The value for me of this exercise was in a continued, lively discussion on how we really want to transform Durham in a way that truly glorifies God.

Here is what really resonated:

1. “Love Thy Neighbor”. That statement is right on, and for good reason. As we know, the greatest command is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your Mind, and the second one is like it: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” We know that we want to use these 3 words in our vision. More importantly, we know that we want the vision and mission of DurhamCares to be completly in sync with this concept.

We want to help folks, all of whom have almost, without fail, heard this commandment, to understand it, make it easy for them to apply it, and just as importantly to work hard to make sure that living out this commandment is a joyful one.

2. It is better to give than to receive. We all agreed that we want to articulate the feeling of the mutual blessing that occurs when someone loves their neighbor. In effect the giver receives, and the person who receives gives. This point was driven home for me last night when I attended the Durham Rescue Mission fundraiser that featured a number of testimonies…one from a volunteer who talked about how much he had been blessed by Alonzo, the person that he was teaching how to read. I think that God wants us to be happy, and that it truly is “better to give than to receive”. We at DurhamCares want to work tirelessly to ensure that the donors and volunteers are indeed blessed, just as those who they help are.

3. We want to be Bold. When David and I got together to launch Bandwidth.com almost 8 years ago and I asked him what our mission was…he told me it was to “change the world”. Wow, I thought at the time, this guy is over the top. But you know what, I’ve never forgotten it, and it’s challenged us to make sure that Bandwidth.com is indeed something very special and successsful. We want to work our hardest to make sure that DurhamCares is just the same.

4. We want our vision statement to give someone a powerful mental picture of what Durham is like when DurhamCares acting in accordance with God’s plan is successful in transforming Durham. We want people to hear the vision statement and get it AND want it.

5. We care. We’ve wrestled a bit in the past with the word “care” and what it means to our mission and to our name. After much dialog, we’ve decided that it stays. Why? Because it means two things: a. We care….as opposed to we don’t care, or apathy b. We care in the sense of the word where care is an active doing word. So, if we are married to Care as a part of our name and getting folks to care, in both senses of the word, is our goal, then we have to use “care” in our vision statement.

Lastly, we all agreed to ask our friends, neighbors and pastors about what “Love Thy Neighbor” meant to them so that it might help refine our thinking about how to best articulate this concept as a part of our vision statement.

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