Why approach vision and mission by the path of looking at “who we are in Christ?” Because this path to vision and mission makes grace explicit within the process. Our vision and mission then starts with God (not ourselves) and flows from directly from God’s completed, definitive actions, and so the foundation of the process is not ourselves. Secondly this approach connects our mission to God’s mission, and our mission to good news—therefore a ‘grace-dynamic’ is to how we live.
We considered that our identity in Christ could be categorised into three dimensions: An upward, an inward, and an outward. The different metaphors that scripture uses to describe who we are in Christ were slotted into these dimensions, and then we chose one metaphor from each dimension that we thought communicated best to us and our culture, what are mission statement then is.
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Inward |
Outward |
Upward |
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Family |
Missionaries |
Servants |
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Body |
Ambassadors |
Learners |
|
Household |
Witnesses |
Disciples |
We settled on … “We are disciples of Christ; witnesses for Christ; family in Christ.” Pictorial represented as:
For each dimension of the mission we came up with a vision statement.
- Our inward identity in Christ: We can be an authentic community united in the truth of Christ, unity that produces deep love, patience, peace and gentleness to all.
- Our upward identity in Christ: Every part of our lives is given sacrificially to God. We are growing in love, trust and obedience to Jesus in every part of life.
- Our outward identity in Christ: That many would come to know Jesus because our lives advertise good news.