July/August 2014
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Come • Grow • Serve
Burger King recently announced that it is scrapping its iconic slogan, “Have it your way.” Although some slogans have more staying power than others, in reality organizations change their tag lines frequently. In the case of Burger King, “Have it your way” has been around for an amazing 40 years.
Slogans (or tag lines) are intended to express in a few words the current attitude of an organization. If you listen and watch carefully, you will quickly recognize them all over the place. Almost all organizations use them, from footwear makers (“Just do it” – Nike) to colleges (“Make your life count” – Gustavus) and even the military (“Be all that you can be” – US Army).
Creating a tag line is serious business in the corporate world, for which companies pay substantial sums of money. When the slogan is a good one, an organization can get a lot of mileage out of it. Burger King certainly got its money’s worth.
We don’t have the resources of a fast-food restaurant, college, or manufacturer, but we do understand the value of a phrase that captures in a few short words what God is up to at Grace. With our mission statement and guiding principles in place and well on our way to completing phase two of our three-phase strategic plan, the council decided it was time to revisit our tag line. After much conversation, here is the fruit of our labor:
Come • Grow • Serve
The first thing you notice about our new tagline is that there are no connecting words. Rather, there are three invitations that highlight three aspects of our mission, guiding principles, and strategic plan.
The first word, Come, describes the welcoming nature of Grace where all are welcome. Visitors to our church, especially those who become members, routinely cite the welcome they received as being the reason for committing to God’s mission and ministry through us. In fact, Come expresses the identity in our name, Grace Lutheran Church.
The second word, Grow, describes our commitment to grow in faith as followers of Jesus Christ. This is an area that we know needs work and by naming it we can be intentional about living the marks of discipleship: regular prayer, worship and scripture reading as well as being the generous people God created us to be.
The last word, Serve, reflects the core of our mission statement: “Through God’s abundant love, we live and work to serve others.” It also highlights our desire to make a difference in our world. God has a mission to love and bless the world. To accomplish that mission, God calls us together to serve others.
When someone asks you what Grace is about, you can tell them these three words: Come • Grow • Serve. You will see them in all of our communications, including the new logo being developed. This tagline probably won’t last 40 years because God is always on the move, but it won’t be less important. That’s our invitation to you and to others.
Come • Grow • Serve
Pastor Olson
No comments:
Post a Comment