This chapter focuses on the evolution of a discourse of community college mission. It first traces the conceptual history of this discourse back to religious and military traditions. It then describes a discourse of community college mission as a type of recontextualization which was almost nonexistent until the 1970s, when the mission statement was popularized as a management genre. As community college leaders navigated taxpayer revolts and lawmaker scrutiny, they used a discourse of mission to signal acquiescence to state and federal agendas. As such, a discourse of community college mission was never ideologically neutral, nor was it inevitable. Storytelling is proposed as a compelling alternative to a discourse of mission.