The question was — what to do when we got the church building back! We entered a time of listening. Listening to one another and in prayer. We asked each MSC leadership team to talk with their members and let us know how they wanted to move forward. The church reopened in September. By now, most MSCs were meeting for worship, and at other times to carry out their mission work.
While the church building and Sunday worship service was no longer our only focal point, we absolutely wanted to maintain our unity as a congregation. Mark and I came up with this:. A typical MSC consisted of 30 to 40 adults with however many children came with them, and a volunteer leadership group of about six people.
It might reach out to children, the elderly, the physically disabled, prisoners, young people in trouble with the police and local authorities, the homeless…any group in need.
They met in coffee bars, school halls, youth centers, scout huts, and community halls. We had played a bit with how large to let MSCs grow. We started thinking 72, and found that was too big. So, when a group reached 40 in size, it needed to start thinking about multiplication. Ideally, it would happen in an organic way. For example, one group served Sunday evening supper to homeless people. In the course of their ministry, they learned that many of these people were sleeping in the park and awakening hungry the next day, so a number of the MSC members started a new group to provide breakfast.
New MSC leaders and members participated in a training course, and a church-wide teaching guide was prepared primarily by Mark Stibbe for use by all the MSCs in their worship discussions. Each week, I sent MSC leaders a note providing updates and asking for prayer requests. Periodically, I brought them together to set priorities and identify opportunities.
For the congregation as a whole, we published a quarterly newsletter which included news of events gathered from all the MSCs.
In time, that was incorporated into a website. Many MSCs also set up websites, linked into the main church site. From the perspective of those at StAndrews church centre, the new model involved some redeployment of staff and change of roles.
The new structure did not have a negative effect on church finances, although some minor MSC operating expenses eventually were church funded. The MSC model has attracted much interest nationally and internationally. We have been contacted for help and support by churches in Europe, North America and South America, from different denominations.
Mark Stibbe and I were encouraged to write a book about the StAndrews experience. We were also invited to be part of the European Learning Committee, where the leadership teams of 15 of Europe's most pioneering churches were brought together to form a learning community. This was a very creative and inspiring environment, where challenges were set and innovation was shared. Appreciate the genius of community.
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Esports Research and Its Integration in Educ The world of esports in education is booming, and A rule of life is how the church participates in mission. In the process they form holy habits that equips them to join Christ and his mission in the world. You become what you love more than what you believe. Your love is shaped by your habits. A rule of life provides a set of practices taught by Jesus to shape the habits and hearts of his disciples.
The proposition is that these words reflect the scope of our activities over the student lifecycle from initial enquiry to final award promoting the university; promoting educational aspiration; developing life and learning skills, developing employability, supporting students, etc.
We considered whether the three concepts were in a linear or circular relationship and toyed with a number of different layouts. On the final strategy document, the mission appears as follows, alongside an image which is intended to reflect the importance of team working, collaboration and partnerships as expressed elsewhere in the strategy. This section deliberately focuses on how to identify and agree your mission statement and not on who should be involved in this process.
Questions regarding who should be involved and how it should be coordinated represents a different set of challenges entirely and are broadly the same regardless of whether forming your mission statement, vision statement or values.
As a result this guidance is included at the end of this stage and is designed to encompass all three. They represent the nub of what you feel represents the best of your institution and what it strives to achieve. The next stage in the process is likely to be one of shortlisting, only possible if accompanied by a considerable degree of discussion, compromise and trial and error. It should be fairly easy to move from the original long list to a shortlist of real contenders, simply by discarding those elements which received only very limited support, or which are only slight variations on others.
Moving from a shortlist to the final number of agreed elements may prove a trickier proposition, not least because they may all be worthy entrants which, if length were no issue, would all be included. Here is where a process of prioritisation may prove useful. Secondly, it starts to give some shape to the statement itself by dictating the logical order in which each element should be described, with logic dictating what you consider to be the most important element coming first.
In many respects the process of defining the final wording of your mission statement is akin to writing poetry, with no word wasted or included without good reason, plus a similar need for the text to scan and flow as smoothly as possible. Focusing instead on what you believe to be most important to your institution , rather than simply repeating or trying to better well-worn generic claims should help in this regard.
As ever, it is advisable to avoid jargon and to use plain English and short sentences wherever possible to ensure that your message is not weakened or lost. As the above guidance implies, it is our view that the mission statement should be an accurate summary and reflection of the institution and what it strives to achieve as it is. Where it strives to be in the future is something which should be defined in its vision — as described in future sections. However, it may be that in certain exceptional circumstances — for example following the granting of university status or other such major changes — that it is necessary to also take a more future-focused approach to defining your new mission statement and perhaps looking to some of the goals identified during the formation of that vision to help craft a mission statement that describes how you see the new mission of the institution going forward, rather than simply reflecting the past you have left behind.
Such complexities help remind us that individual circumstance and operational necessity may often require a more pragmatic and less clear-cut approach than it is possible for us to describe in this guidance. Although crafted with longevity in mind it is also important to periodically review your mission statements to check that they are still current and valid.
This may be particularly relevant after the kind of major organisational change mentioned above, but may also be required simply due to the passage of time and the gradual impact of change. A scheduled review process, perhaps annually or every few years can help ensure its continued relevance, always starting with an assessment of the statement as it currently stands and whether each element is still accurate and helpful. If there are aspects of it which should be removed or altered following the rest of the guidance in this section should help you to identify what they can most usefully be replaced with.
If your mission statement can best be described as a reflection of the fundamental purpose or purposes of your institution your vision statement should complement and enhance this by providing a description of where you hope this purpose will lead.
In essence it represents a description of what and where you want to be. As such it is a statement of aspiration, not necessarily of fact and represents a vision of the type of organisation that you are striving to become and the high level goals you are hoping to achieve. Given these characteristics it is clear to see why an institution has need for both a mission statement and a vision statement as integral and complementary parts of its strategic framework; whilst at the same time re-emphasising the importance of ensuring a common thread and congruence between the two.
It is also worth reiterating the suggestion given earlier not to get too preoccupied with terms and titles. Some institutions may well interpret the objectives of the mission and vision statements in slightly different ways, or perhaps even combine the two requirements into one statement.
We will be known for providing a high quality and cutting edge learning experience, for research which has a real world impact and for being a catalyst in economic and social transformation.
We will build on our existing strength to attain an international reputation as a leader in applied design and creativity and in healthcare and active lifestyles" Sheffield Hallam University.
Organisations need to know where they are heading and what they are trying to accomplish and to state this clearly for getting there is dependent on the efforts of a large number of people — not all of whom can just be assumed to instinctively know what the collective goal is.
It stands less chance of growing, expanding and improving because it has no clear idea of what direction or form this growth, expansion or improvement should take. Not every good idea can be funded and not every opportunity pursued. Without a clear idea of where the institution is heading there is no sound basis for prioritising these decisions, resulting in an institution which is paddling as hard as it can, but making little real progress.
As such, it should be possible to trace a link back to it from all other levels of institutional planning and goal setting. Your vision should also be a constant and visible element of your recruitment and selection processes, appearing as part of your initial job advertisement and application pack.
By doing so you make a public claim about where you, as an organisation, are heading and therefore the type of people you need to make this happen. A powerful vision statement should stretch expectations and aspirations helping you jump out of your comfort zone. However, as with the mission statement, it is possible to define some general principles of good practice which it may prove useful to consider when revising your current vision statement, or drafting a new one.
The vision statement is supposed to challenge, enthuse and inspire. Use powerful words and vivid phrases to articulate the kind of institution you are trying to become. If your real aim is to hit the top 5, why not say so and go for broke? What targets you set and how high you aim will, in themselves, also say something about you as an organisation. For just as the purpose of the vision is to inspire and enthuse, it is equally important that this ambition is tempered by an underlying sense of realism.
People need to believe that what is envisaged is actually achievable; otherwise there is no reason for them to believe or buy in to it. It is perfectly possible to be both ambitious and realistic and it is through successfully marrying these two forces that the best vision statements will be formed. Just as a commercial company may need to think creatively in order to identify gaps in the market, so too you may need to think imaginatively about what your vision is and how you describe it to help stand out from the crowd.
Unlike with your mission statement, there is no pressure to pare your vision down to the bone. Of course you want to be concise indeed many of the best examples of memorable visions to tend to be so , but there is no need to enforce an arbitrary limit on its length.
Take as much space as you need to get your vision across. As with your mission statement it pays to avoid jargon, keep sentences short and to the point and use precise, uncluttered language.
Though bearing in mind their different purposes, there should still be an element of continuity between your mission and vision statements, or at least some careful thought and discussion given as to why this is not the case.
At the same time, the vision need not be constrained by the current remit of the mission. If your vision statement looks to the future, the question needs to be asked: how far into the future should we be looking?
If you look too far ahead it can seem too distant and remote: perhaps even beyond the period that most of your staff are even envisaging staying at the institution and thus being considered largely irrelevant by them.
The flip side of this is that by looking too close to the present day you do not leave yourself the time required to achieve what should be quite ambitious and challenging goals. For example, a heavily research orientated institution with strong industry links might need to take a longer term perspective than one that is focused more, say, on teaching for vocational purposes.
Five years is far enough into the future to allow for profound change to be accomplished, but is near enough at hand for it to generate the momentum and focus required to influence strategic activity within the institution. As with the guidance on mission statements, this section focuses on the how. The who is addressed at the end of this guide.
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