Jesus and Make Jesus Known". We kept that broad enough that it encompasses both missions and ministry.
I think that each person has a part to the body and each church kind of has it's role in the kingdom too. So different churches having different focuses or emphasis on certain things is okay. We all have personalities and I think people tend to gravitate towards churches that have personalities compatible with theirs. Missions, worship, Word, heart as long as the center piece is the Truth of Christ and the church is ALIVE then I think it's okay. Right? Just my 2 cents.
Ultimately the focus should be Jesus. Isaiah long ago had it right to see God through Jesus "high and lifted up." Isaiah 6:1 everything else filters under that or at least it should. We can get so focused on the periphery stuff that we forget Jesus. It happened to me.
Our church statement here is "Honor God. Make disciples." Everything else that we do falls in line there.
I often wonder why churches are looking for God to tell them something more to do than what Jesus told his people to do in Matthew 28. Do we need more directives? Do we need further instructions from God? If you were to ask me what the focus of church should be, it would be the focus Jesus had. It was simple. Reach out to people with the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that the Messiah has come and now the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world is here for all of us to be part of. Teach people that, disciple people in the context of life in Christ, and then teach them to do the same thing….