The Five Marks of Mission

If you subscribe to any of the email lists from The Episcopal Church or The Episcopal News Service, you’ve no doubt come across General Convention information related to the Five Marks of Mission.

For The Episcopal Church, these Five Marks of Mission are a way of acknowledging that the mission of the Church is the same as the mission of Christ; they are the foundational basis for everything we do in our congregations, dioceses and as individuals.

I have a few suggestions for ways that congregations can set themselves up to follow the Five Marks of Mission:

1.      Vision for the mission is required. It means letting go of the constant self-care and building-care that are part of maintenance. You do not see “maintenance” on the Five Marks of Mission. We must be able to envision the mission work in our community and be convicted enough by the Gospel to do it.

2.      Support the vision. Supporting this vision requires some sacrifice from the congregation. In order to move toward the mission, the congregation needs to face sabotage from those who wish to remain in maintenance mode.

3.      Do the work of the mission and put resources toward it. Small committed communities of faith can do this! It requires that we share our resources generously, that we are steadfastly disciples of Christ rather than members of a church.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori recently had a conversation on mission in the 21^st century that enlightens us to the impact of mission work on the world, and on ourselves spiritually. Our presiding bishop explained how mission work can bring us closer to God. She said, “If we recognized the image of God wherever we go, the world would work very differently, but we live in a society that so often assumes enemy rather than image of God, and the conversation is lost before it begins.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s perspective on mission is clearly personal to him. He explained that if it hadn’t been for missionaries in South Africa during the last century, many of the native people would not have been able to receive an education or medical care. 

“Many of us are alive today because of men and women who built clinics and hospitals. Many of us were educated in missionary schools, and helped to remain healthy in missionary hospitals. We have the capacity to do an enormous amount of good,” he said. “I think if we are smart enough to make atoms that can obliterate us, shouldn’t we be smart enough to be able to feed? It is our privilege and responsibility to help turn this wilderness into the garden that God had always intended for his world to be.”

The Episcopal Church is asking people to take a quiz on their Facebook page regarding the attitudes about mission, as well as submit videos of local ministry in action, which will be voted upon later.

I’d also like to ask parishes how they could use these Five Marks of Mission as a focus for moving from maintenance to mission. These Five Marks really speak to our spending priorities. How are our parishes already using the Five Marks of Mission? These are important questions to ask as we move toward the 77^th General Convention.

“Mission is about receiving that love, and then responding,” said the Presiding Bishop. “God comes to us in human flesh to give us the gift to be sent into the world to spread that love. It is a matter of calling the near and far-off together and in one fold.”