Dear Church Family,

In the Spirit of Christ, we worship a loving God,

as we share our love and our lives.

We are an Open and Affirming community. 

We celebrate diversity and create a refuge for spiritual, emotional, and intellectual growth.

From our roots in Los Angeles, we reach out

to our neighbors, sharing our gifts and resources.

 Mission Statement
                       Westwood Hills Congregational UCC

From the late 1960’s to the early 1970’s, there was a popular show on television.  So popular, in fact, that years after its initial run, it made a comeback on both television and film.  In the opening scene of most of the episodes, the leader of an elite team of operatives received a briefing on an important situation via a taped message.  After explaining the situation the voice on the tape would then say, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it,” before going on to state the goal of the particular mission.  Most of the missions were so dangerous and so sensitive, they were considered nearly impossible to accomplish.  Hence the name of the show – Mission: Impossible.

The word mission can mean different things to different people.  To some, it’s the term for a CIA operation.  To others, it’s a statement on the purpose of a community, business, non-profit or other intentional group of people.  To still others, the term goes back to its religious or spiritual roots with the Jesuits who sent members of their Order abroad in 1598.  But regardless of how the term ‘mission’ is heard, it comes from the same source – the Latin missionem, meaning “act of sending” or “to send.”  To send – just as Jesus sent his disciples out to do ministry.  “Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kin-dom of God and to heal…They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.”  (Luke 9: 1-2, 6)  From the very beginning, Christ shared his work and his call with all those who walked with him.  He knew it would always take all of us to live his mission, and he has invited us to join him in it.

To be or do mission, then, is to be sent forth to engage in important work.  It’s to be out in the world, doing the ministry we have been called to do, for the God we love and long to serve.  To live outside of ourselves, beyond ourselves – realizing that the world is bigger than just our small corner of it.  To live by mission is to make a difference – to be so that our presence makes the world better, to do so that what we have touched and changed is deepened or strengthened or improved because of what we do.  To matter – to ourselves, to the world, and to God.  Knowing that we matter – that our lives have a purpose and that we make a difference – may be one of the most fundamental blessings of being human.  All of us want to matter to someone, and it is one of the greatest gifts in life to know how much we matter to God.  We give thanks for all the people to whom we matter – who meet us in life with love.  And out of those gifts, we are called to do the same – for others, for God, and for God’s world.  That’s a mission that’s more than possible.

The mission statement of our congregation can almost be seen as three parts, speaking to three different ways that we engage in ministry – by caring for each other, by welcoming others in, and by reaching out to our community and the world.  For eighty-six years, this congregation’s mission has sought to matter to God and to the world.  God has been present in all the details of the ministry in this place – the matters that make up our congregation’s mission.  God has also led us to do ministry and live a mission that matters to the world – that makes a difference.  Our mission here matters.  Over the years, countless numbers of people have been affected by the work of our congregation:  people who have found community and family of faith; children who have been raised to know God and know they are loved; people who have been welcomed into a church for the first time in their lives; people who have been welcomed into a church when they had been rejected from others; people who have found recovery from addiction over the past fifty years; children who have been educated and nurtured in our preschool for seventy years; people who have received the gifts of our congregation both here in LA and around the world.  In the life of our church, we have shared great mission with each other, our community and the world.  What would have happened if we hadn’t been here?

We are continuing to grow our mission, that it may come to matter even more and make a greater difference.  This fall, we are engaging with mission in a number of ways.  You’ll be hearing more about our involvement in a listening/visioning project with service groups and leaders in our community, as well as our participation in the UCC’s Mission 1 campaign – affecting hunger in our neighborhood and around the world.  And we’ll be coming together in our stewardship campaign, giving thanks for all that has been given to us, and listening for God’s call to share these gifts and resources.  For when we give – from our hearts – to benefit another, then our own lives grow.  Our own faith grows.  When we participate in God’s mission in this world, our understanding and our world get bigger – we gain perspective and we grow closer to God.  We have a place in God’s work.  Our mission matters.

We have the opportunity now to give thanks for the gifts God has given us and how we might use them for God’s mission in our church, community, and world.  With every moment, we seek to live so that “Our Mission Matters.” 

                                                                                                            My heart to yours,

                                                                                                            Kirsten

My heart to yours,

Kirsten