...Statement of intent...

Maiko and I attended an excellent “Leadership and Evangelism” conference a few weeks ago, hosted by a group called the Haggai Institute. They are based in Singapore and train Christian leaders from many countries; mostly church leaders although also, helpfully, leaders of small organisations like ours. I was only able to make one day and Maiko two days due to commitments, but we both managed to pick up some brilliant and really practical advice for our work here. I have been slowly working my through some of the notes I took, and have finally gotten around to penning a mission statement for UMJ (our organisation). This was done on the advice of one of the Haggai teachers (whose name I just cannot remember...oops!) who said it is important that a clear statement is written as it reduces the confusion between members who may all have slightly different hopes and aspirations for the organisation. He advised us all to write a simple statement which touches upon the following questions:

1. Who you are trying to serve?
2. What are their needs?
3. How you will go about it?

Fairly simple stuff I hear you say, as I myself said at the time; but I have always been a fan of the simple, so with these three points in mind I set to work. Here’s what I came up with:

United Ministries Japan (UMJ) exists for the people of Japan, to introduce Jesus Christ into their lives and to help and support their growth in knowledge and awareness of Him so that they can become mature disciples ready to produce other disciples after them. This is primarily done through English teaching, Bible study, youth and children’s clubs, and by supporting and assisting foreign missionaries desiring to visit Japan short or long term.

So that’s it, fairly simple and straightforward I hope, and also with plenty of flexibility to cover the many things we want to do here to reach people.

The conference covered a range of other issues in an intelligent and thoroughly practical way and we were thankful that we could take part. If you have time check out the Haggai Institute website for more info (see links).