“every Christian” ???

Tony,
To risk cliche, by stating the obvious, the one benefit you present to me (& my church, ministry etc) is that you’re (i.e. MM) is “Australian”.

Whilst a certain business based in West Ryde has lots of material (& there is some good stuff there - I’d be the poorer if it wasn’t for them sometimes) the fact is, what we need down under is material developed and written that understands the unique-ness (sp?) of Australia! MM has been doing exactly that exceptionally well.

So, all I’d say is, “What do you mean by “every Christian”?
I’m not trying to limit your effect and impact - more power to MM I say! But I seriously hope that MM retains it’s distinctive Aussie flavour well into the future.

I thought I MM all figured out when you had ‘Six Steps to talking about Jesus’ and ‘Six Steps to encouragement’.

You’re a twelve step program!

Then you had to go and write ‘Six Steps to reading your Bible’ ...

Well Albert, to defend MM I think the words “every Christian” are critical because MM does have a global reach.  It’s got publishing arms in Britain and South Africa.  Also in Sydney I went to a charismatic (non-Anglican) church where they used MM stuff, so it’s not just Australia or Anglicans who can benefit.  I went to a Christian bookstore in Seoul, South Korea today and there’s no MM stock which is a shame because MM stuff is so good. 

I think the mission statement might be stronger if it included a clause on the MM materials enabling Christians to not just speak the truth but to also live it out!  The MM resources, I presume, are not just for evangelism and proclaimation but also for encouraging Christians to be godly.  Any thoughts on this? 

Thanks everyone.

Interesting that a number of you picked up on the ‘every Christian’ phrase. We weren’t thinking so much of geographical reach, nor even of conquering ze entire world, but that our vision for ministry involves EVERY Christian, not just an elite band of ministers.

This has long been one of the MM distinctives, and we’d like to re-emphasize it—namely, that the gospel will grow as people prayerfully speak it (whether to other Christians or non-Christians) and that therefore we want to maximize the number of ‘prayerful speakers’ through training and equipping. We’d like to see ‘all Christians great and small’ fired up with this extraordinary vision: to be fellow workers in the gospel, speaking the truth in love to any and all.

Should it be train or equip? We talked about that for a while, Lionel. I originally had ‘equip’, but others thought that ‘train’ was a punchier word. All the same, you’re right—MM’s role is to supply the resources rather than to do the ‘on the ground’ training, which is done person to person (or should be). I suppose it’s a matter of whether this is a ‘vision statement’ (or what we’d eventually like to see happen through our efforts and others), or a ‘mission statement’ (what we actually intend to do). Since I labelled it the latter, then maybe we need to rethink along the lines you’re suggesting.

On ‘gospel growth’, it’s actually an NT idea Mike. In fact, one of the interesting things in the NT is that the ‘word’/‘gospel’ is said to grow (as it spreads and bears fruit; see Col 1:3-6), but that ‘churches’ are hardly ever described as ‘growing’.

As for wanting to see Christians live out the gospel in godliness and holiness, Haydn, I’m with you! It might be too subtle, but we tried to capture it by describing the fellow workers as ‘godly’ and ‘committed’—that is, people who have been gripped by the gospel word and changed by it, and taught by it to lead self-contolled, upright and godly lives (Tit 2:12).  So not just activists, but ‘godly’ people.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Keep em coming.

Great ! My only ... niggle ... is that you don’t mention publishing or resources at all.

From this statement I wouldn’t really have any idea at all of what you actually do.

That may be deliberate, of course !

You couldn’t add “To glorify God by serving the growth ...” at the start, could you? What about “to love God and live obediently to him and” before “to be”? I would love to see your focus broadened, for your resources are far wider than you mention in this mission statement! But maybe then you’d lose your distinctive focus ...