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Showing posts with label good works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label good works. Show all posts

Monday, August 17, 2015

How to Create a Personal Mission Statement


We often read the mission statements of businesses and churches.  They help us understand their purpose and why they do what they do.  For example, the mission statement of Chick-fil-A is "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."  To be honest, I thought their mission statement was to make the most awesome chicken sandwich for me to eat once a month!
 
At Grace Life International, we go over our mission every time we meet together as a staff and in our leadership meetings.  Our mission is "To glorify God by sharing Jesus Christ and both sides of His cross so that people may experience intimacy with God and life transformation."  Simply said, we are all about "Sharing the Gospel with Christians".  Most of our staff could recite this in their sleep and they believe it and live it.
 
I also believe that God has a personal mission for individuals, not just organizations. How about you?  Have you ever considered that God created you with a personal mission to fulfill during your sojourn of this short life on terra firma?  He did. How do I know?  Because Ephesians 2:10 tells us about this divine design. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.  (NLT)  He came to live in you so He could love you and live through you to fulfill His purpose for your life.
 
When we are living out the purpose for which He created us, He is glorified, others are blessed and we are fulfilled.  That purpose is not exactly the same for everyone.  For example, God gave the Apostle Peter the mission to take the Gospel to the Jews but He gave to Paul the mission of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles.  For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.
Galatians 2:8
 
Are you personally interested in discovering your God-given mission for your own life?  Let me see if I can help you get there.
 
Let's define the idea.  A personal mission statement is a clear concise statement as to how Jesus desires to live through you to fulfill your God-given purpose.  It gives you "tracks" to guide the direction of your life. It may be something you do for a job or not.
 
Prayerfully ask God to show you the answers to these questions: 
  1. What activities do I find myself drawn to over and over?  It could be feeding the poor, teaching, painting, accounting, technology, health, evangelism, counseling, etc.
  2. What am I passionate about as far as what motivates me in life?  It could be more than one thing but one will rise above the others.
  3. What are my governing values that guide my life?
  4. What experiences have I had in my life?
  5. What are my talents?
  6. What are my spiritual gifts that I find myself enjoying the most?
  7. What is my personality hardwiring?  Take the DISC profile for free online by searching for it.
  8. What are my roles and responsibilities?
  9.  If money weren't an issue, what would I spend the rest of my life doing?  Yea, I know, you may be thinking I'd go to a tropical island and swim in the ocean every day!  That's not quite what I mean, of course!
  10. What are my goals in life? 
(If you need help, go to PLACE Ministries and for a mere $10, you can get a very thorough assessment of all of these.)
 
After you have answered these questions the best you can, not perfectly, prayerfully read them over a few times and then work on your personal mission statement.
 
Here are a couple of examples:
 
To glorify God by trusting Him to live through me to produce the best paintings I can so that I can show His creativity.
 
To glorify God by relying on Him to live through me to do a good job at my work so I can help the company succeed while making sure I provide for my family not only financially, but by time and leadership.
 
To glorify God by growing in my understanding, living, and communicating the New Covenant in all areas of my life, including my family, my work, my money, my friendships and my ministry.
 
I hope you will decide now that you are going to set aside some time this week to work on this.  It will help you more than you may know. 
  

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!