An Eight-Word Mission Statement

Kevin Starr, director of the Mulago Foundation, has some advice to companies that seek funding: They must express their mission in no more than eight words. He also requires they follow this format: "verb, target, outcome."

Jesus was a man on a mission.

He healed the sick, fed the 5,000, gave sight to the blind, raised the dead, washed the feet of the disciples, commanded them to love one another and showed them the way to God.

His mission was clear. But did he have a "mission statement"? A pithy expression of purpose?

Something such as "To inspire and nurture the human spirit"?

No, wait - that's the mission statement of Starbucks. This international coffee company is on a mission "to inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time."

Sounds awfully spiritual, doesn't it? In the inspiration business, we Christians have some serious competition.

Mission statements have become big business, with a wide range of organizations crafting them in an attempt to capture their core values, purposes and goals. The problem with most of them is they wind up sounding complex and boring, such as the one that reads: "Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods...