ICHA's Mission Statement

Mission statements often go unnoticed and are forgotten. We are convinced that our mission statement is extremely important, and we strive to keep it foremost in our thinking and planning. We think of our mission statement as a sort of roadmap that informs our decisions and guards our purpose. When we look around at the fallen world in which we live and minister, needs present themselves on every side. We are tempted to try to extend ourselves even more and attempt to meet each need, but that is unwise.

Mission drift is an ever-present threat to any organization. The mission statement is just one line of defense against mission drift (Greer & Horst, 2014). We, as the Conservative Holiness Movement (CHM), have done a good job of warning against spiritual drift, but mission drift is a bit harder to recognize. As I have said, we see needs on every hand, and the compassion the Lord has placed inside us drives us to adapt and attempt to meet these needs. When we expand outside of our strengths, we set ourselves up for failure. There's nothing wrong with "staying in your lane," and mission statements help with that.

For our purposes in Lesotho, we categorize our ministry outputs as follows: philanthropy (reach); evangelism and weekly worship services (preach); and evangelism & theological training (teach). Our ingenious mission statement allows us a great deal of flexibility in our missionary work

, yet holds us to the central task of making disciples (Matthew 28:19). For instance, there are a myriad of ways in which we could conceivably reach the unreached masses of Basotho people, and our mission statement does not specify how we must reach them. Our mission statement allows for creative philanthropic initiatives that allow us to make the initial contact and have the opportunity to preach the gospel and teach scriptural holiness. However, the insistence on preaching the Word and teaching scriptural holiness, ensure that our philanthropic efforts support our gospel commission.

The closing prepositional phrase of our mission statement provides the final and most significant directive for ICHA Lesotho. Everything we do is for the glory of God alone. It's incredibly easy for those engaged in any sort of philanthropic initiative to develop some of Messiah complex that they are going to save the world (Corbett & Fikkert, 2012). Our mission statement serves as a reminder that we do what we do in order to bring glory to God alone.