We get that question a lot at the HBA Mission Center, so when we had our last quarterly Staff Development Day back in April, we spent most of the afternoon deciding the best way to answer it.

We wrote our vision and mission statements on our cool new whiteboard wall.  We wrote out our three strategies. Those are all really good statements, by the way.

But, the truth is that no one comes and asks, “What is your mission? What is your vision? How do you fulfill it strategically?”  They ask, “What do you do?”

So, we started circling words, looking up synonyms, and asking more questions.  Then we started drafting a statement that we hope will lead to more questions and conversations.

Here’s what we came up with:

“We inspire and assist our member churches to engage their communities and expand their kingdom focus with transforming grace.”

Part of what we do is inspire.  To inspire means to “infuse with breath” or to “prompt or instigate by influence.”  We cannot–nor should we try to–control what happens in our churches. But we do try to influence our churches by creating a fresh breath of air to prompt or instigate new ways of thinking and acting.

Part of what we do is assist. To assist means to “stand by or be present” to “give support or aid.”  We cannot–nor should we try to–do ministry for churches. But we do try to stand by our churches to support/aid them to greater effectiveness.

But, we didn’t stop there, because vague inspiration and assistance isn’t focused enough to actually accomplish anything.  So our inspiration and assistance are focused on two areas:

We inspire and assist our member churches to engage their communities. Every church exists in a geographical location (a community).  Without consistent reminders of the mission of God, churches can forget that God has sent them to those communities for the benefit of the community.  Part of what we do is to inspire and assist churches to get into where the people are, not to try to get the people into the church building.

We also inspire and assist our member churches to expand their kingdom focus.  The Body of Christ is bigger than a single congregation.  We can do more together than we can separately. Kingdom focus reminds us that the kingdom of God is most effectively realized as churches partner together without competition, territorialism, and isolationism.  Part of what we do is to inspire and assist churches to see the big picture of the gospel of the kingdom of God and to share ministry and resources in kingdom-focused covenant relationships.

All that is done with transforming grace.  True transformation is only possible as we lean into the grace of God.  We inspire and assist with grace. Churches engage and partner with grace.  And God uses it to bring about gospel transformation.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be unpacking some more of the what’s, the how’s, and the why’s of what we do.  This is a great time to be about the work of the kingdom and I am grateful to be your partner and mission strategist.