Jun

Missions Statements or “Mantras?”

Guy Kawasaki, famed for his “evangelistic” work for Apple’s Macintosh computer, writes in his book “Art of the Start” (actually I read this in a PDF condensed version at ChangeThis!) that instead of writing complex mission statements that are usually dusty, forgotten and full of complicated jargon, companies (and I would submit, churches as well) should “make mantra” instead.

He includes a chart of several well-known companies, listing both their official mission statements and his “hypothetical mantra” version. Here are a couple I thought were especially poignant:

Red Cross – “Stop suffering.”

Southwest Airlines – “Better than driving.”

Coca-Cola – “Refresh the world.”

How many times have you seen a church mission statement that was the equivalent of a high school English essay exam answer, when it could have easily been stated in a simpler, easy-to-remember format that gets to the gist of it all?

Kawasaki advises making them “short and sweet.” The idea is to give your congregation a takeaway vision of what you are leading your church to embody in your community.

Send your statements — ah, rather “mantras” — to me, I’d love to check them out!

Categories : Church Marketing