Do mission statements actually work? Do they inspire the people serving under them to thrive, or are they just corporate ornaments organisations create to look legitimate?
If you look at iconic organisations, their internal statements drive everything they do:
- Google: To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
- Disney: To entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling.
- Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
- IKEA: To create a better everyday life for many people.
- Nike: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world (*If you have a body, you are an athlete).
These are not random words. These organisations execute what their mission says. For us, the phrase “to inspire” is pivotal. Every mission should seek to inspire action, awareness, and a unified purpose.
When we talk with students, we often emphasise that we can’t force anyone to believe—and we wouldn’t want to if we could. Forcing belief is counterproductive.
Instead, we want to inspire belief through an authentic, lived-out faith that causes people to consider the love of Jesus for themselves. As educators, the goal isn’t merely cramming facts or intellectual data into minds. True teaching inspires thought, changes perspective, and drives action.
People referred to Jesus as “Teacher” and “Rabbi.” Even outside of Christian faith, much of the world recognises Him as a great historical teacher. Why? Not because he simply dropped intellectual “truth bombs” or mic-dropped wisdom, but because His teaching was deeply inspirational. He started with universal, relatable problems and inspired a radically better way of living:
- On Worry (Matthew 6:34): “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Instead of telling people to just “work harder,” He identified anxiety as misdirected focus, encouraging people to live in the present and trust in daily provision.
- On Relationships (Matthew 7:12): “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” Rather than a transactional “I’ll do if you do,” Jesus inspired a proactive, unselfish model for human interaction based on dignity and kindness.
- On Capability (Matthew 17:20): “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…” For anyone feeling inadequate, Jesus taught that monumental obstacles are overcome not through raw human strength, but through a genuine spark of inspired faith.
The word inspire comes from the Latin roots meaning “to breathe life into”—to animate, to give soul. What better calling do we have as a school than to participate in giving our students soul, purpose, love, and genuine hope.
UP NEXT: To KNOW, LOVE and FOLLOW Jesus: Three Inseparable Pillars