Monday, September 08, 2008

Is the 'Word' the right word?

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/mission/missionthinking/is_word_the_right_word/

[sydneyanglicans.net] 8 Sep 2008--Have you ever been involved in creating a mission or purpose statement for a Christian group? If you have, then you will know the challenge in trying to generate a sentiment that is broad enough to include every possible activity of the organisation, and yet narrow enough to help define the core passion.

A way in which this can be achieved is by selecting words that can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the perspective of the reader. For example, if we say that “we exist to share love”, then even though there are many definitions of ‘love’, this will be a one-size-fits-all mission statement.

A similar ambiguity exists in the word ‘ministry’. If we were to get a group of people across diverse Christian traditions, it is likely that nearly all people in the room would claim that ministry is a central aim of their life or work. Yet, when the nature of the ministry was examined, we would see stark differences.

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