Developing a Personal Mission Statement of Faith

In the past few weeks in worship we have talked about living out God's purpose in our individual lives, as well as our life together.  I believe a personal mission statement of faith is critical for engaging our life in God fully.  While there are a lot of templates for creating your mission statement, I found this one and adapted it for our purposes:

1. Ask God to be present.  Approach writing your vision statement with a prayerful heart.
2. Answer the following questions to help clarify your thinking, as well as listen to God:

• Do I feel God has a purpose for my life?
• In what ways has God been working in my life?
• What brings me joy or satisfaction?
• What is God challenging me to leave behind or are there any bad habits to break?
• What would I do with my time if I didn't need to work for an income?
• What would I do if money was no object?
• If my life ended now, would I have regrets?

    3.  To help focus on your gifts, answer the following questions:

• What do I know more than others know?
• What can I do better or could teach others to do?
• What do I love more than anything in terms of ministry or service?
• What are the gifts God has already given you?

   4.  Using your answers write about recurring themes they reveal in the following areas:
  spiritual growth, ministry opportunities, direction by the Holy Spirit, relationships and any other broad  categories that you wish to add.

   5.  Think about how you can use information from your past to shape the future.

   6.  Distill information in each category into one or two actionable statements.  For example under spiritual,
"I am deepening my relationship with Christ through scripture study and prayer" or "I am experiencing the joy of drawing others to Christ through love."   Write concrete statements that are based on your core values.

   7.  Now... in 1-3 sentences, write your mission statement from what you have learned from above.

I will share mine next week.  Happy visioning!

On the journey,
Alecia
 

Continuing in Disorientation

Apparently I am not the only one in disorientation!  On Sunday I spoke about about a framework for our spiritual journeys using Moses' life as the backdrop.  If you read last week's blog, you undoubtedly realize that I had already been looking at my life through the lens of disorientation.  For those of you that are wandering around the wilderness in disorientation, I say to you, Take heart.  The wilderness is never fun or inviting.  It is painful, humbling and useful.  There is a harshness about the wilderness that sharpens us.  If we were not fully awake in our lives, the wilderness of disorientation teaches us to pay attention to what is important.  Spending time in the wilderness is not only inevitable, but it is critical for spiritual pilgrims to begin to find the gift in the wilderness.

To those of you who have never left the orientation stage, I say to you, "Open your eyes.  In the busyness of life it is easy to not be fully present in any situation.  We confuse activity with spirituality.  Open your eyes.  It is easier to move into disorientation if you are seeking to be more like Jesus in the everyday.  Disorientation happens as life unfolds.  To be caught unaware can be terrifying as you seek to navigate a death, a pay cut, a divorce, an affair, a betrayal or any number of life events.  Being open to the movement of the Spirit is essential.

For those of you moving into reorientation, I say to you, "Take courage."   You will experience God in new ways.  Moving into reorientation offers a better opportunity to better live out God's purpose for each of us.  God has a purpose for each one of us.  When we live out our purpose, peoples' lives are changed.  The Kingdom of God is alive in North Liberty!  When I am living God's vision for my life, I sense the presence of the Lord.  I invite you to engage the Lord wherever you find yourself:  orientation, disorientation, or reorientation.

See you on the journey,
Alecia