I just finished watching "The West Wing" which I Tivo'd earlier this evening.
In case you don't follow... The show is preparing for the inevitable change and is therefore beginning an election cycle in which the new president will be chosen to succeed POTUS Bartlett. A congressman from Texas is running at the request of new campaign manager Josh. Realizing that the wheels may be coming off just after pulling off of the car lot, the guys decide to talk...
Santos: "I'm not trying to make this a test case. (his run for President) C'mon! We're lucky if we have two months with this! I don't want to waste it shaking hands!"
Josh: "Two months? I gave up everything for this. You're not even in it to win?"
Santos: "Maybe we have a different definition of winning Josh. Maybe that's what we should have talked about in Houston."
What exactly does "win" mean?
I'm not talking about the definition of the word. I'm talking about defining when you have "won". In your business, in your ministry, in your family. When can you say that you've won? This is beyond charting goals for yourself. It's about conflict, disappointment, frustration, a defeated mind-set. The problems I have observed in organizations have come not because the leader didn't have a "win" in mind but because that "win" was different than everyone else's "win". Playing sports, I always knew the score, the time remaining and at any time whether or not "WE" were "Winning".
Unfortunately this simple concept stays filed away with the rest of our memories in our High School scrapbooks. How many organizations or families have you seen spiral into chaos because there was no defined "win"? The scoreboard of life so often times is fading in and out (at best) and usually is unplugged. It should be downright demanded that you are clear with every team you lead and every leader you follow that it is understood what "win" means.
Discouragement is the result of failed expectations.
Once an expectation is failed we have to check to be sure that the expectation was right to begin with. When we get angry its because we feel that someone/something is unjust. But is that really the case? Is someone being 'unfair' or 'unreasonable' or did I sign up to play for a team who plays a game without a scoreboard?
As we take this thought into the Christian life we find exactly the same is true. Churches are supposed to be sanctuaries from the madness of life's drama right? Wrong. Unfortunately churches don't have scoreboards. What's worse is that because the church does not offer a board to follow, everyone carries their own scoreboard. We [in the church] talk in terms of "soul-winning" and "proper stewardship" as well as "accountability" and "polity" while ignoring the question of "What does a win look like?" "What is it all for?" "Why do 'church' in the first place?"
Paul talks in terms of purpose. Paul clarifies for us the concept that we're each marked with a course to run in life. Obedience becomes our goal. Obedience to Christ in his passion for reaching the entirety of humanity with the gospel. In your ministry, what does a win look like? Are you clarifying that for your people? Are you surrounded by the right people to win?
"Run in such a way as to get the prize" (I Corinthians 9:24)
"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18
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