In our contemporary world, any self-respecting new enterprise would be remiss if it didn’t have a “mission statement” – a quick little sound-bite that tells the world why the entity exists; its reason for being. So, that’s what’s needed: a mission statement; or a mission statement
While the concept of the formal "mission statement" is the product of late-20th Century schools of organizational management, and are the fodder of countless management seminars, mission or purpose statements are probably as old as any of mankind's endeavors. The apostle Paul, in fact, had a mission statement, and we’re talking First Century here! – talk about a guy ahead of his time. Paul’s mission statement is simple, concise, inspiring, and it conveys a lot. His mission statement would make any organizational management consultant proud.
His statement is found in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9:
To me…this grace was given, to preach…the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God…
I like the way the Amplified Bible renders “unfathomable riches of Christ:” “to proclaim…the unending (boundless, fathomless, incalculable, and exhaustless) riches of Christ [wealth which no human being could have searched out]…
Paul was a product of the grace of God, as every believer is. And with the grace that was given to him, there was also a mission: to preach (in Paul’s case, to preach to the Gentiles) “the unending, boundless, fathomless, incalculable, and exhaustless riches of Christ” that are available to the believer – wealth which no person could have figured out or discovered on their own, minus the work of the Holy Spirit.
And not just to preach about the riches of Christ available to the believer, but “to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery” of these riches in Christ – a mystery hidden in God, but revealed now in the lives of believers. In other words, Paul’s mission was to proclaim the riches, in Christ, which are available to every believer, and also to explain how these riches work themselves out (“the administration”) in the believer’s life.
Now, why shouldn’t that be the mission statement of every church, and every ministry organization throughout the world today?...To explain what we as believers have in Christ, and to explain how these blessings work themselves out in our lives. In other words, to bring Christians into maturity, and into the reality and experience of Christ’s indwelling presence.
And what, precisely, are these “unfathomable riches of Christ,” and how are they “administered” in the life of the believer?....These are topics for future journal entries.
Greg