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. 

In my daily work with church leaders, I often run into the disillusionment of folks who see the imperfections of the church. And honestly, it feels a lot worse than “imperfection.” As a collection of redeemed, yet sinful men and women, the church has outbreaks from time to time with dark and ugly stuff. 

The question is, what should we do when we encounter the church’s underbelly? 

#1 Be Grateful. Remember that if it wasn’t  for the church you would not know Jesus Christ. The church is a steward of the gospel and a community of faith that has endured countless obstacles and untold persecution. Yet the church has been preserved, by the sovereign goodness of God, in order to reach you, today. The sum of the church’s presence is a juggernaut of grace despite weaknesses from within and enemies from without.

#2 Be Humbled. Remember that no sin besets the people of the church that is not fully capable of being manifest in your own life. In 1723 Jonathan Edwards wrote 70 resolutions  to review weekly for personal development. He states this as his 8th resolution:

Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

#3 Be forgiving. Many times the church-as-a-whole  can cause personal offense. It’s particularly strange if it doesn’t boil down to a person and yet there is lingering hurt in a generic way was a “a church” or “the church.”  Even if you can’t put a face to the problem, it is still critically important to forgive. Yes, in these situations differing perspectives multiply, misunderstanding amplify and tangled webs of poor decisions result. But, you have the power to wipe it all away in moment of forgiveness. Don’t let a faceless offense go unforgiven. 

#4 Be hopeful. You were not created for the world as it is. The church is a vehicle, a rescue ship that is tainted, for now, by the very problem it is here to solve. A rescue ship is nice, but a new world is coming. Great will eclipse good. Jesus Christ will return and will wipe away every tear. Every hurt, every insult, every harm will be replaced by undiluted joy. In that day, the body of Christ, with an underbelly today, will be nothing but a radiant bride- pure, blameless and beautiful.

“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.

Joel, my 14-year old son, and I went fly fishing last week on our trip to the Teton country. We hired a guide who schooled us on what would be our first full day out and first time holding fly rods.  It’s not too hard to pick up the basics, but as experience fisherman will share, you can spend the rest of your life mastering the art of nuances fly placement. 

For hours we worked the angles, trying to lock in on the 10 and 12 o’clock positioning of the ideal fly cast. The amazing thing is when you feel the perfect cast, you discover that the fly rod does all the work in projecting the fly forward. To achieve this dynamic, two things are important. First you need to stop the backcast at the right position. Second you need to delay for a moment to let the fly line extend all the way backwards before bringing it forward.

It’s quite startling when you realize how little you need to exert force to get the best cast. All morning I was working 2-3 times harder than necessary. What did my guide say that made the difference? He said, the last 10% on the backcast makes all the difference.  Sure enough, as I focused on the last 10%, the results were huge and almost effortless. The fly jumped way ahead with much less muscle.

The parallel to clarity  in the life of the leader is stunning. Often  a leaders works 2-3 times harder than necessary. Better results are possible with less effort. That’s not an exaggeration: better results are possible with less effort. How can that be? Clarity enables you to focus energy and attention in the just the right place to maximize your return.  It removes distractions, eliminates side-ways energy and allows all the “people and parts” of the organization to be fully utilized (like the fly rod). The last 10% is particularly applicable when it comes to articulating vision. Most highly gifted leaders stay 70%-90% clear. But when you close the gap of the last 10%, exponential results will follow.

Just like my casting.

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.