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Parish Parish Renewal Newsletter Both Mission and Vision: Who You Are and Where You Are Going?
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| Both Mission and Vision: Who You Are and Where You Are Going? |
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 A parish without a vision (Where are we going?) will perish. A parish without a mission (Who are we?) will have no unique identity or purpose. Both vision and mission are necessary but they are not the same. Begin with the mission, the bedrock of any parish. What makes your parish different from any other? To discover the answer, call a joint meeting of the staff and pastoral council.Begin by asking people to think of some core values that help define the parish and its unique purpose or mission. Then, giving each person a bible, invite them to spend ten minutes alone looking for a scripture passage that reflects one or more of these core values. People then assemble into groups of four or five each to share a short section of the bible passage and explain what values it uncovered. From this sharing the group constructs a common list of important values to bring back to the large group. Once each small group's values are shared with the whole, each person is then given an index card and is asked to write a single statement that incorporates these values. Encourage people to be concise and succinct. With this individual statement in hand, everyone returns to the small group and listens to each person's parish mission statement. From these individual contributions, each small group constructs its own statement and writes it on a large sheet of paper to bring back to the large assembly. The statement should be no more than three or four lines so that it is easily remembered. The small group statements are put up for all to see. A facilitator reads the statements, underlying common elements contained in each one. One person is then selected from each small group to form a committee that will take the various group statements and fashion them into a single draft statement that will be presented at a subsequent meeting for reaction and approval. One statement that was formed using this process is as follows: "Our mission is to Welcome all to join us around the table of the Eucharist, to Equip one another for living the Catholic faith in our daily lives, to Send each other out to act justly, serve others and spread the Good News of Jesus Christ." This is a statement short enough to be easily promulgated in the parish through banners, pictures, handouts – even to be proclaimed during the weekend liturgies. The three words of Welcome, Equip and Send defines the parish's reason for being and sets it on a course of action. Where You Are Going? A Vision Statement is something different. It flows out of the Mission Statement, setting a direction or providing a desired outcome for some aspect of parish life and ministry. Five key areas are essential to any modern Catholic parish: Worship, Community-building, Formation, Outreach and Administration. In our mind, the vision is the overall desire or emphasis for one of these important areas of the parish. For instance, the vision for Worship might be "that everyone who comes to the weekend liturgies takes an active part in the prayer, singing, responses and interaction of the community." This is the overriding desire and intent for every aspect of communal worship in the parish. But this vision is too broad. In needs to be spelled out in a series of goals that will foster the active involvement of the parishioners. The same could be said for other areas of parish life as well. The vision is the broad sweep, while the goals are specific aspects or implications of that wider vision, always answering the question, "Where are we going?" It is the work of the Pastoral Council to articulate the overall mission and purpose of the parish. It is the role of the commissions to clarify the vision of what each aspect of the parish might be. The mission remains the same; the vision is adapted to fit changing situations and circumstances. Tom Sweetser, SJ & Peg Bishop, OSF www.pepparish.org Parish Newsletter A Service of the Parish Evaluation Project Milwaukee, Wisconsin March, 2006 Reproduced on the OPRFM website with permission |
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