The Power of Mission

Alignment and focus. Clarity and commitment. These are just a few of the benefits congregations can realize from a succinct and powerful mission, particularly when established within an effective governance system. Effective governance makes it clear who articulates the mission (the board), what the mission needs to articulate (what's our transcendent purpose-what overarching difference are we here in the world to create and for whom?), and how the means for achieving the mission will be established (through the minister or executive team).  

Effective governance also raises the powerful question, "Whose are we?" Who are our sources of authority and accountability-on whose behalf do we do this work? Is it just our members, or do we draw our authority from and experience our accountability to a broader set of sources? How can we get and stay in contact with these sources as we do this work? Who else needs to inform our articulation in order to do our best work on their behalf?

Despite the clarity effective governance brings, developing a mission isn't easy. How can you have an inspiring and powerful congregational conversation to inform your mission development? How can you take all your congregational input and then say, simply and beautifully, what difference you're in the world to create and for whom? How can you create the powerful alignment that an effective mission can bring to all your congregation's work?

Unity Consulting has worked with several congregations to design powerful congregational processes to inform their mission articulation, and then worked with them on the questions of "Whose are we?" and mission. In the words of one of our clients, "The appreciative inquiry process, which you and your colleagues at Unity Consulting have adapted so skillfully for use in churches, was the perfect way for us to approach the renewal of our mission and ends. The positive nature of the process and its focus on the future were just what was needed. Yesterday's retreat proved that what we had learned from the AI workshops really could be distilled into succinct and powerful values, mission, and ends. And it really did have some "magic" in it!"

Please contact us if you'd like to explore how we might help you tap into the power of mission!