Mission statements, Purpose Statements, Vision Statements, etc... have become the vogue thing over the last 15-20 years. Corporations post them on the walls of their headquarters and on their websites. Employees are drilled in orientation on them. Churches started getting into the Mission statements years ago. Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church, encouraged every church to operate on purpose. His book had a great influence on my ministry. I even attended the Purpose Driven Church Conference @ Saddleback Church in California. Rick will tell you from the beginning not to copy Saddleback. He says to uses the principles he teaches but each church is unique. I am grateful for men like Rick Warren, John Maxwell and Bill Hybels that taught younger pastors you can do church in a fresh and unique way. The most important concept I learned from the three of them is living life on purpose. In 1998, I attended a John Maxwell Conference with Bill Hybels. I decided I needed a personal mission/purpose statement.

To lead people to their full potential in Christ.

This has been the driving force in my life ever since. Cassandra pointed out to me that we didn't have a purpose/vision/mission statement for our family. Ouch! She was right! I'm thankful for her wisdom and insight. We began working on one and have made our own Bussey Mission Statement and Core Values that we want to live by as a family. We shared that with our children and it was cool! We will mess up! We won't live by them every hour or day. But if you don't live by something, you will live for nothing! I think people, families, churches and organizations must decide why we are here. God placed us on earth for a reason. But if we go through life with our finger in the air we can be lead astray. We all need to live by a mission that is based on God's word.