6. Conceptualization
| Servant-leaders seek to nurture their abilities to dream great dreams. The ability to look at a problem or an organization from a conceptualizing perspective means that one must think beyond day-to-day realities. For many leaders, this is a characteristic that requires discipline and practice. The traditional leader is consumed by the need to achieve short-term operational goals. The leader who wishes to also be a servant-leader must stretch his or her thinking to encompass broader-based conceptual thinking. |
| Larry Spears |
Conceptualization, as Larry Spears points out in the above quote, is about the big picture, about long term objectives over short term goals, about strategic thinking over tactical day-to-day decisions. In today's busier and busier environment, the leader who takes time off from the hustle annd bustle to think long-term is perhaps becoming an endangered species. The ever increasing pace of business leads to the expectation of faster and faster returns and responses. We have come to expect and demand almost instantaneous communication over any distance through email and other electronic means. Wall Street and the masses of Internet-enabled individual investors respond almost instantaneously to the slightest changes in real or perceived financial outlooks. Yet, to look beyond the immediate demands is imperative for any good leader, and for the servant leader in particular. When Google, the Internet search engine company, recently announced their plans for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock, they declared that they would not provide the quarterly financial reports that Wall Street almost requires, because they did not want their employees to get distracted from the company's mission by short term financial goals.
How does one follow the long road guided by the larger concepts, without becoming confused by the bends and turns of short term demands? The answer lies in developing and following a mission statement, which should act as a road and provide the necessary driving directions. Mission statements, of course, are nothing new, they have long decorated the walls of corporate executive offices. Not all mission statement, however, are equally helpful, and many are so unclear or convoluted that no one remembers them or gets any direction from them. Perhaps more recently, personal mission statements have also become more common.
So, let's take a look at the mission statements of Biblical leaders, and how their actions were determined by the big picture. Jesus' mission was to be a Light to the world, to show us a better way, and he "stuck to his mission", as Laurie Beth Jones points out in her book "Jesus, CEO" [6]. In Mar 1:38, Jesus explained his mission to his disciples:
But he replied, "We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too, because that is why I came."
Jesus' primary mission was not physical healing, although he cured a great many from their diseases, either out of compassion, or to convincingly demonstrate his divine powers. His mission was spiritual healing, which is why after he healed the leper in Mar 1:40-42, he sent him away to see the priest and told him sternly: Don't talk to anyone along the way (Mar 1:44). Perhaps as a consolation to the rest of us, even Jesus struggled to keep to his core mission, as we find out in the next verse (Mar 1:45):
But as the man went on his way, he spread the news, telling everyone what had happened to him. As a result, such crowds soon surrounded Jesus that he couldn't enter a town anywhere publicly. He had to stay out in the secluded places, and people from everywhere came to him there.
In "The Path" [7], another of Laurie Beth Jones' book, she looks at the mission statements of several other Biblical leaders. One of her case studies is queen Esther, who is the only other woman besides Ruth to have one of the 66 books of the Bible named after her.
When Esther was chosen to replace Queen Vashti, her Jewish origins were kept a secret from King Xerxes. After Xerxes appointed Haman to be his highest official, Haman was upset by the lack of respect he received from Mordecai, Esther's cousin. In revenge, he plotted to destroy all Jews in Xerxes' kingdom. Esther's mission now became quite simply to save the Jews. It was forbidden under punishment of death to see the king without being called by him. However, Esther kept the big picture in mind. As Mordecai pointed out to her in Est 4:13-14, she was going to die anyhow:
13Mordecai sent back this reply to Esther: "Don't think for a moment that you will escape there in the palace when all other Jews are killed. 14If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. What's more, who can say but that you have been elevated to the palace for just such a time as this?"
So, Esther decided she had nothing to lose, and she went to see the king, and he forgave her for it, spared her life, and ultimately that of all the Jews in his empire.
Great concepts and great missions can come about a number of different ways. Peter's mission, to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, came through a vision, a dream. Prior to this occasion, the Good News of Jesus the Messiah had been preached only to the Jews. Just before the Roman army officer Cornelius visited Peter in order to invite him to his house, Peter had a dream in which a voice told him to eat animals that were considered unclean by Jewish law (Act 10:13-15):
13Then a voice said to him, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat them." 14"Never, Lord," Peter declared. "I have never in all my life eaten anything forbidden by our Jewish laws." 15The voice spoke again, "If God says something is acceptable, don't say it isn't."
Peter realized the meaning of his vision, and told his visitors in Act 10:28:
..."You know it is against the Jewish laws for me to come into a Gentile home like this. But God has shown me that I should never think of anyone as impure."
Thus, the ministry to non-Jewish peoples got started, and before long God's Good News was spreading rapidly, and there were many new believers (Act 12:24).
Great concepts and great missions can bring about great results. When Saul, who had been persecuting Christians with great fervor, became Paul and a Christian himself through his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus (Act 9:1-20), his mission became "to know Christ", as recorded in his own words in Phil 3:10-11:
10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (NIV)
After Paul regained his sight from the temporary blindness he suffered during his conversion, we're told that immediately he began preaching about Jesus (Act 9:20). Indeed, he started immediately, and never turned back, becoming a most effective instrument of spreading God's word, planting churches throughout the Mediterranean, and turning into the most prolific writer of the Bible, with more books attributed to him than any other author of either the Old or New Testament.
Incidentally, Paul's mission statement is picked up by the mission statement of our church, Solana Beach Presbyeterian Church, which reads like this:
We commit to Know Christ, Grow in Christ, Go with Christ
This short mission statement arises first from the basics of our faith, which is our firm belief in the living triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It emcompasses our vision statement, which is to be a growing community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Finally, it points to the mission of every Christian according to Christ's Great Commission, which is to reach out to the world, and to go and make disciples of all the nations (Mat 28:19).
The mission statement of my current employer, the Protein Data Bank (PDB), is as follow:
To provide the most accurate, well-annotated data
in the most timely and efficient way possible
to facilitate new discoveries and advances in science
I am fairly confident that if we asked the 35 or so staff members of the PDB about its mission, we would hear 35 reasonably similar answers. This surely isn't true about many organizations. For example, some of the PDB's staff is logistically part of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). A survey of SDSC's approximately 400 employees would probably produce rather divergent ideas of what its mission statement is.
The mission statement of the PDB acts as an excellent standard by which to make decisions about how to invest our resources. For example, as we are developing new features, we have to ask ourselves the following questions: Does the effort jeopardize our core mission, which is to provide data in the most timely and efficient way possible? Does the new feature increase the value of data annotation? Does it facilitate new discoveries and advances in science?
Finally, here is my personal mission statement:
To glorify God, by using my talents for the benefit of mankind,
and by loving and serving those whom God has put in my care
I do not think of this mission statement as vague, but rather as general enough to sustain changes in life's circumstances, such as my work environment. As a Christian, my primary purpose is to worship, serve, and glorify God. He is my Maker, and to Him belongs the glory for all that I accomplish. Johann Sebastian Bach, perhaps the greatest composer of all time, often signed his compositions S.D.G. for Soli Deo Gloria, that is to God alone be the glory. I feel the same about my humble works, even if they never remotely compare to those of a great master such as Bach. In my professional life, my talents have been mostly in the scientific arena. I can say without reservation that they are being used for the benefit of mankind in my current position for the Protein Data Bank, since many scientific and medical advances would not be possible if it were not for the data that we curate and make available to the general public. The last part of my mission statement, to love and serve those whom God has put in my care, applies to both work and my personal life. Above all, it currently - and God willing for many more years - refers to my wife whom I love and adore. To love and serve her, to provide for her and support her, and to nurture the expression of her God-given talents in turn, is truly a worthy calling.
For Thought and Discussion
- Does your company or organization have a mission statement? If it does, can you recite if from memory? Can you give examples where managers or other employees were clearly guided by the mission statement? How about examples of actions that were contrary to the mission of the organization? If your company does not have a mission statement (or you don't know what it is), what do you think the mission statement should be?
- Do you have a personal mission statement? If you do, how does it guide you in your decision making? If you don't have a mission statement, consider the reflective process of developing one.
- Pick one of your favorite Biblical characters, and develop a written mission statement for him or her. How did the person live out the mission statement? Provide scripture passages for reference.
