The Great Ends: Mission Statement for Every Presbyterian
To download this article as a PDF file, click here. Mission statements; everyone seems to have them. Corporations, small businesses and even individuals are encouraged to reflect upon their core values and create an essential, focused expression of who or what they are (or hope to be). Increasingly congregations are adopting mission statements as well. According to a popular business website, a mission statement should be “a clear and succinct representation of the enterprise’s purpose for existence… incorporating socially meaningful and measurable criteria…. The intent of the Mission Statement should be the first consideration… (in) evaluating a strategic decision. The statement can range from a very simple to a very complex set of ideas.”[1] Does your congregation have a mission statement? (This is a trick question.) Putting one together can be a profitable and helpful exercise for a congregation seeking to assess the unique work to which God has called them in a particular time and place. It has become normative for healthy congregations to have an established set of goals to guide them in a purposeful direction, and to provide a means to evaluate their effectiveness. An older word that means the same thing as purpose or goal is “end.” The meaning is best understood in terms of the Greek word, telos. Rich in meaning, telos connotes a combination of our words: goal, meaning, and purpose. So it is not just the final goal, the end result or the outcome that is important; the very reason or purpose for being is also crucial. It is in the same sense that the well-known first question of The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith is phrased: “What is the chief end of humanity?” Answer: “To glorify God and enjoy God forever.” Understood in this way, glorifying and enjoying God is not just something we are to look forward to when we have reached the end of our earthly pilgrimage; it is what motivates us during every waking moment of our lives. I So what is the mission or the end for a local congregation? Nearly 100 years ago the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPNA), in the midst of revising its constitution, settled on six “great ends” of the church to focus their mission for a new century.[2] This now-classic statement, “The Great Ends of the Church,” originally adopted by the UPNA in 1910, was incorporated into our present Constitution (G-1.0200) in 1983 when the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA – which had included the UPNA in a 1958 merger) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) united to form the Presbyterian Church (USA): The six “Great Ends” form a timely and comprehensive focus for congregations within the PC(USA). It is interesting to compare these six with a more popular list that was formed just over a decade ago by Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Community Church. He urged congregations to be “purpose-driven” by following a balance of five biblical purposes, given by Jesus Christ: (1) worship, (2) fellowship, (3) discipleship, (4) ministry (as service to others), and (5) evangelism.[3] Anything approaching a thorough evaluation of Warren’s Purpose-Driven ministry and its relationship to the Great Ends of the Church is not possible at present. Nonetheless, a simple comparison of Warren’s five purposes with the six Great Ends of the Church yields significant similarities. Furthermore, in an open letter from the moderator and stated clerk of the 209th General Assembly, language summarizing the Great Ends bears an even more pronounced similarity to Warren’s Purpose-Driven language.[4] Take a fresh look at our six Great Ends. Compare the following [moderator/stated clerk’s language in brackets], (Warren’s language in parentheses): Moreover, when the two purpose statements are compared, the much older Presbyterian statement would appear to be more comprehensive.[7] In the Great Ends of the Church we have the purpose statements and evaluative criteria—the marching orders—for individual congregations. When a congregation needs to craft their focus, we need look no farther than the Great Ends of the Church. When there is question about a congregation’s faithfulness to our call, the Great Ends are the measurement standards. So, in answer to our “trick question” above, The Great Ends of the Church, even if they are not known or acknowledged, are in fact the vision or mission statement for every PC(USA) congregation.[8] And, as understood in the context of local congregations, we might see that every Presbyterian has, in the Great Ends, a blueprint for his or her own “purpose-driven life.”[9] Insofar as a congregation manifests the characteristics described in the Great Ends, they are being faithful to their purpose as a church of Jesus Christ. To the extent to which we fail to identify and order our corporate life after these ends, to some degree we forfeit the description of church, having become some other kind of human organization, a club with purposes it has established on its own. II Well, one might say, Rick Warren has written two very successful books on the purpose-driven church and life. His work is awash in Bible verses, personal anecdotes, and illustrations. What then precisely is the “back story” on The Great Ends of The Church? Where did they come from? When were they written? Who was their author? What is their biblical warrant? These are very good questions and the answers are, at first blush, less than satisfying. Very little is known about the precise origin of the now-familiar language of The Great Ends of the Church. In 1997 the 209th General Assembly of the PC(USA) called for a two year emphasis on the Great Ends of the Church in order to “pull together around this inclusive vision for the life and mission of the church.”[10] The emphasis was an attempt to rediscover “common ground” in the wake of division over sexuality.[11] In light of the emphasis, George T. Adams, Jack B. Rogers, and Robert E. Blade undertook inquiries to uncover the historical roots of this potential point of unity.[12] They didn’t find very much. In brief, “no direct information regarding the legislative history of the Great Ends of the Church” was discovered.[13] When the UPNA was formed in 1858, the language of “great ends” was apparently already in common currency. A simpler version than our six statements appears in the Government of the United Presbyterian Church of North America in 1865: “The great ends of the Church are the preservation of the truth and ordinances of true religion, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.”[14] Moreover, an earlier, more rudimentary instance of the phrase occurred as early as 1782, and was preserved in a document of one of the UPNA’s predecessor denominations. “The end of Church-fellowship is to exhibit a system of sound principles, to maintain the ordinances of Gospel worship in their purity, to promote holiness, and to prepare the saints for heaven.”[15] William Keesecker has made a quite plausible case for tracing the rudimentary beginnings to The Westminster Standards.[16] Both predecessor denominations of the UPNA had a firm commitment to the Westminster Confession and Catechisms.[17] Chapter XXV.4 would appear to contain the seeds of what became the Great Ends: “visible… particular churches… are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them.” These essential commitments to ministry from Westminster reflected since the 18th century in the government and discipline of the Associate and Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches were part and parcel of the UPNA from its inception. When the General Assembly of the UPNA determined to revi...
