To tell you the truth I’m not completely sure of what it means to split a hair, at least I know I have never taken a hair and split one on purpose. I’ve heard and seen spit ends, but as a guy, frankly I don’t care about it! Not with my hair anyway, but I do care when it comes to mission and vision, because they are very different.
When I first began as a leader, just out of college, I would tell the people I was leading that mission and vision were the same. That it just was a matter of semantics. I could not have been more wrong. It didn’t take long in my leadership and personal development before I began to discover the difference and to understand the importance of both. If you are a leader, this is definitely important for you as you lead. This is also very important for each of you as individuals if you are going to unleash the powerful potential that you know is deep within your being.
Mission
When speaking and coaching about mission, I usually use the term “life mission”. Why? Because mission is based on how you are created. While your mission will be lived out in different ways, through different seasons of life, the basis of it doesn’t change. For example, I have done many things throughout my life that were my jobs; I’ve been a youth pastor, a music pastor, an artist and have spent the last 23 years being a pastor at a great church named Alive Church in the Tucson, Arizona area. While the jobs have changed, my mission hasn’t. I have always been passionate about life change, first living life as the masterpiece God created me to be and in those around me helping them to discovering and understand how to do so themselves.
Vision
The way I have gone about living out my personal life mission has changed dramatically over the years. And in truth is changing now as I enter a new season of life. That is vision. It is “how” you go about living out your life mission with a clear and concise destination in mind. Currently, as I continue to Pastor Alive Church, I am also looking at “how” I lead. Specifically, how to pour my life into coaching other leaders, especially next generation leaders.
Notice my life mission isn’t changing, but my vision (“how” I go about living it out) is.
Get Going Today
Do you have a clear understanding or your life mission and a clear vision for living it out? Or do you simply need to tune it up a little? What are you waiting for? Let today be the day you begin to tap into and unleash your potential as God’s masterpiece!
Don’t miss tomorrow’s blog as I give you some tools to “get going”. Take a moment and share today’s blog with your friends, co-workers and loved ones, they will be glad you did.