3. Mission statement
Mennonite Mission Network
Exists to lead, mobilize and equip the
church to participate in holistic witness
to Jesus Christ in a broken world
4. Every congregation and all parts of the church will
be fully engaged in God’s mission reaching from
across the street, all through the market places to
around the world.
Vision statement
Mennonite Mission Network
5. Lead, mobilize and resource MC USA to participate
in holistic witness to Jesus Christ, so that every
congregation and all parts of the church will be fully
engaged in God’s mission, reaching from across the
street to around the world.
Purpose statement
Mennonite Mission Network
6. 1.1 Across the street, and around the world, people of all
cultures encounter the whole gospel of Jesus Christ.
1.1.1 People hear, see and receive God’s good news in Jesus
proclaimed through the power of the Holy Spirit in both word
and deed.
1.1.2 People experience social, physical and spiritual
wholeness through ministries of compassion, peace, justice and
anti-racism.
Mennonite Mission Network
Ends statement
7. has a distinctly Anabaptist approach to mission.
We hold evangelism, witness and personal
transformation together with peace, justice and social
transformation, believing that each of these values
has an important place within the kingdom of God.
Mennonite Mission Network
9. Message Criteria
Short (3-4 words)
Provocative
Evocative
Biblically and theologically sound
Adaptable to many uses
Does it “preach”?
11. Goals
Engage groups of different ages, ethnicities, educational
backgrounds
Get outside of Elkhart County
Engage staff outside of Marketing and Communication
department to get input and buy-in for process and message
Engage groups of friends and groups that don’t know us
13. External
MVS local leaders
Mix of large and mid-size urban areas
Ages 24-60, mostly 30s-40s
Mostly Anglo, a few Latino and Native
American
Newton, Kan.
Group of pastors and donors
Mostly rural or small city
Ages 35 – 80
All Anglo
Lancaster, Pa.
Pastors, donors, young adult small group
Mostly urban
Ages 28 – 80
All Anglo
14. Los Angeles
Maranatha Christian Fellowship
• Age 15 – 25
• Indonesian
• Mennonite
Peace and Justice Academy
• Age 15-18
• African-American, Anglo, Asian, Latino
• Mennonite and non-Mennonite
Fuller Theological Seminary
• Age 25-30
• Anglo and Asian
• Mennonite and non-Mennonite
Immigrant church pastor
• Age 60-ish
• African
• Mennonite
17. MMN core values
MMN Strategic direction
MMN Mission Statement
MMN Vision Statement
Together, sharing all of Christ with all of creation
Micah 6:8
Isaiah 42:6-7
Colossians 1:19-20
Matthew 28:18-20
1 Peter 2:9-10
1 Thessalonians 2:8
Acts 4:20
Luke 9: 1-6
Jeremiah 29:7
Matthew 22:36-40
2 Corinthians 5:19b-20a
1 John 4:12-16
Philippians 2:1-11
Luke 10:37
Staff feedback
Focus group feedback
Sermons
Advertisements
Storytelling Theological studies
Brochures
Display materials
Beyond Ourselves Social media
Conversations
19. Biblically and theologically sound
Message Criteria
Short (3-4 words)
Provocative
Evocative
Adaptable to many uses
Does it “preach”?
20. Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man
who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who
showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
Luke 10:37
21. In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting
their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of
reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since
God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:19b-20a
22. Christ empowers his followers to love their enemies and to
believe that no one is beyond God’s love and forgiveness.
James R. Krabill
Together in Mission, Core Beliefs, Values and
Commitments of Mennonite Mission Network
Missio Dei, Volume 10
Christ's ministry shows that the gospel is to be proclaimed and
demonstrated to all, and that only love can overcome
evil.
After 11 years as an organization it is time to take a step back and look at who we are and how we talk about ourselves as an organization. We wanted to find a way to encapsulate the complexities of what we do that communicates who we are. To give us a handle on how to encourage people to share their faith.
The conversation started at our 2011 Advancement retreat and continued through the 2012 Advancement meetings.
Bringing together our knowledge from connections to donors, pastors and constituents, and our expertise in public communication, media, etc. we developed a list of ideas and concepts.
Mrkcom then took that list and began to refine and pare it down. More about that later.
First we started with the documents that form us and our ministry.
Mennonite Church USA vision statement
MMN Mission statement
MMN Vision statement
Purpose statement
MMN Board ends
From our website.
Current tagline
Other background docs
--Road Signs - 2010
--People in the Pew - 2007
With all of this info to start with, we needed to establish some criteria for our messages.
Criteria for message
Short (3-5 words) //
Be biblically and theologically sound - embody how we think of and do mission in the world //
Provocative - Needs to be a conversation starter //
Adaptable to many uses //
Evocative //
Can you preach it? //
Back to the list of ideas—pages and pages of ideas. We narrowed the list to a manageable number of concepts and did some informal internal testing. After tossing out some ideas, adding new and refining others we came up with 5 concepts. We were ready to begin more serious testing.
Testing in this case means a number of things. One of our usual methods is what we call the “parent test.” We do this especially with multi-media. If our parents can’t see the print or understand the audio, or if our brothers and sisters get bored before the get through the piece, then others will have the same experience. (And they like the inside look at what their children are working on.)
For this project we used
--focus groups
--in-depth interviews //
Our Goals for the tests were:
Get outside of Elkhart County //
Engage groups of different ages, ethnicities, educational backgrounds //
Engage staff outside of Marketing and Communication department to get input and buy-in for process and message //
Engage groups of friends and groups that don’t know us //
We tested internally with these groups
And externally //
All groups had a good mix of women and men //
MVS local leaders //
Newton - Pastors and donors //
Lancaster – Pastors, donors, young adult small group
We wanted not only to get out of Elkhart County, but to get out of traditional, cultural Mennonite areas. So I went to Los Angeles. //
//
Maranatha Christian Fellowship //
Fuller Theological Seminary //
Peace and Justice Academy High School students //
Met with an immigrant church pastor //
Focus groups and interviews were recorded, transcribed and the results were tallied. We added subjective impressions to round out the information.
Showed several concepts and possible ad copy to demonstrate how concepts would be used. //
Difference in height of the bars reflects the number of responses to each concept. The colors within the bars is total number of comments for each reaction within the concept.
Note the height and balance between positive and negative in the first two bars.
This means that there was more conversation around those concepts and that participants were engaged by them.
//
All the pieces flow together to help create the new message.
Starting with our foundational documents (6 clicks)
Focus group feedback //
Scripture that forms all we do (2 clicks)
The new message then colors and adds dimension to all communication. (9 clicks)
And the new message is… //
Let’s go back to the criteria //
3 words
Provocative – use quotes from EC
Evocative – note positive and negative and greater conversation in focus groups
Adaptable – later in presentation
Does it preach?
Is it biblically and theologically sound? Let’s look at that. //
Luke 10:37
Good Samaritan story //
2 Corinthians 5:19b-20a
James R. Krabill
Missio Dei #10 Together in Mission //
The gospel reconciles and transforms creation. By word and
deed, the church announces to the world the good news that people
and communities can be reconciled to God and to one another
– that they can be transformed into Christ’s image and experience
the healing of God’s grace and peace. //
Christ empowers his followers to love their enemies and to believe that no one is beyond God’s
love and forgiveness. //
Christ's ministry shows that the gospel is to be
proclaimed and demonstrated to all, and that only love can overcome
evil.
When he saw Be the Gospel, James said, “if anything characterizes our work and workers around the world it is this.” //
Through our ads, displays, sermons, etc. we want to show that Be the Gospel is not just a demonstration, but a proclamation of the good news.
How will we use it? Here are some examples.
In advertisements //
//
//
//
In social media, especially Facebook and Twitter //
More and more parents and grandparents are using Facebook. We’re not counting on going viral, but we hope that at least family and friends will repost. //
//
We are also creating new standard table top displays and the visual elements of the Phoenix convention exhibit.
One idea is this //
Sandy is convening a group to develop some sermon ideas around Be the Gospel.
And there are many other applications //