Where to begin? By stating the purpose for your program, every person will not why you're there. With a stated goal you can all know what you're trying to achieve. For instance, the purpose for our summer camp is to have a place of Christian Community. The goal of camp is to form a Christian Community and give people the skills to live into that.
With your stated purpose and goals, you can make sure everyone is facing the same direction. For instance, by stating the goal of forming a Christian Community, everyone knows that we need to put into place things that meet that goal.
It gives parameters when making decisions. For instance, at camp we intentionally don't have big cabin competitions. Our rules state "we use our words to lift people up and not put them down," with the understanding that that's how we want our members in our community to treat each other.
A parish example If your goal is to support the community with mission, outreach, and evangelism, you need to look a little further for the purpose of your community. Why are you there? Why does mission and outreach matter? Your community needs to support growing Christians so that you can have people with a mature Christian faith in order to send into the world to grow the kingdom of God through mission, outreach, and evangelism.
So our goal is mission, outreach, and evangelism, but our purpose, the reason we come together every Sunday is to support growing Christians so that we can have people with a mature Christian faith in order to send into the world to grow the kingdom of God.
Use your purpose statement and goals Use these to intentionally look at and plan all you do; planning your program, your hiring, your training. With our purpose and goals in front of you, it's easier to decide which direction to go.