Leaders operating from a sense of mission care not only about what they do, but how they do it. They pursue excellence, not for its own sake but for the sake of the mission that orders their lives.

Pursuing excellence with this motive is not a burden; it is a privilege. It is not a pursuit of excellence born out of an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist pathology. Great leaders feel profound gratitude to God for the opportunity to give their lives to the mission he has chosen for them. For them, practicing excellence is part of a grateful response to him. Their commitment to excellence shows up in as many ways as there are for leaders to pursue mission. It may be apparent in organizing a meal for people in community centers, in training small-group leaders at church, or in maximizing the efficiency of operational costs for a global missions enterprise.

"We want to model excellence - from how people are greeted, to the quality of our coffee, to the graphics displayed in our print material, ...