Will Mancini

I consulted with two large and very effective ministry organizations this week. Both are freshly engaging and experiencing the power of singularity. The power of singularity is narrowing the essence to one thing. 

In organizational terms we refer to this one thing as mission. Yet most leaders never capture and lead from a defining, thoroughgoing sense of one thing. The big question is why? The answer is that they substitute strategy for mission.

Your one thing is your mission, your strategy is how you accomplish the mission. Mission is what we do, strategy is how we do it.

Most of the time I see a statement of mission, or talk to a leader about their sense of mission, they are speaking strategy, not mission. What about you?

TAKE A 3 MINUTE TEST

Look at or write down your mission as a ministry.

• Count the number of “and” words in it. 
• Count the number of commas. 
• Count the number of words. 

If you have any “and” statements, any commas or more than 15 words, most likely you are articulating strategy not mission.

LET’S ILLUSTRATE

The mission of Google is  to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. I think this is a clear, concise and compelling mission. Yet it does crack open the door to NOT having the power of singularity. The clue to this is the two “and” statements. Why did they introduce these? 

They are introduced because they are important aspects of vision equity, but all the words of this mission do not answer the same questions. What is the core of this mission? What is Google’s one thing? I would suggest that their core is “making information accessible.” Their one thing is not organization; their one thing is not making information useful.

Now look at how knowing the one thing clarifies everything else. If their mission is actually,”Making the world’s information universally accessible” than “organization” is one step in HOW they do it (strategy). The idea that the information is “useful” is WHY they do it (values). Look at the new mission I am recommending for Google. Is it better? 

Now we begin to see the benefits of the tool I call the Vision Frame, which brings clarity to the essence of these defining questions. 

 WORST PRACTICE

This dilemma in how we think is so profound, that even one of our best selling ministry books gets it wrong. I absolutely love and highly recommend Simple Church by my friends Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer. But in their excellent book on having a simple ministry process, they mistakingly recommend using the process as a mission statement. So yet again we substitute “the how” to getting the mission done with the mission itself.

If you want to read a bit more on “One Thing” check out this week’s helpful little post from Mac Lake. 

“Denomination” and “momentum” are two words that don’t often go in the same sentence. That’s why I think that St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA is a church to watch. Under the leadership of Richard Kannwhischer, the church has experienced 35% attendance growth in the last year. Rich brings strong preaching gifts, attention to strategic clarity and a highly relational leadership style to the team. 

In February, the church engaged with Auxano to keep the principle of “clarity first” at the helm of their growth. I have really enjoyed getting to know the team and will be blogging more about the church in days to come. Today I spent some time with Jon Bartarse the communications director. Jon’s been executing a blogging strategy that is working well.

He built a blog at Highlightslive.com. that ties into the church’s web presence. Folks at the church are encouraged, through a variety of sources, to share their stories on the blog. In particular, the blog attracts stories of missional service adn profiles the church’s global engagement.  But that’s not all. They have woven the tool with sermon series, including a current series called Summer Road Trip. As people engage their summer vacation, they are encouraged to share stories of “God on the Move” in their lives. The Highlights blog is promoted well on the church campus and has a feed on the church’s home page. 

Jon is also the founder of ThankChrist.com, a simple but powerful little web idea dedicated to gratitude. Jon says that his gift is “not taking things for granted.” The value was forged in his soul through dramatic 2-week  life-experience in high school that brought a new appreciation for all God provides.

Here is a tidbit to reengage your thoughts on values. It’s a sore subject in some ways, because it’s so easy for our “statements” not to mean anything. But do the process well and you might be surprised what happens.

So many people today throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to mission. They say that mission statements don’t mean anything. And if you look at common practice that is a reasonable conclusion. But mission can and should live at the center of your life as a leader and your organization in an amazing way, in the same way that it did for Jesus and his 12 disciples. No one was ever clearer about the origin, their mission and their destiny than Jesus. What is your mission? Chapter 12 provides everything you need to lead with mission, as we define it as a missional mandate.

After much critique on the misapplication of vision in its various forms, I continue to provide solutions as we enter Part 3 of Church Unique.  This chapter is the overview of the Vision Frame as the primary tool offered in Church Unique and this #cuvlog series.