Our mission statement at ClearView is: ClearView exists to make radical disciples focused on making God known to the ends of the earth. For churches to have mission or vision statements is really not needed since Jesus gave us clear marching orders. (see Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8 among other passages) But I suppose the exercise of writing (re-writing) our own words can be helpful.
Notice in the statement for ClearView the use of the word "radical". In thinking through the best way to make clear our mission this word kept floating back to the top of my mind. I hesitated using it for several reasons. First, because most people are fine with "status quo" but "radical" sort of turns them off. I understand that when it comes to "radical" tv watcher or "radical" mom or "radical" boss. It sounds strange in those contexts. We don't really want to stand out and to be "radical" by definition will cause us to stand out.
But the primary reason I hesitated using the word is because it is redundant when used with "disciple". Somewhere we lost the idea that being a disciple of Christ IS radical. To follow Him calls for us to be different (strange / radical) from the rest of the world. Our cultural christianity (whereby we say "I'm a Christian" enough that we think that makes us one without sacrifice or different world values or making other disciples) has lulled us to sleep. By (biblical) definition to be a Christian is to be radical. I guess we could have used words like "strange" / "different" / "weird" / "crazy", but "radical" says it.
Why is the church so anemic today? Because we are full of cultural Christians who look just like the people around them who do not even claim to follow Christ.
We need radical disciples. People who give sacrificially. People who share their faith boldly. People who make decisions based on a biblical worldview, not what their peers say is right. People who look different when you look them in the eyes (not based on what they wear). People who spend more time with their Bibles open reading it than they spend in front of the TV or on one of these things (computer). People who reflect God's character in their honesty / faithfulness / fairness / love. We need ... weird people for Christ ... but that doesn't sound good in a mission statement. So for now, we will use "radical".
This has been my view of the world from our hotel room each morning of this past week. Portugal is a beautiful old (very old) country. Our hotel was located in the heart of downtown Lisbon (the capital and city of 3,000,000). We saw a monestary, a massive cathedral, the world's largest collection of coaches (as in horse and coach) a beautiful port city, and lots of shopping. More than anything else, Leigh Ann and I had some great couple time making lots of memories.
