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Vote
on Cedar Lane Mission Statement
In The Growing Church (Skinner House Books,
2010), Thom Belote writes:
". . . I
bet you, dear reader, cannot tell me the mission statement
of your Unitarian Universalist Congregation. I want
to issue you a challenge. . . Pick up a pen and a scrap of
paper. Write down what you think the mission statement of
your church is. Then compare what you've written to the
actual mission statement as it appears (if it appears) on
your church website or as it might be written in your
church's latest newsletter. . .
"If your minister or your key lay leaders can't recite the
mission statement from memory, then you don't actually have
a mission statement. If the majority of your members
can't recite the mission statement, then you still don't
actually have one. When crafting a mission statement,
the goal should be that if someone visited your church once,
she should be able to say what it is when asked on the way
out to the parking lot."
The Breakthrough Task Force
proposes the following Mission Statement:
Our Mission:
to explore the eternal,
to nurture community,
to build a more just world.
This, we think, is a message that can be remembered
on the way out to the parking lot.
The Present Language
Cedar Lane presently has a statement on our website
and in other locations that reads:
✦ Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church is
a liberal religious community committed to individual
freedom of belief, the search for truth, spiritual
nourishment and the celebration of life.
✦ We honor our history by proclaiming and
teaching our Unitarian Universalist principles and values.
✦ We seek to transform our beliefs and mutual
caring into action to support our members, strengthen our
community and promote social justice.
The Breakthrough Task Force does not propose to
remove or change this language, which might be expanded into
a Vision Statement in a future church-wide process.
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