Following the mission?

Just how does a mission or purpose statement affect your behavior? To face a truth right away, it all depends on how deeply your are committed to actually accomplishing your mission or purpose.
Take the case of a church. A mission or purpose statement is only as formative as the level of decision to actually see the purpose carried out. It would not be a stretch of imagination to understand that many churches have mission statements that they are not committed to following. How can I say that, because the behavior that you would expect to accompany the accomplishment of that task is missing. Another huge clue is the amount of non related to the mission activity that goes on.
Where does a Church come up with it's mission statement or purpose statement? They can borrow one from someone else or they could actually go to the book most say is their guide of life and living and see what the Bible says. If the church is the Body of Christ, it would seem to follow that the purpose of the church is the same as that of Jesus. Jesus was very clear that His mission was to reconcile the world to the Father. Thus the mission or purpose of the Church is to join with Jesus in reconciling the world to the Father.
The level to which churches allow other activities and interests to find their way into their calendars depends again on how seriously they take the mission's accomplishment. My purpose of writing this is to stir up some thinking amongst church members to ask their leadership if they are being guided by their mission or by their church culture. It is also to stir up a prayerful submission to God to return to the mission and repent of the sin of choosing our ways over God's ways. Just imagine what could happen in your own world if you and your congregation became mission focused?