Purpose, Mission and Core Values

Our ministry leadership team met for a strategic retreat with a facilitator to help us with a four-year strategic plan. The first step we needed to make as a church was clear purpose, mission, and core values. Our first task was to write a statement that tells why River of Life exists today. We had a bulky paragraph trying to encapsulate every reason why we exist as a church.  The next step was reducing that paragraph to a single statement. This is the final result:
River of Life Church’s purpose is to love God and love others.
 
Then we worked on the mission statement which tells how and what we do as a church. Again, the process began with many phrases that told of the ministries we do as a church. Trying to bring all that information into a single statement was challenging. The final result is this:
River of Life’s mission is to grow in God and reach others.
 
Our final task was to write three to five core values that we would hold even if it meant difficult consequences. Our five core values are:
Core Values:
Discipleship
Outreach
Relationships
Biblical Truth
Spirit-filled
 
The purpose, mission, and core values of our church will guide us in what we sense the Holy Spirit calls us to do for the kingdom of God. Any requests or pressures that do not fit into our purpose, mission and core values will not be done because it does not fit into the call God has on our church.