This morning I’m reflecting on the word mission. How does one stay on-mission? Here are some thoughts:
1. Daily connection with God through prayer, scripture reading and silence. So simple, but so hard!
2. Spend time with the broken: It’s hard to stay-on-mission when you only hang out with others who are on-mission. We have to spend time with those who are far from God. When we see their brokenness, pain and hurt, we will be reminded of the calling on our lives to “do good” and this will give us the fuel to focus and prioritize!
3. Take ownership: You have to take ownership for the mission. If you’re apart of a non-profit or church community, everyone who works for the organization (staff, volunteers, etc ) must take ownership of the mission. We all have to lead well, follow well, and be effective!
4. Give: If one is not willing to give to the mission, then they are not really committed to the mission. When I say give, I really see this as truly being sacrificial!
5. Rest: We all gotta get away and rest. We cannot drive ourselves into the ground over-and-over and expect that we will stay on-mission long-term. Rest and play are apart of God’s larger story. We can’t just be focused on doing and creating.
6. Be Led, Lead and Follow: Every leader needs to be led, (who is mentoring you?) Every leader needs to lead well. (who are you leading?) And every follower must follow well. It’s important that we understand our role and embrace it!
7. Passion: I’m learning more and more that if you have to stay on people to get things done, those people may not be all that valuable to the mission. People who don’t get things done, actually drain the organization of valuable time and energy. People who are passionate are going to work and hard and do the right thing. Every person in the organization must take ownership of the vision and mission and do what it takes to see the vision come alive!
8. Do less to achieve more: Don’t say yes to everything, but when you say yes to something, do it! Don’t make excuses! Its much easier to do things right and stay on-mission when you have a solid rhythm. The key here is learning to say no to things don’t propel the mission forward. Side-ways energy is toxic to living on-mission.
In the last two weeks I think I’ve broken every rule above! So I’m truly being therapeutic this morning to my own soul and reminding myself more than anything!
Thank you for the very precise well-thought out road map. Especially # 8….hard to learn when to say no so you can actually deliver on what you've said you will do. So many good things to do, but we're not all called to do all of them. Being selective and on mission is hard sometimes. Thanks for the encouraging post.