Without looking can you recite the current mission statement of St. James Church? We’ve published it weekly in the notices for years. I’ll wait for a few moments.

(Theme to major quiz show plays)

Were you able to do it?

If, like me, you could not immediately call it to mind here it is: The Mission of St James’ Church is to restore all people to God, and to each other, through sacramental worship and Christ-like living. 

It is a good statement of purpose but needs updating for a couple of reasons. Mission and Vision statements need to be achievable and measurable, or to put it another way, what does St. James look like when we meet our mission?  How do we measure our current statement?  Is it achievable?  While I pray that St. James Church can help restore people to God, I am not certain that St. James’ Church can restore all people to God, even with great sacramental worship and a parish full of saints.

Our new Mission Statement is a bit longer, and harder to commit to memory, but includes those things that are necessary to meeting our vision.

The mission of St. James Church is to effectively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ & grow His Body among all generations in Texarkana and surrounding counties, and in partnership with the Anglican Communion, through: Quality Liturgy, Inspirational Teaching, Affective Preaching, and Ministry Development.

Here we have a couple of measurables:  congregational growth, intergenerational involvement, and connection to the wider Anglican Communion.

We also have those things that we need to meet the mission: Quality Liturgy, Inspirational Teaching, Affective Preaching, and Ministry Development. These are measurable. They are also foundational categories which we use to determine what programs we need to offer and how they are resourced.

Ultimately, these foundational categories are based on our core values.  More on that in the next post.