Mission Statements?

I was at a board meeting last night where there was some discussion about our church's mission statement... namely, that no one knew what it was. Our mission statement is posted on our church bulletin every week, it's on our website and our youth ministry website, it's everywhere but on the walls of the church and no one but a select few knows what it is.

So today I've been pondering our mission statement and trying to own it as my own.

Our Mission is...

to seek to share with all people the reality of God's saving love as it is expressed in the life and message of Jesus Christ.
To empower our members to grow as followers of Jesus Christ and as persons of faith.
To send our members out to share God's love with the world through acts of faith, love and compassion.

If taken seriously, that is if our community were passionate about this mission and could rally around it, it could be a powerful tool for our community both in our personal spiritual work and struggle and in that of our whole congregation. It seems to me that all Mission statements could be powerfully useful. But they're useless if they're not known and referred to. What's the use of them anyway? For the pastor and a couple of staff members to have memorized? If it's truly the mission of the church then the whole church needs to own it. Every board and every member should have it in the back of their mind as they talk about ministry, mission, and even money.

Does your church or community have any sort of mission statement? What does your community do to inspire each other to be passionate disciples of Christ? Can a Mission statement fulfill its' purpose?