Will Mancini

This is the second post related to a forthcoming ebook. The first post was titled the Tyranny of More, (6 Common Myths that Drive Churches to Do Too Much)  You can still comment there to ensure a free copy of the book.

My purpose is to provide a powerful question checklist to break pastors and staff out of the leadership fog of “just doing more.”

These questions allow you to plug one of two kinds of words in the blanks.

The second set of words are for ministries designed for develop spiritual practices and aspects of discipleship like:

Six SIMPLE Ministry Design Questions (or you can call them SILO STOPPERS):

It has been a joy to serve Oak Hills Church in San Antonio on two occasions. The first was during the transition year of Max Lucado stepping into a teaching minister role as the church found a new senior minister. Eventually the church brought Randy Frazee from Willow Creek. The second season was this last fall helping the core staff hone the articulation and sharpen the attunement of the vision.

I speak often of the Vision Frame but only illustrate it sporadically because I am amazed at how quickly people bypass process by photocopying product. Here is the Oak Hills Vision Frame.

Mission:

We are the body of Christ, called to be Jesus in every neighborhood in San Antonio and beyond

Values:

• Unity
• Inclusiveness
• GTF (Grace, Truth, & Faith)
• Prayer
• Every believer is a minister
• Family
• Neighborhood

Strategy:

1. Realize Each Environment (there are 4 environments)
2. Engage Where You Are (there are 3 levels of depth for each environment)

Measures:

• Belong 4 (4- environments: campus, area, neighborhood and community)
• Grow 30 (10- Think Like Jesus, 10- Act Like Jesus, 10- Be Like Jesus)
• Serve All/Everywhere

I have not detailed content for these Vision Frame “handles.” Essentially the beauty and uniqueness of the frame entails not going to another time and place at church but engaging a concentric circle  of community that exists automatically. In other words, each person already belongs to four “places.” You engage your campus weekly for worship, your “area community” quarterly, your neighborhood monthly and your family daily.

My favorite part of the vision is the emphasis on the monthly neighborhood gathering which is both missional and inclusive in its design.

The Mission Measure is a slight rewording of the 30 Core Competencies developed while Randy was at Pantego Bible Church and published as the Christian Life Profile. Be looking for the re-release of this content as the “30 Big Ideas”

Top 6 Pre-Vision Process Questions

1. What vision has preceded us in this church’s history?
2. What are our five-year trends?
3. What is our current state?
4. What is happening around us including other churches?
5. From what do our current members base their identity?
6. Why is imaginative discovery of vision rare today?

Top 6 Vision Process Questions

1. What are the functions of the various leadership levels and congregation in the process?
2. If we need a vision or planning group who will make-up the team?
3. Who will assess, ascertain, articulate the vision?
4. Will there be a formal process to affirm or approve the vision?
5. Who will facilitate the process?
6. What is our process model and related vision framework?

Top 6 Vision Questions

1. What can we do better than 10,000 other churches?
2. What are we ultimately supposed to be doing? (mission as missional mandate)
3. Why do we do what we do? (values as missional motives)
4. How do we do what we do? (strategy as missional map)
5. When are we successful? (measures as missional life-marks)
6. Where is God taking us? (vision proper as missional mountaintop + milestones)

Top 6 Vision Rollout Questions

1. How will be build internal awareness of the new vision?
2. How do we create understanding and appreciation of the new vision at every level?
3. What common questions will need to be answered when the new vision is communicated?
4. What tools and resources need to be in place when the new vision is communicated?
5. How do we create urgency when rolling out the new vision?
6. How will we remind people that this is God’s vision?

Top 6 Vision Integration Questions

1. Who is ultimately responsible for aligning and advancing the vision?
2. How will the vision be integrated into developing leadership?
3. How is the vision be integrated into intentional communication?
4. How will the vision be integrated into duplicatable processes?
5. How will the vision be integrated into compelling environments?
6. How will the vision be integrated into conscious culture?

Top 6 Questions for Individual Engagement with the Vision

1. What do you like best about the vision?
2. What does the vision mean to you?
3. What questions do you have about the implications of the vision?
4. Would you have any hesitation enthusiastically embracing the vision?
5. What ideas do you have toward the realization of the vision?
6. Will you give your yourself to the vision with us?

The foundational assumption of my vision work is that the greatest growth challenge in the local church is the  redemptive passion of the congregation. Are people emotionally engaged with the mission of Jesus?

Therefore, in the process of discerning vision, I want to stoke the redemptive passion of the vision team itself.

Here is an exercise I used today. I asked each vision team member to share a person or experience that grew their awareness of Christ. Some stories were dramatic than others. But every answer contained a name and an act of initiative. In the process of hearing their stories, I secretly recorded their exact words for the acts of intentionality from the people who impacted them.  When they were finished sharing, I put the words on the whiteboard. Speaking of the people that touched them, they shared:

• “They took responsibility for me”
• “He adopted me”
• “She came along side of me”
• “He wouldn’t leave me alone”

The sharing was very meaningful. We discussed how our lives today reflect patterns of this kind of initiative.  One observation that surfaces is that some people experience impact through long-term relationships with quiet presence while others through moments of bold, verbal initiative.

In order to stimulate movement toward boldness, I drew a diagram relating the time availability of a relationship (family is long-term presence, co-worker is mid-term presence, and a stranger is momentary).  The big idea of the chart is to show that if you have a short window of time, like an airplane ride, bold, verbal initiative is more important. The graph helps people appreciate the need for boldness and stimulates great conversation about missional living and evangelism strategy.

I have identified 12 kinds of churches in North America, in order to provide a practical look at the growth challenges of today. As an introduction to a series, I provide a peak at the list and a few opening thoughts. Each future post will walk through the three groupings; 4 kinds of growing churches, 4 kinds of plateaued churches and 4 kinds of declining churches.

OPENING THOUGHTS

#1 This is not a research project. George Barna, Ed Stetzer and others do a fine job at providing this information. The categories that follow were created from an intuitive synthesis as a result of personal engagements over the past 10 years with over 300 churches. The experiences range from one-day onsite deep dives with church staffs to one-year relationships of monthly onsite work. The only exception to my onsite work is the co::Lab coaching network which has enabled me to develop relationships and track strategically with scores of church planters and small churches in a virtual context.

#2  While the list may categorize most churches it is not designed to be comprehensive. As a blog post ,this list is a subjective, personal reflection. I do hope it provides insight for any pastor.

#3  My language is not creative to be novel, but to provoke thoughtfulness and to set-up application from the point of view of clarity and vision. As I train ministry leaders to create worlds with words, so I hope to open new perspectives with new language.

#4  The growth dynamics of any church body are related to size, life-stage and inherent characteristics stemming from denominational association. While some of these attributes are more prominent for a few of these categories, most of these designations transcend size, life stage and denomination.

4 KINDS OF GROWING CHURCHES

• Neo-transcendance attractionals: Big crowds are coming this Sunday.
• Micromentums: Lots of variety, seed vision and redemptive passion.
• Faithfully-focused: Faithful to the gospel, the saints & the surrounding community.
• New-world traditionals:  Historic patterns for a new generation.

4 KINDS OF PLATEAUED CHURCHES

• Mega-mores: We built it and they didn’t come.
• Over-competents: Smart leaders with all-things-to-all-people approaches.
• Succession stalls: Who’s our leader?
• Strategic multipliers: Great influence but its not in the numbers.

4 KINDS OF DECLINING CHURCHES

• Die-visions: More differences of opinion and less people.
• Havens of care: It’s all about us!
• Target transplants: Someone moved but our address is the same.
• Denominational allegiants: If 1950 rolls around again, we’ll be ready.

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