Principles of Effective Leadership - Lesson 15

Dr. John Johnson
Principles of Effective Leadership
PC506-15
Mission and Leadership
Lesson Transcript

Dr. John Johnson [00:00:01] Okay, well, let's pray. Lord, we look to you to get us through this day and this journey. And we need you, God. We pray for your empowering work, your health, your insights, your wisdom, your strength. We are for this class as we focus on leadership and being really effective leaders. Help us, the Lord, to do this well. Think this through. While in Jesus name we pray and we understand what leaders are, why they're important, the context they have to see, the values they need to own, the importance of working with the team and not trying to go it alone. That's so important. I just see people who try to go it alone and they just create a lot of havoc really, because there are some people like that. Maybe you're like that. I hope not. They just work a lot better on their own and they think they accomplish and they do sometimes accomplish a lot of great things. But I generally see that just creates a lot of conflict around them because they're often going their own direction. And I saw this in Lebanon. One guy I just really love a lot, he's just a great evangelists, a passionate guy, but he doesn't like to work with anybody and he loves to work with people, but he likes to kind of go his own course. And for all the other people that are in a team way trying to mobilize for the Kingdom of God, it just makes headaches. Teamwork is critical. So teams are important. They're just critical to the objective. So now we come to this section in the course and we're going to focus now about direction. A big part of a leader's role is to set the direction. I mean, this is what leaders are largely about. They're taking organization somewhere because their lives are going somewhere. But that's a broad statement that needs to be broken into a number of pieces that are logical, each sequential to the next. So what I'm going to do today is break it down into these essential pieces that if we can get these and really live them out, we might actually take somebody somewhere instead of just dreaming about it and never really going somewhere. Not people that dream about, Oh, this is where we want to go in life to where we're going to see. But it never happens. It doesn't happen because it's not going to happen unless you really set things in motion sequentially with some essential steps. So the first step is the foundational step, and that's mission. When you step in, let's say you are called to a pair of church ministry or church or wherever. One of the fundamental things you want to discover and find out right from the start is what's the mission? Because the mission is central to everything. If if an organization doesn't have a mission, well, then well, what do you think? It's that's just going to sit there, right? It's not going to have a clue. It's going to be hijacked by anybody who comes along, has their own idea of what we should do. So the mission is the base. It answers the question why? Why are we here? If we can't answer that question, then we're in a world of deep hurt. A leader has to know this question of why and be clear about the mission. We saw this in Roy Fabulous and in this book, The Leadership Moment, who when he was making this huge these huge decisions with respect to this pharmaceutical issue, he went back to the mission of the organization, went back to the mission of Merck. Remember, we are in the business of preserving and improving human life. This is their mission. We are in the business of preserving and improving human life. Therefore, every decision has to flow out of that mission. If they didn't have that mission statement, what would have happened? Well, it could have been hijacked by the shareholders or anyone else that said, well, no, we shouldn't be doing that. We should be doing this. So something has to be the reference point and that's the mission statement. All of our actions must be measured by that. So what's involved? Notice work through definitions. And when you say mission, another word that you really can use interchangeably here is purpose. You're mission purpose. As we work our way through this, I want to give you clear definitions, right? Because people get these things really confused and mixed up, just like cell phones can get us confused and mixed up. People sometimes go purpose, mission, vision, strategies, objectives. What are those things all mean? So along the way, I'm going to give you clear definitions, and my counsel to you is whatever you lead. Get everybody early on to these definitions. Say maybe you've used them differently and maybe in another organization, but this is how we're going to use them here. So we're all on the same page. The mission defines the key objectives, the purpose of the organization, a broad statement of why we are here. It's what defines our existence. It's this broad philosophic statement. A couple of examples. And John, 20 John declares his mission for writing the book. Most writers don't say it so specifically and clearly, as John does here, but actually that should be John 2031, he says. But these are written. What are the themes here? Yeah, go back verse 30. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written which probably you could say all of these stories, all that I've written, all of these conversations, every chapter in. John a conversation. Nathaniel Chapter one, His mother, Chapter two, Nicodemus Chapter three. The Woman at the Well. Chapter four The Paralytic. Chapter five. It's a good way to approach the Book of John. That's what helped me to preach the Book of John. But when John comes to the end of the book, he says these, But these are written so that you might believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And by believing you may have life in His name, you see what John does there? He writes a mission statement. Instead of putting it at the beginning, he puts it at the very end. He's stating his mission. So what's his mission?

Speaker 2 [00:07:07] Faith in Christ and his faith in Christ.

Dr. John Johnson [00:07:10] Let's be a little bit more specific. What's John's mission.

Speaker 3 [00:07:14] To make others believe.

Dr. John Johnson [00:07:16] His mission was to write a book so that people might find eternal life right now, Why is this important? If you're going to, say, teach the book of John, we're just use an example. The first thing you'd actually want to do is to go to the statement that is so therefore you could understand the book. So you're reading the story of Nicodemus, who comes in the night. Okay, So you step back and go, Why is John telling us this story? I mean, ultimately, what's this story about? He's telling us the story so that what.

Speaker 3 [00:07:54] We.

Dr. John Johnson [00:07:54] Believe we might believe and have eternal life. So when I get to the end of the story of Nicodemus, I have to step back and say, So how does this fit with his purpose? So if you're teaching it, let's say you're teaching a Bible study through the Book of John. Well, you wouldn't want to just take these stories on their own. So that's a great story here. A couple of principles for our lives and move on. You'd be missing the purpose of the book. So you have to go back and say, No, here's the purpose of the book. So this was John's purpose in writing this. So now we've got to take the story and see how it fits into the purpose. Makes sense. So let's take, for example, Nicodemus. He tells the story of this guy, this religious leader who comes in the night, who comes in the night because he doesn't want to see by be seen by his peers. But he's curious. He's interested. He wants to see Jesus, wants to meet him. He knows there's something different about him. He's doing things that other teachers are not doing. He can't explain it. So he meets Jesus. Jesus says the most profound thing, doesn't he? He's the only person Jesus ever said, You must be born again. An interesting thing is he said that to a religious leader. Will you say you must be born again? You must be born again? We say to everybody. But it's only really said once and it was said to the religious. I think that's kind of interesting, don't you? Nicodemus isn't getting it, is he? Nicodemus has all of these accomplishments. He's got all these, you know, badges and, you know, declarations that he's the teacher of teacher. But Jesus kind of brings reduces him right down to base level. Well, you don't even understand the very basic things to you, Nicodemus. So doesn't end where Nicodemus comes to Jesus and everyone lives happily ever after. They have this conversation and Nicodemus moves on. Why does John tell us a story? So that we can believe and have eternal life. So how does that fit with the purpose? I mean. So what do you have to do now?

Speaker 3 [00:10:09] People to get of life?

Dr. John Johnson [00:10:11] Yeah. We have to figure out how the story does confirm that Jesus is that we might believe in Jesus. Right. So what in the story moves me to believe in Jesus? What I'm illustrating here is that whatever we focus on is our purpose, is what we've got to constantly bring all of our actions, everything we do back to. From this illustration, you're leading an organization. Somebody says, Hey, I think we should go do this. Okay, here's another story, so to speak. But how does that fit into the bigger overall mission? If it doesn't, if it doesn't contribute to the story, how about if we put it that way? If it doesn't contribute to the story, then let's not put it in the book. Or if it doesn't contribute to the mission of the organization, then we're not going to do it. Other people might do it and we might find, Great, go do it. It doesn't fit with our mission. Everything has to be tied to the mission. That's the point I want to make. So make sure definitely we understand what a mission is At first Peter to name might be another example. Peter gives a mission statement of sort John 17 for Jesus does. You can look at those later, but those are examples. Now, here's the second thing. Once we work through what a mission is, the second thing is realize the importance of a mission. I mean that it's non-negotiable, that nothing precedes it. You can't, for example, build the team if you don't have a compelling purpose. I give a quote from Rick Warren, who says, Without a mission, you have no foundation, you have no motivation, you have no direction. It's the lodestar, the compass heading. And here are some of the reasons that builds morale. It reduces frustration, it gives focus, it allows cooperation, it enables evaluation. So everything goes back to this. When I came to my first church that was just aimless, going nowhere, adrift for ten years, the first thing I asked the church was, So what's our mission? We didn't have a clear defining mission. So the first thing we did is we spent six months or so figuring that out. Now, here's the great thing, especially as it relates to the church. We don't have to create the mission. We have to discover it. God gives the mission to the church. He doesn't say, Hey, go out there and create a great mission statement. Well, now we got to find the mission. The church just didn't understand it. After some months, it began to become clear what the mission is. I give the example of Acts 1932. One of my favorite stories of what happens when you don't know the mission. Remember, that's the story there with the silversmiths. Remember that story? They're all upset. Why are the silversmiths in Ephesus all upset?

Speaker 3 [00:13:16] Paul is missing.

Dr. John Johnson [00:13:17] Messing with their business is actually messing most of all with their pocketbooks. These guys, their businesses is hurting and the business is hurting because people in the city are turning to Jesus and they're kind of saying, Oh, I don't think we need the silver stuff anymore. I've got a much bigger God than that. So they get everybody all lathered up, all worked up in the city, making all these charges. And it says then they all met in the theater. Remember that? And they're shouting and they're going crazy. And then you have it right there. Acts 1932 is one of my favorite versus. What does it say?

Speaker 3 [00:13:56] Now, some cried out one thing, some another for the assembly was in confusion and most of them did not know why they had come together.

Dr. John Johnson [00:14:04] Yeah, just love it. So they're making all this noise, but nobody really knows why they're there. I preach that in my first church on Sunday, I said. This is US wasn't one of my more popular sermons, but I said, you know, we're making a lot of noise, but I don't think most of us know why we're here. And until we figure out why we're here, we're not going to really make any impact in this world. So let's get back to some fundamentals. You may have to do that, too, and that's okay. I mean, that's okay. It's not the unpardonable sin. It's just a lot of work. If you step in an organization well way before you step in and you're interviewing, this would be like right there in the top five questions. Question you want to ask, What's the mission? How are we doing with the mission to go? The mission? What do you mean? Well, I mean. Okay, I'll use another word to help you. What's your purpose? Oh, well, we're here just to love Jesus. I evidence you don't have a clear purpose. It's just a non-negotiable. You can't lead any more than you can. Your own life can make any sense if you don't have a purpose. So I quote from MacLaren on the next page. For a lot of time, much of the Christian church didn't seem to ask itself what its mission is or whether it even has one. It seemed to just go along without any internal gyroscope or hard drive, moving it from the inside. It just can't be. So the third necessity is you got to bring some key elements together. A good mission statement. It's got to be focused. You wouldn't go, Oh, our mission statement. Yes. Here. Here it is. If they have that, we can work through it. No, obviously you can't do that. A good mission statement is got to be concise, clear, focused, inspiring, memorable. You know, memorable is really, really important because you want people to know what the mission of village, to teach the scriptures, to worship God, to love one another, reach lost people. It's just there. That's what you want people to have. How embarrassing is it if somebody comes to your church and sits down next to someone, even an elder, let's say, or somebody who's been there 20 years and goes, So, hey, what's the mission of this place? I mean, what's your purpose? How embarrassing if people said, I don't know. It's a great question. So you don't know why you're here? I've been here every week. Give me a break. No. So I give some examples here. You know, the Marriott, our mission is to make people away from home feel that they are home. I think that's a great mission statement, don't you? We talked about this one, but it's not good. Our mission is to make people away from home feel they are at home. Let's think about this for a moment. If you were the CEO of Marriott and you've been working for a long time at a ALPA level trying to distill get to the essence of your mission, first of all, what does a passive test have focused? What do you think? It's a focused. Is it inspiring? It's really inspiring and it concise and memorable. Our mission is to make people who are not away from home feel at home. That's something you could get every employee to own, right? From the person at the counter to the person bringing up luggage to the person cleaning the room. Our mission is to make people who are away from home feel at home. If they just resonated, they'd be constantly just in everything they're doing, thinking about just how they do things right. So imagine you're then a CEO and you bring in your very top management and your people and say, okay, this is our mission. We've adopted it. It's who we are. So let's strategize how we're going to get there. What kind of things could we do to make this mission statement ring true that it's not just a statement on a wall, it's really lived out. So let's think creatively really quick for a moment. How are we going to do that? Give me one idea.

Speaker 2 [00:18:42] The pictures on the wall.

Dr. John Johnson [00:18:44] Pictures? Yeah, because homes have pictures. Pictures do what they bring.

Speaker 2 [00:18:50] Color.

Dr. John Johnson [00:18:51] Color, ambiance, warmth. Like. See? Notice how cozy you feel in this room, How awesome it is. I come in here and I go, I could just be at home right now. No. What would we say?

Speaker 2 [00:19:11] Stark.

Dr. John Johnson [00:19:11] Stark. Right. Sterile. You know, we've got to talk to Randi. We've got to change the mission of this. See, it's a good example. If it was the mission of the seminary, our mission is to make students who are away from home feel at home. Well, we'd walk in and say, we have some work to do. Well, you get the idea. Once you establish a mission, then it really sets in motion everything you do. If you don't have that, I mean, imagine the CEO that gets up at Marriott and says, well, folks, of course, you all know our mission. Our mission is to be profitable. Our mission is to make money. So let's go out there and figure out any way we can to increase our shares, make the shareholders happy. What would that look like? It look like some business. You and I go in that it's clear that their only interest is in making money, cheap services and high profit stuff. Willow Creek hires now moved to a church setting. Our purpose is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus. Is it focused? Yeah. Inspiring. Yeah, it's pretty inspiring. Our purpose, our mission is to turn the irreligious into fully devoted followers. Is it inspiring? I think so. It's concise, memorable. I think people could get their arms around that. Huh? Maybe one of the simplest is Walt Disney. Our mission is to make people happy. Is that a good mission statement? What's good about it?

Speaker 2 [00:21:06] People define it. Yeah.

Dr. John Johnson [00:21:08] Sure. But most people have a pretty rough idea of what they know, when they're happy and not happy to carry it out. Yeah, it was actually quite successful. It's actually quite a great mission statement, isn't it? In a way, it's world changing because he said our mission is we're in the business of making people happy because we live in a pretty unhappy world. So what he did is created worlds of happiness called Disney Land. Disney Land. So you walk into the land of Disney, and I don't know, in all the years I've gone to Disneyland, I can't remember walking out and watching a family walk out and kids are crying. That was the worst experience of my life. I'm so depressed. Wow, what a downer day it was. No, no. You walk out and you stepped in another world. Think about this. So this becomes your mission, your objective. So then what you have to do is to get people all around that. From who? From the concessionaires to the people sweeping up the peanut shells to the people who are taking people on the rides. You have to get all of these people together and say something like what your mission is, what your mission is to make people happy. If you can't do that, if you won't do that, you will not be part of this organization. So that means. I remember as a kid going to Disneyland and even the the guy, you know, dressed all neatly in white, you know, sweeping up the peanut shells with always happy. I can't remember anybody. The guy, you know, leading the safari tour. I mean, they're all happy, but they're paid to be happy. They're creating a different world. The importance of the mission is to keep everybody focused, or Nike. Our mission is to bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete in the world. Asterisk if you have a body or an athlete? No, I don't think it's one of the great mission statements out there to bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete. But this is what drives them. Wooddale Church. The purpose of Wooddale is to honor God by making more disciples for Jesus Christ. This is their mission. Our purpose is to honor God by making more disciples for Jesus Christ. So if you go to a church like that, what do you think it will largely be about? Probably not so much about. We're trying to reach lost people every week. I mean, not that they're not focused on trying to reach lots of people, but it's probably going to be a church known for you go there and you're going to really mature from the pulpit to the classroom. It's a purpose. So this is what missions are about, what we must do. And then I put here's the last one. We must make sure we carry out this role of leadership. And this is where leadership comes in if you establish a purpose, but people are vague about it. Five years later, the failure is in the leader in the leadership, because the leadership's primary aim, one of its primary aim, is to keep that in front of people and not only just keep it, but here's a good word keyword you need to put in your notes here. It's what aligns the organization. You know, like when you're driving a car and the front wheels get out of alignment. You know what that's like. You let go of the steering wheel and the car tends to veer right or veer left, or it kind of shimmies shakes when you drive. What a mission statement does is that a line two keeps it on the direct path within the margins, within the line, so to speak, because once you establish a mission, then the key leadership function is alignment, keeping everybody everything aligned. Okay, So let's stop for a moment. That's what I going to say about mission questions, comments, thoughts. You have Marsha.

Speaker 2 [00:25:50] May one, Sally.

Dr. John Johnson [00:25:51] Lindsey.

Speaker 2 [00:25:52] Donnie Yeah. In the back he talks about identifying the goal as his model and he components on the model and he starts off with his medical and set of defining objectives. That's something standard operating objectives and then metrics. But that's the medical insight mission.

Dr. John Johnson [00:26:14] I left mine upstairs. I'm missing the word you're saying there of.

Speaker 2 [00:26:18] Thematic.

Dr. John Johnson [00:26:19] Goals. Thematic goals. I tend to say medical and medical. I would say thematic goals are a little bit down the way from this here. You're going to eventually establish objectives to get to your mission. The tricky thing is when you read different books, they'll use different language. The one thing about the purpose statement, unlike all the other things we're going to see, is that the rest are fairly fluid. That is, you're going to just change shift once you come to grips with the mission that's pretty well poured in concrete that might stay. In fact, if we're talking about a church that derives its mission from understanding scripture, that probably is going to you might tweak it with new forms of language, but that mission stays the same. Other things will change, but that stays the same. If we all sit here, I think we would. I'm sure we would. Our mission is to glorify God, but that might change. No go? I don't think so. I think that's that's encased in concrete that's going to stay. I think a good mission statement, by and large, is that kind of statement that centers that stays the same Now as language shifts. You might update the language, but the mission stays the same. What else about mission? Do you know the mission statement of your church? Good. Sandy, What is it.

Speaker 2 [00:27:57] To inform focused faithful followers.

Dr. John Johnson [00:27:59] To form focused faithful followers? Yeah. So it's a concise, obviously it's memorable. Inspiring. What have I left out of focus? Yeah, it's pretty focused to say.

Speaker 2 [00:28:18] But now we have to learn to live in Sierra Haro.

Dr. John Johnson [00:28:22] Just building this whole case of set in concrete doesn't shift and change different course.

Speaker 2 [00:28:27] But yeah, but.

Dr. John Johnson [00:28:29] I think it's a problem with different pastors. They just screw it all up and just keep changing things around. Yeah. So what's the newest one.

Speaker 2 [00:28:38] To learn to live and things like Jesus.

Dr. John Johnson [00:28:41] To live, to learn, to think like Jesus. To live like Jesus. To learn like Jesus.

Speaker 2 [00:28:49] Learned to live. Learning to live.

Dr. John Johnson [00:28:52] Learning, Learning to live and think like Jesus. So good. Mission statement. We think, at him learning to live and think like Jesus. A mission statement has got to be all encompassing, broad enough to fit in all the things that, let's say, the church has to do. Does that leave anything out that's essential? Learning to live and think differently.

Speaker 2 [00:29:25] Tag along, following your mind when you think like him. But as you do that, I suppose.

Dr. John Johnson [00:29:33] That's an interesting point. Sandy Somebody might say, Well, I'm living like Jesus. Someone might say, Well, if you're living like Jesus and thinking like Jesus, then you're following Jesus.

Speaker 2 [00:29:48] I was teaching and I had several. This is all new, the making of it, or working with a lot of people in positions. Substitute told me that she realized as a Christian she did not have to believe in Jesus. We just had to follow his teachings.

Dr. John Johnson [00:30:08] She didn't have to wait for me.

Speaker 2 [00:30:12] Yeah. The only way to move forward.

Dr. John Johnson [00:30:15] Yeah, but I think that would run counter to this mission statement because to think and live like Jesus for how did Jesus think.

Speaker 3 [00:30:24] He was in submission.

Dr. John Johnson [00:30:25] And Jesus was in submission to the Father as a father sent me. So I sent you. If anyone wants to follow me, he must lose everything because that's how he thinks, that's how he lives. And so if this is how we think and live, I think we would be devoted radical followers of Jesus, right? Someone might say it lacks a Trinitarian focus. It's like when you go to a Pentecostal church and, you know, maybe their mission statement is all about, you know, releasing and becoming filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, you left out part of the Trinity, but to live and think like Jesus, who embraces the Father and the spirit. Those would be kind of questions you'd want to test when they.

Speaker 3 [00:31:15] Raise a lot of questions.

Dr. John Johnson [00:31:18] But maybe that's okay. Maybe when you craft a mission statement, the tricky thing is, especially when you're trying to do it by committee and then everyone says, Well, but shouldn't we add this? And well, but then you can't leave this out. And pretty soon, you know, you you have a mission statement that looks like that and then you go, Well, that's not concise. No one's going to memorize that. How inspiring is that going to be? Anything we distill down isn't going to say it's going to leave things to explain. And you might say, That's okay. We'd be happy to explain it, but let's get this. So if you came into a church and sat down and said, So what's your mission? To think and live like Jesus?

Speaker 3 [00:32:01] And then they hand you.

Dr. John Johnson [00:32:02] Right? Yeah, but let's say they didn't. But they start with that. At least some might get a person going. Okay, well, that answers a certain amount of questions. Anybody else have a mission statement that you follow in?

Speaker 3 [00:32:19] Jesus, You know, trying to communicate for the world and.

Dr. John Johnson [00:32:23] For following Jesus.

Speaker 3 [00:32:26] In authentic.

Dr. John Johnson [00:32:27] And authentic community in the world. For the world, following Jesus in authentic community, for the world.

Speaker 3 [00:32:36] And so it's distilled into three aspects of work in order to outward from community and mission. Those are the three focusing. Yeah, the objectives.

Dr. John Johnson [00:32:49] Right?

Speaker 3 [00:32:51] And it's helped a lot I think.

Dr. John Johnson [00:32:52] Well it's memorable you remembered it concise, inspiring, go upward, inward, outward.

Speaker 3 [00:33:03] I went to come out of church. Clearly that instead of their mission and my written way. But. The way in which the way they come to work, they try to comply with that great commission by police.

Dr. John Johnson [00:33:22] Yeah. So some people say our mission really centers around the Great Commission and the great commandment.

Speaker 2 [00:33:31] Protestant churches in most denominations allow churches to establish their own mission statement. Or are there denominations that say, this is our mission statement?

Dr. John Johnson [00:33:44] I would guess that there are, but most of the churches I know are not subscribing to a mission statement. That is the broader denominational statement. I would guess there are churches like that. So have your mission. That's clear. So we'll take a break. Let's take a break. Come back at five after and we're going to shift to then talk about the second piece, and that's vision.