St. Anskar’s Vestry
revises mission statement

"Growing together in faith, love and praise."

That was the mission statement for St. Anskar’s developed about five years ago with input from members of the congregation who attended a weekend visioning seminar. It happened at a time of transition for the parish and fit us well. Our  mission statement has been displayed on communications and used by groups within the parish as a guideline when some decisions needed to be made.

Since that mission statement was established, St. Anskar has put it to use in the way we act as a congregation and it has shaped our worship services. There is no question that we have grown together significantly in the past five years. Our faith has grown and there is always lots of love for the Lord and our neighbors. The music we sing on Sundays fills this church glorious praise. Our mission is being fulfilled in our church life.
St. Anskar’s has several active outreach programs; soup kitchen, food pantry, school supplies for  needy children, our annual mitten tree, food basket programs at Thanksgiving and Christmas, healing services, support for Love INC, MELD and Freedom School. These are some of the many ways our small congregation reaches out.

For a parish our size, we are very generous and have a great history for reaching out to those in need. When Pastor Andrea went to Haiti last year, this parish stepped up and made a great offering to support this mission trip. There are many more examples of how this congregation reaches out.
During a recent Vestry meeting, we recognized that our congregation has really grown together and been very active in outreach programs.

Therefore, we reviewed our mission statement and decided it needed a slight revision. After much discussion and prayer, we believe our mission statement should be changed to:
"REACHING OUT WITH FAITH, LOVE AND PRAISE"
Our Vestry offers this change to our Mission Statement as a better description of what makes us tick and drives us through our tasks. Please accept this change and use it in your parish life to live by and make important decisions with. If you have any comments, feel free to discuss this with any of our Vestry members.

Paul Toboldt
Senior Warden