COVER STORY
Whatever happened to We?

By Douglas K. Smith

1: Articulate Your Church's Mission

Identify the mission or shared purposes of your congregation. What is the vision of the common good that brings your organization together?

How do your congregation's shared purposes relate to spiritual and religious values, family values, social values, political values, environmental values, technological values, medical and legal values, and economic and financial values?

How does the congregation contribute to these shared purposes and shared values? How does the congregation benefit from them? What contributions are expected of active members, those in the role of employee? What is expected, if anything, from other members, those in role of customer?

2: Ask How It Contributes to the Greater Good

Does your congregation explicitly seek to connect to audiences or constituencies beyond its membership? If so, how and to what purposes?

Do you expect members of your congregation to carry the shared purposes and shared values of your vision of the common good into the other parts of their lives? If so, how?

3: Set and Achieve Performance Goals

How will you know you have succeeded at achieving your vision? How will you know you have succeeded in translating your vision into specific contributions to the greater good?

Describe that success in terms of measurable outcomes (for example, "80 percent of our members will be involved in community service projects within one year") rather than activities ("we encourage members to participate in community service projects").

For more on outcome-based goals, see Make Success Measurable! by Douglas K. Smith (Wiley, 1999).

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