Radicals, rebels, mission and vision

I have a mentor now (in addition to a counselor, an accountability partner, and my pastors group). Tuesday I went to Findlay and met with Bill. There were two things that stood out as I asked him how I should proceed.

First off, he talked about the difference between being a rebel and a radical. He said he has always seen me as more of a radical (Jane and I were part of his church planting team 15-16 years ago). He said a rebel is someone who is only concerned about themselves, but a radical is someone who does what they do out of a concern for others. I had never heard that before. Yes, I want to be a radical; not a rebel.

Then he talked about mission and vision. I have always gotten those two confused, but he said to think of it in military terms. Your mission might be to take a certain hill. Your vision is then to see how to go about that. So mission is what you want to do, and vision is seeing how you will accomplish it. He said even as I look for a secular job, I still need to ask myself what I want to do and how I'm going to do it.

Good stuff. At least I think that's how he said things.