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Establishing our core values – our why – allows us to focus on what really matters. You can't accomplish much without focus. The difference between a light bulb and a laser is focus.
Your why helps you define your “win.” Your team must understand what a win looks like, or they won’t know what we’re after. In American Football, we celebrate first downs, but they don’t win a game… touchdowns do. And even then, just getting a touchdown doesn’t mean you win the game. We need to spell out for our people what it means to have a win in our ministries.
In order to do this, you need to put a face on the vision. Let me illustrate: When we were pastoring university students in Texas there was a young man that I had invested in a relationship with. I had earned the right to tell him about Jesus, and he committed his life to Christ.
A little while later I was talking with this young man during a college retreat. As we were walking he put his arm around me and said, “Jon, I want to thank you.”
I asked, “Why?”
He said, “Since I’ve given my life to Christ, my life has been changed. I haven’t smoked a joint in a whole month!” And when I cast the vision to our team and our church, I told this story (with his permission). I helped them see what a win looked like in our ministry: a lost person coming to Christ and growing in his/her relationship with God and with others.
