Implicit mission, that is. Before you start your visioning, before you begin looking for your explicit mission, deal with the mission your church already has. Oh, it has one. It's implicit, and probably invisible. If it's articulated, it's through those statements that come out in conversation, when you're deciding whether or not to do something. Do we go to two services? Do we move? Do we expand our religious education program? Do we keep this particular element in the worship service? There are often answers that will come out, that are key to the identity you have (which is not necessarily the identity you want) and key to why you actually have a church. Why do you have a church? What is the raison d'être of your church? Why does it exist? Unless your implicit mission is first acknowledged and addressed, it will continue to be the guiding mission of the church, no matter the beautiful mission statement that is explicitly created. Maybe the impli...
Ruminations from a Texas Unitarian Universalist pastor