By Revs. Dennis Daniel & Sydney Wilde
Church consultants are talking these days about Mission, Vision, and Values, a tripartite statement of what the church is about. In effect, Mission tells us what we should be striving for, Vision tells us how we plan programmatically to go about accomplishing our mission, and Values tell us what is distinctly ours about the whole process. For example, a simple mission statement might be, "This congregation strives to be a good neighbor to its members and its community." A vision statement built on that mission would include such things as open worship, life-long religious education, community service, availability of the building for community events, pastoral care, rites of passage for members and nonmembers alike, involvement in interfaith efforts, and hosting a forum for social justice. The values which guide those efforts would be: honoring reason and experience in religion; the democratic process; freedom from creed; the worth and dignity of every individual; ethnic, racial and sexual diversity; access for the disabled; responsible citizenship; congregational autonomy; an understanding that all things are connected in some way.
Another possible Mission statement would be: to spread the gospel of Unitarian Universalism. The vision that grows from such a mission would involve presenting a higher profile to the community, with outreach to the campus, programs in the schools, training for parents, deliberate connection to the gay and lesbian communities, myriad offerings that bring people into the building, a radio or television program, and visible sponsorship of community events. It might require the invention of another program as far reaching as the Chicago Children’s Choir. It might also include house to house visits of entire neighborhoods by church members. And it might include changes in the patterns of worship and gathering to make the services more attractive to a wider congregation — lively music, interaction between preacher and congregation, more hymns and less choir, more parts for the congregation to speak aloud. The values underlying such a push would be very similar to those listed above, but they would also include visible pride in who we are, an ability to separate style from message, and the conviction that the world needs to know about Unitarian Universalism and that we need to deliver the message in language that the world can understand.
The current Mission statement of First Unitarian Church actually combines a Mission and a Vision statement, with a sprinkling of Values thrown in as modifiers, and it works fine. However, stripped of adjectives and adverbial phrases, what it says is that First Unitarian Church is a community which celebrates stages of life. This is an inward-facing mission, with no call to service or outreach, and it raises Rabbi Hillel’s old question, if we are only for ourselves, who are we? Sydney and I know that the church does have a sense of mission toward the larger community, so we feel the need to ask why this is not reflected in your official mission statement as mission rather than vision. Does the church have a unifying mission? Are the various programs the church offers designed to serve that mission? Has thought been given to how the mission of the church should generate a variety of programs?
Coda
We see lots of energy in this church, many people who truly care about one another, and a dedication to making the process work. All the basics are here. This is a fine church, in some aspects an outstanding church. Our observations are intended to help you move to the next level of effectiveness, to progress beyond survival to "thrival." And you will have to figure out among yourselves how to address each of the issues we have raised. The responses have to come from within the congregation and be consonant with your tradition and your identity. We have confidence that you will be able to do so.