Christ Church Has Officially Adopted a New Mission Statement, Vision Statement, and Core Values

On Monday, May 20, the Christ Methodist Church Council approved a new Mission Statement, Vision Statement, and Core Values for our faith family. This work began last year with input from church members, followed by the formation of the Christ Church Vision Team (Chaired by Robert Montague) in September and through the collaboration of members of the Church Council and church staff. This work was done through deep interaction with Scripture, prayer, fasting, and discernment. 

Defining the Terms

One might ask, what’s the difference or distinction between a mission statement, a vision statement, and core values?

• A Mission Statement serves as the edge in the sword in all that we will pioneer together. It’s our rudder for ministry and defines, based on Scripture, the clear mission of Jesus’ church. 

• A Vision Statement describes what we aspire to be as we fulfill the mission of glorifying God and making disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples. A vision statement helps to paint a picture of what a Gospel-centered community looks like as she fulfills her mission in the Wesleyan way.

• Core Values reflect the spirit in which we seek to function as we fulfill the mission and vision of Jesus’ church. We recognize that fruitful ministry isn’t just rooted in serving God; it’s rooted in the spirit in which we operate as we serve God.

After our summer teaching series on the Book of Galatians, we’ll engage in a new Sunday morning teaching series on our new mission, vision, and core values. Over the coming months and into the fall, we will prayerfully develop goals for discipleship and mission, which reflect the living out of our new mission and vision. You will hear more about this soon.

New Christ Church Mission Statement:

We exist to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples. 

The Scriptures are packed with the radiance of the centrality of the glory of God. In addition, Jesus gives His church very specific instructions regarding making disciples in all four Gospels and the Book of Acts. Jesus instructs His church to make disciples locally and globally with clear commands to go to all the people groups of the earth. Everyone plays a part in this mission, whether by going, praying, resourcing the mission, and/or being equipped in and engaging in intentional disciple-making.

As part of creating heightened synthesis in our faith family, we are in the Great Inversion. What does this mean? We’re moving from merely being a teaching church to being an equipping church, and we’re moving from merely being a “come and see” church to a “Go and tell church.” For a refresher on these topics, review points #3 and #4 at this LINK.

Why move into the Great Inversion? Because we’re committed to making disciples.

A disciple is someone who has moved from being the recipient of the church’s mission to being responsible for the church’s mission. This will take time and will not happen overnight. As more people pray and obey Jesus’ words, God will be faithful to bless and heat up the incubator of His church in reproducing new life.

New Christ Church Vision Statement:

By the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be a gospel-centered community who magnify Jesus Christ as we worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly while serving the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized, spreading scriptural holiness in our city and to the nations for the spiritual awakening of all. 

There’s so much powerful content in this Vision Statement that I don’t have space to write about it here. However, I look forward to teaching a series on our Vision Statement this fall.

Additionally, I want to note that the phrase “spreading scriptural holiness” reflects our Wesleyan roots as Methodist Christians. When John Wesley used this phrase, he referred to Christians being deeply developed as mature disciples, and growing in their sanctification in the gift of deep community with one another. 

New Core Values

Act in Love 
Move in Faith 
Submit to the Truth of Scripture 
Commit to Prayer and Worship 
Live and serve in Community

As the work on our mission statement, vision statement, and core values has come to completion, I want to thank members of the church who submitted input, members of the Christ Church Vision Team, our Church Council, and members of the Christ Church staff who also contributed prayerful ideation. May God be glorified as we make disciples of all peoples!