Why a Family Mission Statement? My husband and I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey and What Is a Family? by Edith Shaeffer and we were convinced that a Mission Statement would help to unify our family and our goals for our family. Just as a plane without a fight plan is going nowhere, a family without a clearly defined direction and vision will tend to be led by the crush of life's circumstances. A Mission Statement gives our family a purpose and reason for why we exist as a family. Society is tearing the family apart, but a vision and common purpose will help to draw our family together.
We have read and listened to many resources from Vision Forum. This has given us a vision beyond our immediate family to a multi-generational vision including our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We long to impart a legacy of multi-generational faithfulness.
We see our children as arrows that we will "shoot out" into ministries that only they, with their God-given gifts, can accomplish. In turn, they will impact their families and others for God.
A Family Mission Statement must be created with the participation of all family members, otherwise it just becomes something imposed on the children by the parents. The children must feel ownership in it.
Be sure to ask God to reveal your unique family mission. We began by asking pointed questions during our family nights. Use your own questions, but here are a sampling of the questions we used:
What are some of the best things our family has done?
What do you wish we could change?
What would be the ideal family situation?
What do you think God would like us/you to accomplish?
Be prepared to learn new things from your children and don't judge their answers or they will not feel free to express their true thoughts! You may find, as we did, that though most may agree on one aspect of ministry, another does not. You must explore how that person could contribute in other ways, or if that is really a viable option for your family because it could eliminate unity of purpose.
We also did an exercise of describing what we thought our family might look like in 5 years...10 years...15 years. This was eye-opening for our kids. I think we all tend to get caught up in the here and now, and to look ahead to the future, at what ages they would be and the potential things they could be doing, was interesting to say the least! We read examples of other mission statements (a quick google search will turn up several) to get an idea of what a mission statement looked like.
Taking our white board, we wrote down everyone's ideas of what could be included in our mission statement. It was then a process of combining like ideas and eliminating ideas that we could all NOT agree on. Please note that this was a process that took many sessions- it was actually several months before we had our finished mission statement! Don't rush this; it is a process, not an event! Also, don't feel that your mission statement has to be long; in fact , the more concise, the easier to remember and implement.
Once we had arranged our thoughts into a pleasing format, we wrote it out on the computer. Each person received his/her own copy to paste into a special journal. We made a larger copy to frame for our wall and all signed it. The important thing is to remember it! If it is forgotten, it will not have the power to affect change and all your work was for not.
Use your mission statement! Recite it often. What is the mission statement of the Starship Enterprise? For any trekkie fans, they can immediately recite, "These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before." Fans know this mission statement because it was repeated every show. A church planting pastor said, "You must mention your purpose and vision at least every three months." Within the family, we should better this. Encourage the family to memorize your mission statement. Use it to make decisions. For example, if family members are becoming too busy, use your statement to see if those activities are contributing to your family mission. If not, learn to say 'no.'
We have used our mission statement as a way of helping us to set individual goals. In our special journals, we each set individual goals for ourselves. These may be in the areas of health, finances, giving, school/business, spiritual, talent (ie: music) or others. Yearly we review these goals and set new goals instead of resolutions. Several times throughout the year we review our goals on family nights,one person per week, and then pray as a family for that person and their specific goals. This is very unifying!
We have read and listened to many resources from Vision Forum. This has given us a vision beyond our immediate family to a multi-generational vision including our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We long to impart a legacy of multi-generational faithfulness.
We see our children as arrows that we will "shoot out" into ministries that only they, with their God-given gifts, can accomplish. In turn, they will impact their families and others for God.
A Family Mission Statement must be created with the participation of all family members, otherwise it just becomes something imposed on the children by the parents. The children must feel ownership in it.
Be sure to ask God to reveal your unique family mission. We began by asking pointed questions during our family nights. Use your own questions, but here are a sampling of the questions we used:
What are some of the best things our family has done?
What do you wish we could change?
What would be the ideal family situation?
What do you think God would like us/you to accomplish?
Be prepared to learn new things from your children and don't judge their answers or they will not feel free to express their true thoughts! You may find, as we did, that though most may agree on one aspect of ministry, another does not. You must explore how that person could contribute in other ways, or if that is really a viable option for your family because it could eliminate unity of purpose.
We also did an exercise of describing what we thought our family might look like in 5 years...10 years...15 years. This was eye-opening for our kids. I think we all tend to get caught up in the here and now, and to look ahead to the future, at what ages they would be and the potential things they could be doing, was interesting to say the least! We read examples of other mission statements (a quick google search will turn up several) to get an idea of what a mission statement looked like.
Taking our white board, we wrote down everyone's ideas of what could be included in our mission statement. It was then a process of combining like ideas and eliminating ideas that we could all NOT agree on. Please note that this was a process that took many sessions- it was actually several months before we had our finished mission statement! Don't rush this; it is a process, not an event! Also, don't feel that your mission statement has to be long; in fact , the more concise, the easier to remember and implement.
Once we had arranged our thoughts into a pleasing format, we wrote it out on the computer. Each person received his/her own copy to paste into a special journal. We made a larger copy to frame for our wall and all signed it. The important thing is to remember it! If it is forgotten, it will not have the power to affect change and all your work was for not.
Use your mission statement! Recite it often. What is the mission statement of the Starship Enterprise? For any trekkie fans, they can immediately recite, "These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before." Fans know this mission statement because it was repeated every show. A church planting pastor said, "You must mention your purpose and vision at least every three months." Within the family, we should better this. Encourage the family to memorize your mission statement. Use it to make decisions. For example, if family members are becoming too busy, use your statement to see if those activities are contributing to your family mission. If not, learn to say 'no.'
We have used our mission statement as a way of helping us to set individual goals. In our special journals, we each set individual goals for ourselves. These may be in the areas of health, finances, giving, school/business, spiritual, talent (ie: music) or others. Yearly we review these goals and set new goals instead of resolutions. Several times throughout the year we review our goals on family nights,one person per week, and then pray as a family for that person and their specific goals. This is very unifying!
