Will Mancini » BOOK REVIEW

12 Steps to Recovery for Vision Statement Addicts

Will Mancini — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:39:36 +0000

It’s such a joy to receive daily correspondence from pastors and church teams taking vision seriously in the name of Jesus. Often questions come about the “vision statement.” The primary reason for the question is that the process, as outlined in Church Unique, is not fully appreciated as a new paradigm. Teams engage the process but don’t fully reboot the hard drive when it comes to vision. Here is an e-mail I received today, followed by response.

We decided to follow the book Church Unique and used a denominational coach trained by your organization. We have gone through a the process of articulating the Vision Frame. Now we are talking about vision inside the frame, what you refer to as “vision proper” I would dearly love to see some examples of vision statements to get a better handle on the shape and feel. Is that possible? Thank you very much!

Without sounding upset, I must say that the point of my book is that you don’t need a vision statement, but a visionary state of mind. You don’t need a strategic plan, but a strategic thinking point of view. But the problem is clear: we are addicted to the statement itself. Although the new paradigm is completely discussed in Church Unique, the addiction is strong.

Try these 12 steps for recovery.

#1 Admit that as soon as you make vision a statement, you render it powerless.

#2 Believe that a redefinition of vision, under the Lord Jesus as your Chief Visionary, will restore your leadership; decide to turn your leadership of His church completely over to Jesus.

#3 Commit to develop a visionary state of mind not a vision statement; realize that a visionary state of mind allows God to be God and allows others to speak into the process.

#4 Pursue a visionary state of mind by developing a framework (Vision Frame) of thinking first, that you CAN and SHOULD state.

#5 Before developing your framework, do a searching and fearless inventory of where God has placed you, your congregation’s capabilities and your leadership’s deepest passion. (I call this the your Kingdom Concept.)

#6 Start your framework by restating the timeless mission of Jesus for your time and place; decide that this will be THE organizing principle of everything you do. Otherwise, disband and close the church.

#7 Then state the four most important driving motives and core convictions that will shape the culture of your church as you pursue Jesus’ mission. (Congrats you have completed to sides of your Vision Frame.)

#8 Based on you searching inventory and the first two sides of your frame, state what kind of disciple your church is designed to produce; these may be called measures, life-marks, practices or something similar.

#9 Finally determine and state your church strategy as the “the how” of the mission using a picture. Note: You will never have a visionary state of mind or a visionary church until the congregation enthusiastically embraces this picture along with the other sides of your Vision Frame.

#10 Now that you have a Vision Frame, you can start thinking, praying, discerning, dialoguing and dreaming about your vision as God’s better future God. Use the sides of your Vision Frame to serve as a guide. Decide on the single most important thing the church must do in the next 12 months. This priority is called vision proper.

#11 Ruthlessly avoid the temptation to write vision proper as a statement. Do gather 6-12 key leaders and ask them to contribute “living language” in the form of phrases, metaphors, stories, and “what if” dream nuggets based on your single 12-month priority. Use this tool as a team and revisit it quarterly.

#12 With your priority in mind create talking points for every kind of daily interaction (prayer, one-on-ones, recruitment, teams, preaching, etc.) Use this spider diagram to practice painting a picture with words. Cast your vision as much as possible by dripping vision into daily conversations. Encourage the team to do the same. Don’t print your talking points. Remember that vision transfers through people not paper.

In the end, a visionary leader is not someone with a vision statement in their hand, but a compelling picture of God’s better future, streaming from their lips and entering peoples hearts all the time. May God bless your recovery process.

Mission, Missions, Missional, Missionary: DEFINED

Will Mancini — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:44:19 +0000

I just read the intro of a new book, entitled The Mission of God’s People, by Christopher J.H. Wright. Zondervan is making the first chapter available for free, Who Are We and What are We Here For?

Here was an interesting little parallel he made in defining missions. The comparison is nicely self-explanatory:

If Mission = Science, than
Missions = Sciences
Missional = Scientific
Missionary = Scientist

Here is a 90 second take on the book:

Have You Defined What Matters Most for Your Church? #cuvlog

Will Mancini — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:25:04 +0000

Here is a tidbit to reengage your thoughts on values. It’s a sore subject in some ways, because it’s so easy for our “statements” not to mean anything. But do the process well and you might be surprised what happens.

Mission as Missional Mandate #cuvlog

Will Mancini — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:35:03 +0000

So many people today throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to mission. They say that mission statements don’t mean anything. And if you look at common practice that is a reasonable conclusion. But mission can and should live at the center of your life as a leader and your organization in an amazing way, in the same way that it did for Jesus and his 12 disciples. No one was ever clearer about the origin, their mission and their destiny than Jesus. What is your mission? Chapter 12 provides everything you need to lead with mission, as we define it as a missional mandate.

See with New Eyes

Will Mancini — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:03:55 +0000

After much critique on the misapplication of vision in its various forms, I continue to provide solutions as we enter Part 3 of Church Unique. This chapter is the overview of the Vision Frame as the primary tool offered in Church Unique and this #cuvlog series.

Field Notes on Kingdom Concept

Will Mancini — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:53:56 +0000

In Chapter 10 I share a story of a Church’s discovery process of the Kingdom Concept. In addition, I cover common troubleshooting questions for the journey. Thanks for continuing to join the #cuvlog series. Don’t forget to tweet about it. If you use #cuvlog in your tweet, you might win a vision deck. I gave away three vision decks last week.

Church Leader: Do You Know Your Kingdom Concept?

Will Mancini — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:00:42 +0000

We have almost completed Part 2 of Church Unique. But before we do, I introduce a powerful tool used to help church leaders do a deep dive into their local calling and passion as a church. Think about it for a minute. If we are really listening to God and leading from a missional, incarnational perspective, uniqueness won’t be something se strive for, it will be something that happens automatically. Have you really been set free from an “all things to all people” mindset? If you were to honestly look at your church, whose model of ministry are you really running?

Learning from Vision Legacies

Will Mancini — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:30:10 +0000

I can’t tell you how many times I have worked with young pastor, who largely disregarded the history of a church during a visioning process. Well vision, of course, is about the future. But how crazy is it not to learn from past before running into tomorrow? I included this chapter, to remind leaders how essential and beneficial it is to look back at the vision legacies that precede us.

If you are tracking with the Church Unique Vlog Series (#cuvlog) we are in Part 2, at chapter 8. We are almost halfway through the book.

Ultimate Clarity is Anchored in Jesus

Will Mancini — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:00:45 +0000

4 Ways to Prepare Yourself for a Vision Process #cuvlog

Will Mancini — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:25:06 +0000

I appreciate the e-mails and feedback from people enjoying the Church Unique Video overview. I know some of you are having a problem viewing the videos. I am working on that and will post links to all of the videos shortly, that will provide alternative access to the material.

Also remember I am giving away Vision Decks to those helping promote the series on twitter. Just say a little word about the series and use #cuvlog as a hastag. If you want to post a link in a blog, that’s great too, just let me know.