From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 3, Number 1
Lent 1998
”Vision” and “Mission”
We
Are All One in Mission
The code words “vision” and “mission” have been
floating around our church for a few decades now. They are heard at Synod workshops, at church council meetings, in
evangelism committee meetings and in
church basements. Every living bishop
and every known ecclesiastical bureaucrat speaks about them. In fact they have been used so much that
it seems we’ve used them up. Do they have any meaningful content left for
us?
We both
just happen to be serving on the Synod Council and on the Editorial Council of Let’s
Talk simultaneously. As Synod
Council members, we have been engaged in a yearlong process that began not with
the questions, “What is our vision?” or “What should our mission statement
be?” but with a very practical, yet
extremely important ecclesiastical question: Of what importance is the Synod to
the congregations of Metro Chicago?
That is where we started in the fall of 1996. In June the Council came to the Synod Assembly with a proposal
for a new mission statement and with a single key initiative. Discussion of these items was held during
one of the many workshops and a small presentation was made at the assembly. The Assembly approved both the mission
statement and the key initiative. The
Synod Council understood that approval of these elements was only the beginning
of our work, not the end.
Now, one
year later, the Council is working again at every meeting (and sometimes
through special meetings dedicated just to this visioning work) to flesh out
ways in which we can work toward this new vision ourselves.
As
members of the Let’s Talk editorial council, we were asked to serve as
co-issue editors for a short issue of this journal to help bring to our readers
some of the thoughts and process behind what was presented at the assembly. The
Synod and the Synod Council are working to do this same thing and already have
some plans and proposals in place which they will be bringing to the
congregations. But to add another layer
of communication to this process, we give you three articles by the key players
in this Synodical visioning process.
First,
Bishop Olsen was interviewed to give us his thoughts on this process and on its
impact on the Synod. Then the Vice
President of our Synod Council, Gretchen McDowell, shares her thoughts and her
enthusiasm. She really has been an
energetic, relentless force in moving this process forward and making it
happen. Thirdly, Bob Gleason, another
member of the Synod Council, shares some information and insights about the
process to date and what is expected for the future. Bob is a professional in the field of organizational training and
leadership development and has been an invaluable resource for the council and
for the entire Synod.
Bob Gleason has
provided some fresh air for the process of visioning by bringing
corporate organizational models and definitions into church-talk. Simply by offering some fresh definitions to
words like “vision” and “mission” Bob has been able to move us into new
thinking. For example, his definition
of “vision” is simply, “a desirable
future state.” When we heard that
definition, what has sometimes seemed like a fluffy word or an empty concept
suddenly had new possibilities. For example,
our question to Bishop Olsen about his vision of a healthy Lutheran
congregation in fifty years is a way of painting a concrete picture of what the
future can look like.
We add
an article by Bob Cross, a Roman Catholic priest. He shares his theological and
pastoral reflections on what a congregational mission statement should say
about the human condition.
We hope
these articles give you some insight into this on-going process, and ways in
which congregations may want to evaluate their own work of planning and
visioning. Congregations will be hearing soon about opportunities to come
together to engage in these important conversations. So, let’s talk now about vision and mission!
Shirley Wilson-Sigler
Member, First Lutheran, Harvey
Mary W. Anderson
Pastor, St. Paul’s Evanston
Issue Editors