Will Mancini

After completing a 12-month journey with Auxano, the pastoral staff of the MET, lead by Sal Sberna unveiled their Vision Frame to over 500 people in their leadership community last Sunday. On exciting aspect of The MET’s vision is a 100-acre plot of land in the middle of one of the largest master planned community in the country- Bridgeland in Northwest Houston. The spearhead of their vision is their missional mandate to “connect people each day to the real Jesus in a real way.” They articulate 5 values or missional motives that guide their uncommon community:

Because we are the recipients of Undeserved Grace we value:
• Unexpected Authenticity
• Unselfish Service
• Undiluted Truth
• Undivided Living
• Unapologetic Evangelism

A bedrock assumption at Auxano is the belief that a “strategic outsider” is indispensable to effective ministry. So when I see a post like this one by Todd Rhoades of Leadership Network I want to pass it along…

“As a leader in your church, do you have people who will tell you what you need to hear? You know, straight shooters who tell it like it really is, challenge you, and tip you off when things are straying off course? We’re not talking about the typical church complainer or antagonist. We’re talking about individuals worthy of respect, have a good pulse on your church’s life, and hold you accountable to the church’s mission and vision…

Michael McKinney has a fascinating post at his LeadershipNow.com Web site where he cites author Keith McFarland (author of The Breakthrough Company). McFarland calls these types of people ‘insultants.’ They’re willing “to ask the tough questions that cause a company (or a church) to think critically about its fundamental assumptions. The value of insultants is that they will go to great lengths to get their [church] to reevaluate a position or adapt to a changing environment.”

Do you have any church insultants? According to McFarland’s research, 90 percent of business CEOs believed they did. However, only 60 percent of their direct reports believed the same companies had a culture that insultants could have input.

What’s the value of a true insultant? According to McFarland, “Often authority figures are wrong, and if an organization doesn’t have a strong insultant culture, errors are likely to be propagated throughout the [church].”

So, here’s today’s question to ponder: Do you have any church insultants who speak into your leadership and vision? If not, who would be willing to become a valuable insultant for your ministry?”

Real vision is a living vocabulary. I see it as the living language that illustrates and anticipates God’s better future. I was with two groups of leaders this week where moments were marked with living language. One was Dave Saathoff the leader of Bandera Road Community Church in San Antonio. At one point Dave said, “We are not seeker driven, we are seeker freaks” What are the missional life marks that guide this passion? They have a list of short, sticky imperatives. One is “share a meal;” the simple step of hospitality is their beachhead for spiritual conversation. The second is “keep your passport current” which cultivates a global missional perspective.

The other group was the staff at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy. They view their mission as a quest to love God and love people as they equip the generations, one home at a time. As each staff shared about their role, I was inspired by the constant repetition of seeing “parents as the primary faith trainers.” Many churches have identified this value, but few have gained real traction like Kingsland. They have developed a legacy pathway with life milestones that integrate into the church’s adult bible fellowship and other teaching platforms.

Many people ask me how I became a “clarity evangelist.” It all started in the window between July 2001 – December of 2002. In that time I was given the opportunity to work with scores of churches across the country. My world was polarized as I had my first “Nehemiah experience.” It wasn’t walls that were in disrepair but the quality and nature of visionary leadership.

The urgent need of the church in North America today is clarity. Leaders have not disciplined themselves to pray, listen, think and dialogue with their teams in a way that produces a shared, vivid understanding of where God is taking their ministry. I have never encountered one that did not have an immediate need for better clarity–and most have a desperate need. How would you know if you have clarity? You have it if you can answer “yes” to these questions:

1. In the last 30 days did you hear church members talk about your church’s vision?

10. Do you have 100% confidence that all of the time, money and resources going into the church are being utilized to make disciples at the end of the day?

The small band of Christ followers that make up the Auxano team seriously dislike the term “consultant.” Unfortunately it is a term that most people would use to capture what we do for a living. From the beginning, we have sought to turn the “consultant” terminology upside down with the term “navigator.” Why? A consultant’s primary value is usually knowledge expertise that they bring from the outside. At Auxano, we want to emphasize what God is doing inside the church. Our role then is to be a guide whose primary expertise is not right answers but right questions. Here is an example of a recent e-mail I received after a first-time encounter with a pastor:

“I talked with our Elders the other night and shared with them my impressions of our conversation on the phone a week or so ago. Needless to say, it was all very positive. I appreciated your questions, your responses and most importantly your willingness to listen rather than anticipate my answers and what solutions you already had in your prescribed template for how you were going to fix us.”