What is Mission? - post #1

We hear the word "mission" thrown around a lot. What does it mean? What is its theoretical or theological definition? What is its "working definition"?

This first post is consciously not taken from the Bible. (We'll get there.)   In part, this is because I think that the word "mission" has been used and overused by corporations, schools, organizations and teams so that the notion of having a mission tied to the higher purposes of God is one that is more quaint, and more theoretical / theological and perhaps not the "working definition" these days at all.  What are the working definitions of "mission" or "mission statement"... are we clear about what our mission is as a believer in Jesus Christ, is the church clear about her mission?  What are the competing missions?  How do vision and mission interact?

Good questions to begin to ponder, no?

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey


 Here is what Wikipedia says about mission statements:


"Mission statement


A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. It provides "the framework or context within which the company's strategies are formulated."[1] Historically it is associated with Christian religious groups; indeed, for many years, a missionary was assumed to be a person on a specifically religious mission. The word "mission" dates from 1598, originally of Jesuits sending ("missio", Latin for "act of sending") members abroad.[2]


The vision and the mission statements are often confused with one another, and some organizations even use them interchangeably. In simple terms, the mission is the organization's reason for existence, and vision is what it wants to be."

My article posted at Episcopal Cafe: "Goooooooooooal!"

"Goooooooooooal!"

By Peter M. Carey

It should be of no surprise to anyone who reads the Episcopal Café that this summer is the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican bishops in Canterbury, England for the Lambeth Conference. Much has been written about this conference this year, and the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion are surely picking up more than our share of headlines. I have been thinking about this gathering of bishops and their spouses and thinking about both the turmoil and the possibility that exist for the Anglican Church at this moment in our history.

I was reading last month in Ed Friedman’s posthumously published book, A Failure of Nerve, that one sign of overly reactive and anxious organizations is that there is a lack of playfulness. Is the Anglican Communion displaying the tell-tale signs of an overly reactive and anxious organization? Is there playfulness and humor at each level of the body of our church? I hope there is more playfulness than I am sensing in what I read and see.

While I know that the lack of playfulness and humor is the result of the reactivity and anxiety, I wonder if play and humor may also be a solution.

Read it all HERE.

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