Will Mancini

Neue is a new quarterly journal by Relevant Media that just rereleased with a more readable magazine format and leadership savvy content. The tagline is “Ideas Shaping the Future of the Church.”  A very short article by Scot McKnight (his blog) was a particular jewel in this new issue. It doesn’t look like the content will be online anytime soon. Here are my highlights for the article Copycat Church:

In summary, Scot concisely and articulately connects the problem of copying methods and programs from other churches to a defining observation he has made in his career as a theologian and biblical scholar. He calls it his most important discovery of the last decade. In his own words:

For me the most important discovery in the last decade, of biblical and theological studies was two-fold: First, I realized that Jesus’s language was not sacrosanct for Paul and Peter and others.

 Second, I realized they were doing exactly what Jesus was doing. That is, Jesus wasn’t “imitating” anyone when he articulated the movement of God in terms of “Kingdom of God.”  He didn’t find this in Moses, or David, or Isaiah and restore it to its proper place, and the early Christian apostles didn’t “imitate” Jesus by expressing the Gospel with “Kingdom of God.”

The thrust of this article, carries the heartbeat of the ministry of Auxano and the book Church Unique: Every local congregation should think through their local context and their particular calling from God. And when they do, the articulation of their identity and direction will be stunningly  unique!  Scot’s emphasis is that even the inspired biblical authors didn’t copy each others words. Therefore, and even though we have the foundational revelation of Scripture, the Holy Spirit still creates new articulation of the Gospel through his people for different places and times. Here are some quotes from the article. 

• Imitation has its place, but one thing imitation doesn’t promise is results. Unfortunately a lot of church leaders don’t get that fact.
  
•  You can’t imitate Spirit-empowerment. You either have it or you don’t.
  
•  There is one thing that’s clear: There is no movement of God apart from God’s empowering Spirit.
  
•  The New Testament suggests that Spirit-empowered movements articulate the Gospel for a particular context for that day.
  
•  Spirit, context, Gospel, word. Those are the elements of a genuine movement of God.
  
•  The apostolic witness is the foundation of the Spirit-shaped truth of the Gospel. However, this does not mean that we simply puppet, or imitate the words of Jesus or Paul- for the New Testament does not do that itself.
  
•  What we need is less imitation and more discernment through God’s Spirit.

What kind of disciple is your church designed to produce?

At Vince Antonucci’s church plant in Las Vegas, called VERVE,  they not only have a clear and compelling answer to this question, but to all five of the irreducible questions of clarity that make of the Vision Frame. This is Church Unique at its best. As Vince builds community-focused church to reach lost people on the Vegas Strip, he constantly casts vision to the kind of people they are trying to become. It’s what I call a “mission measure” or “missional life-marks.” Verve’s stunning articulation this is that they are becoming:

• God Stalkers
  
• Grace Wholesalers
• and Guerilla Lovers

Check out the way Vince articulates others aspects of the Vision Frame with a similar three-fold simplicity (core vision, core practices and core process) Go to “about VERVE” and then “core.”

About a year ago, my son Jacob I and spent a day with Vince and his core team. His first book (I Became a Christian and All I Got was this Lousy T-shirt) greatly enriched my son’s evangelistic fervor.  That’s why I am so excited that Vince has launched a new book with some very cool FREE stuff for churches to integrate in their services. The title of the book, is of course from his life-marks- Guerilla Lovers.  Check out the great resource site. 

Last Sunday I was at McKinney Fellowship, pastored by Bruce Miller, is going through the Vision Pathway with Auxano. While  guiding the process, I am really enjoying Bruce’s writing. One of his books, The Leadership Baton, uses this picture to explore the idea of “seeing potential.” It’s a fantastic book. (More thoughts to come.) The painting is by Rene Magritte.

One of the best tweets that I received this year was the quote, “Are you going through life or are you growing through life?” This quote forces me to consider the areas of development in my life in which I am tempted to coast. 

One of the those areas is my ability to empower and release others. While I constantly aspire to empower others, I am constantly amazed at the conditions of my heart that hold me back.

In 2004, when Aubrey Malphurs invited me to co-author Building Leaders, my favorite chapter to write was The Challenge of Empowerment. It is still my favorite chapter because it is the heart-building, character-shaping nature of empowerment that is hardest to realize. I recently reread the chapter and felt thoroughly rebuked by my own words.  

I thought you might enjoy a free copy, as an opportunity to refresh your own commitment to empowering others this upcoming year. But don’t read it unless these four heart challenges ring true with you.  The summary chart below gives you an appetizer of the chapters content, questions and exercises. 

#1 Empowerment increases he scope of unknown ministry outcomes.

#2 Empowerment requires a sacrifice of short-term ministry efficiency.

#3 Empowerment requires giving away authority that previously provided the basis of personal ministry success.

#4 Empowerment necessitates close support and authentic community with other leaders.

Before engaging this post, please know that I want you to reach as many people as possible with the gospel of Jesus for the Glory of God.  The challenge is simply a matter of how. Here is the Tribes quote I would like you to consider:

Almost all growth that’s available to you exists when you aren’t like “most people” and when you work hard to appeal to folks who aren’t “most people.”

We often talk about the downside of trying to be “all things to all people” through an organizational approach to ministry that leaves us “nothing to anybody.”

Seth Godin introduces another way of looking at the same tension, by using the phrase “most people.” In a nutshell he shares that tribes have dramatic results when stop trying to reach “most people” and can focus on their strength, their niche and their unique vision.  

Even strategic church leaders can slip into a subtle desperation of wanting to reach “most people” and miss the opportunity to leverage their strengths to reach more people. Again we run into the dynamic, counter-intuitive principle that focus expands. 

Its that simple- do you want to reach “most people” or more people? 

• How are the people in the community God has given you to reach not like “most people?”
• How are you and your team not like “most people?”
• How does your ________________ limit you from reaching “most people?”  Insert in blank: Church building (or lack of), programs, worship style, denomination, etc.
• Look at the ministry of Jesus.  Was he always trying to reach “most people?”
• Consider the four Gospels. Why are there four? Was each one written to “most people?”
• How would you summarize the people you are best at reaching with five words? 

Note: Some of these question are not easy and may lead to very robust conversations. Engage the dialogue and work through to clarity.