The Bangor Corps Vision Statement

I thought it would be good to post the Bangor Corp's Vision Statement (Click on the picture to enlarge), since I talked about my own a few days ago. With it, instead of talking about the details of the statement, I want to share my thoughts about what happens with our corps' purpose when officer's transfer.

I believe God has a specific pupose for each church/corps- just as he has a specific purpose for each person. When you think about it, it makes sense, but I don't believe we think about it much!

So, like discovering our personal spiritual gifts and mission, we need to discover our corp's spiritual gifts and mission. Once we do that, we can focus on what God wants us to do instead of floundering around trying to do everything (only half well). It also allow us to say "no" to things that are not a part of our purpose and tend to drain us from being effective in our mission.

Like personal spiritual gifts, the major gifts and mission of a particular corps do not change (other than growth and expansion) with each officer that is assigned. But too often a corps gets going in the right direction and a new officer decides that's not the way he wants it to go and changes everything. That's a huge reason many of our corps are so innefective- we change our focus every few years (and if one of those foci is right, that means the others are wrong).

Here's the way it should work:
1) The Leader is responsible to "pull down" the vision from God.
2) S/he shares what s/he has discovered with local corps leaders.
3) They all work together toward consensus about God's plan for them, fine-tuning the statement as each person does their part in the process.
4) When they reach consensus (consensus is worth a lot more space than I'm prepared to give it here), they share God's vision with the whole corps.
5) The leadership begins the process of vision-casting, so that everyone can share in the ownership of the vision/mission.
6) The whole corps begins the work they are called to accomplish- their purpose.

If this happens, it is not subject to change when a particular officer moves. The new officer should come in, learn of the purpose (which should be well documented), gain ownership as well (as any new-comers would) and continue the forward motion to accomplish God's purpose. Think of how we could actually be winning the world for Jesus, if we followed one God-led direction without shifting around!

I'll tell you what- God's ideas are certainly better than any I could come up with! I'll tell you what- God's ideas are certainly better than any you could come up with either! Or any other officer who ever darkens the door of any corps, for that matter. So why do we do this to our faithful people, who only want to buy into the Army's mission of winning the world?

(stepping down off my soap box now . . . )

As a corps, we believe the above excapsulates what God wants us to be doing in Bangor, Maine. We are working in this direction and God has been leading and blessing. The results have been nothing short of amazing! Now, I'm not planning on leaving any time soon, but when I do, I pray the Bangor people will be strong enough spiritually to continue this work. I also pray the new officers are strong enough to let God lead and not go their own way.