If you’ve ever worked in the corporate environment you know about mission statements.
I learned last week that when Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, purchased the Washington Post they added a new mission statement to the paper’s banner: Democracy Dies In Darkness.
Sounds pretty good doesn’t it. I also learned that it took months and many suggestions before they settled on the final one. I remember when I worked with McLaughlin going through a similar exercise.
I also didn’t know that the Canterbury Cathedral has a mission statement: “to show people Jesus.” That’s right. The “Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican communion and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury has a mission statement.
It might be that the cathedral is so grand and intimidating that someone decided to adopt the simple words “to show people Jesus” as its mission statement. Luis probably knows. But I love the message because if a church and its people don’t show people Jesus we are no better than the barren fig tree Jesus curses. The church exists to show people Jesus not in its grand structure or magnificent architecture but in ways big and small — to feed the hungry, cure the sick, and love all of our neighbors.
Christians also exist to “show people Jesus” in our thoughts, words, and deeds. We need not go through the formalities of developing a mission statement, we already have one.
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