Will Mancini

There is a great line up of places to meet and get down and dirty with clarity. Here is where I will be hanging out and speaking in the next several weeks:

Verge in Austin is Happening NOW. This is the first conference to focus on Missional Communities. It sold out around 2000 folks. The good news is that you can attend the conference via live feed. Sign-up here. Why Verge?

• #1 Missional Communities are the next thing. We’ve gone from “mega” to “multi” to “micro”
• #2 Austin is a great town. (Especially for those who are truly free in Christ.)
• #3 This huge meet-up will be an inspirational high

If you want to meet there I will be coming late and staying over Sunday and Monday to spend time with Alan Hirsch with some other thought leaders. 

The following week you might want to check out the Churchplanters.com Conference in Atlanta. Why do I look forward to this conference each year?

• #1 Sean Lovejoy, David Putnam and company host a great event with focused content.
• #2 The vibe is real and raw- You’ve  gotta love the guts it took to plant a church in Andy Stanely’s backyard. You’ve gotta respect their results.
• #3 Mt. Lake Church and Auxano are partnering to launch an Atlanta based co:Lab 

I look forward to seeing your there. I will be speaking twice on Tuesday and hosting a lunch if you’re interested in the Vision co::Lab

One March 3rd, Leadership Network is bringing their next online conference experience to the masses. This time its called “Aha!”  Why attend Aha!

• #1 It’s totally free and you get to learn from comfort of home!
• #2 40 Aha moments all delivered under six minutes
• #3 Fresh voices will be highlighted, so get off the rock-star train. 

For Aha! I submitted one of my own stories entitled, “How a Funnel Changed My Life.”

While these are the next three, there are many others coming in the next few months where I would love to connect! More on these to come. 

• Cornerstone Alignment Conferences  This fantastic event happens in four big cities- the first one is March 16th in Indianpolis. 
• Large Church Initiative for Methodists in San Antonio on April 12-15th
• Exponential – My favorite of them all! April 19-22 in Orlando
• Q Gathering in Chicago, April 28-30 
• NACBA Conference in Orlando 

Leadership Network (LN) is an great organization, and they are doing more amazing stuff this year. Some of Dave Travis’s comments on their Learnings Blog have hinted to their 2nd big online conference, called Aha! Fresh Voices, New Ideas that will happen on March 3rd, 2010. Dave mentioned that the official announcement and details will be made early this week by Todd Rhodes. (Aha! Link is now up.)

What can you expect?  The same incredible format as their first online conference The NINES – a totally free online experience, with a mix of some great folks you already know as well as some new faces. Look for fewer total participants (40) and shorter clips at 6 minutes each. Contributers were asked to focus on a key learning and “aha!” moment in their life and ministry.  

Where did the name originate?  About ten months ago, I worked with LN’s team to distill down their six values. They named this conference after their second value. Here is the list:

1. What’s next? - We explore what could be.
2. Aha! - We create environments for collaborative discovery.          
3.  Positive deviants*  We work with the exceptional.           
4.  Generous relationships. We invest in the success of others.
5.  Results, results, results… We pursue BIG impact.
6.  JESUS  We strive to model Jesus in everything we do.

The mission of Leadership Network is to accelerate the impact of 100X leaders. See a fun little interview on LN- Ben Arment with Dave Travis.

How many truly innovative training offerings are available to church leaders today? In my opinion, not many. There are plenty of conferences each with their own twist. But most likely you’ll get motivated from the same pastor-rock-stars that walk the platform year after year after year. Or you can jump into a coaching network driven by either personality again, or perhaps a solid list of twelve or so leadership attributes to work on.  Don’t get me wrong- I think that much of this stuff is really good.  But I constantly wonder if there is a better way.

And I think there is. I have observed leaders longing for more than the next catalytic, adrenaline rush or wheelbarrow full of leadership knowledge or a pseudo-relationship with a big name. And that’s why I love what Auxano has created in the Vision co::Lab.

How this for a game-changer: The center of learning is not the platform, not what worked great somewhere else, and not a current trend or hot topic. The center of learning is you, your team, your congregation’s culture in your community context. I call it “Textbook You.” 

If that wasn’t enough, the best news is that we spend 24 hours of coaching over 6 months on one topic: vision. It’s all about your church and how to lead with better clarity, imagination and future thinking. The [::] in co::Lab  represents the [co]ntinuous and [co]llaborative nature of this laboratory with no more eight churches represented.

 In the end, we created the co::Lab because:

• We need more time to dream about what our churches could be and do
  
• It takes real effort and push to articulate your church’s true uniqueness
• Vision, is often relegated to glittering generalities on paper
• Even our newer churches become over-programed and under-discipled
• Your team and volunteers want more vision from you, today. 

New co::Labs are starting soon and I want to invite you to be a part of one.  Next week,  I am starting one in Houston, and one virtually. The following month I am starting one in Atlanta in conjunction  ChurchPlanters.com Velocity Conference. Following the conference, Sean LoveJoy, David Putnam and John Shepherd  will host a co::Lab at Mountain Lake Church. Later in the spring we will be starting co::Labs in Orlando and Dallas. 

At this link you can request more info about the co::Lab, and download a PDF brochure. 

#1 Programs don’t attract people; people attract people (Aubrey Malphurs)

#2 Think steps not programs; strategy makes the next step simple, easy and obvious. (Andy Stanley)

#3 Strategy is a missional map, therefore communicate it visually (Church Unique)

#4 As a whole, cluttered and complex churches are not alive. (Thom Ranier) 

#5 Growing people grow people; consuming people consume programs. (Church Unique)

#6 Strategy as assimilation should not be confused with spiritual formation; one is about getting individuals into the body of Christ, the other is about getting the life of Christ into the individual.

#7 Strategy connects programs and events vertically with the mission and horizontally with one another. (adapted from Bill Donahue)

#8 The fewer specials you have the more you sell. (An executive chef  said this in an Auxano Vision Pathway, talking about church strategy.) 

#9 Churches need strategy because mission and values alone are not enough to remove competing pictures of the church’s future. (Church Unique)

#10 The two biggest reasons people don’t get more involved are 1) they don’t know how and 2) nobody invited them. (Auxano survey work)

It’s exciting to see a kingdom leader have a great start. This week I got front row seats watching Rich Kannwischer lead as the new Senior Pastor at St. Andrews Presbyterian, in Newport Beach, CA.

One the ride home, I reflected on a dynamic interplay I observed in Rich’s leadership, between two different kinds of “wins.” Some things that a new pastor does naturally relate to felt needs of the church. Other things are more significant changes that will eventually shape the church’s culture. Both are real wins but how they happen and how they feel are very different. Great leaders use them together to maximize positive change.

For example, not long into his assignment, Rich changed both the service times and the worship strategy. (There had been no change for 30 years.)  In the first 7 weeks after the change, the new strategy, coupled with his energy and preaching talent realized a 30% increase in weekend attendance. This dramatic change met a huge felt need (given the congregation’s mildly declining attendance) by providing hope for their future.

But Rich took on two other projects in the short term.  First, he refused to move into the generous square footage of the previous pastor’s office, in favor of creating a more efficient, inviting and collaborative space. Second, he partnered with Auxano to navigate a team down the Vision Pathway. Even though the team had completed some strong strategic planning work, the language was not robust or specific enough to shape culture. Both of these initiatives required extra effort because they were completely off the felt need radar. 

Clearly, Rich is leveraging wins that meet felt needs for wins that guide a new future.

• How are you balancing felt-need wins with culture-shaping wins?
  
• Are you looking for and creating both kinds?
  
• Are you trying to do too many culture-shaping wins at the expense of felt needs?
  
• Are you only focusing on only felt needs, neglecting to challenge the status quo?

 As you review these questions consider the differences:

Wins that meet felt needs DO

• Bring immediate satisfaction to individuals
• Build immediate credibility for the leader (more chips in the bank)
• Create a positive atmosphere

 DO NOT

• Change the expectations of people
• Automatically align with the vision
• Reflect the most pressing real needs

 Wins that shape culture DO

• Introduce a new way of thinking
• Align people, tools, and process toward a clear vision
• Create long term value

 DO NOT

• Feel good at first
• Build credibility immediately
• Happen without dialogue and pushback