What do we want to see?

Vision, Mission, Beliefs, Values, and Strategy.

Business, organizations, non-profits, and churches all tend to have mission statements. Some groups take it further with common language past the mission statement. Have you ever heard a church talk about mission, vision, their beliefs, or their values? Sometimes these terms can feel like they run together. But when done right, these terms can bring their own distinctive clarity to an organization’s culture. So here's a quick guide to help us make distinctions and bring clarity to what we mean by each of the following terms:

  • Vision is see.

  • Mission is do.

  • Beliefs are guides.

  • Values are goals.

  • Strategy is how.

Vision

Real Life Church’s vision is to be a church that unchurched people find irresistible. That's what we want to see.

Real Life Church is our "house." YX is a room in the house. We're not reinventing, we are figuring out how we apply the mission and vision for our room. So what is our “delegated vision?” A specific expression for our room that serves the overall house.

What do we want to see for students? What are we asking God to do?

We want to see students know and grow with Jesus.

We want to be a student ministry where new students love coming and regulars love growing. We want to create community where students belong from the beginning. We want to see leaders who influence students through relationships to believe in Jesus and become more like Him.

So that means we have a vision for YX leaders too:

We want to see leaders who create community and lead by influence.

Creating community is a commitment to connect students to a bigger body of Christ. To help their church become their circle. If I'm committed to creating community for others, I gotta host a party every now and then. I gotta clean the house and invite the guests. I gotta entertain them, I gotta come up with something fun that night to do. Creating community is not a passive hope, it's an active servant's role. It's remembering a name, following a new student on social media, and doing your part to help them belong from the beginning.

Leading by influence isn't repetitive or a non-sequitur. How we lead is by influence. This means it's gotta be real, authentic, and they follow our example because they want to. Think of an influence artist. When asked who influenced them, artists will name off influentials groups and soloists that came before them that they listened to, loved, respected, and on some level shaped and influenced their own sound. We influence students. We know relationships are a major factor in this influence, but so is our own lives.

Mission

RLC's mission is to help people find and follow Jesus. It's what we do.

YX's mission re-expressed for our room is:

Here to help youth experience real life in Jesus.

Beliefs

Our church has core beliefs on: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Bible, Church, and Humanity. See the details on each here: Beliefs.

Values

Our church's values: Biblical, Real, Generous, and Multiplying. See the details on each here: Values.

YX’s values:

Jesus is our issue, stance, reason, and message.

Hebrews 13:8-9 ESV Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

Grace forward.

1 Corinthians 15:10 ESV But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Worship is personal but not private.

Matthew 5:16 ESV In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Our one obligation to others is love.

Romans 13:8 NLT Owe nothing to anyone--except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law.

Church is for contributing, not consuming.

Acts 2:42 ESV And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

We help by pointing, not carrying.

2 Corinthians 3:16 ESV But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Strategy

Strategy is way more fluid than the others. Strategy is open-handed where mission, vision, beliefs, and values change less rapidly... even when we find new ways to express them.