Will Mancini » BOOK REVIEW

What’s Your Surprising Proposition?

Will Mancini — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:44:21 +0000

In Church 3.0, Neil Cole discusses several catalysts for creating movement. One of them is called the “Surprising Proposition.”

First of all why would anyone want to go through life without a Surprising Proposition to share? If we belong to the infinite creator God, are being transformed into the likeness of the living Jesus, and are leading others into eternally significant ministry, wouldn’t it be natural to have a few bold ideas to guide your leadership?

Sure it would.

And, it’s more than worth the time to process, pray, dialogue, wrestle, sweat and figure it out. What is God calling you to do and what difference will it make in the world?

Remember that the Gospel is God’s Surprising Proposition and this message is at the center of everything. Now co-create with God and remix your ministry’s DNA and audacious vision for your time and place.

Neil gives three examples from Church Multiplication Associates in his chapter on the subject:

“We want to lower the bar of how to do church so everyone can do it, and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple so that everyone will do it.”
“If you want to win this world or Christ, you’re going to have to sit in the smoking section.”
“Bad people make good soil for the Gospel; there’s a lot of fertilizer in their lives.”

Here are a few of ours at Auxano:

Clarity isn’t everything but it changes everything.
God wants to do something cosmically significant and locally specific in your church
If you vision isn’t stunningly unique, you probably don’t have one.

Now grab a journal page or a napkin and give your own a shot. What’s your Surprising Proposition? I would love to hear your ideas!

Leadia by Leadership Network: Why Church Leaders Are Going to Love this New App!

Will Mancini — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:39:33 +0000

Leadia was just announced by Leadership Network and it will rollout to the world tomorrow at the online conference, The NINES. What exactly is Leadia? In short it’s “leadership + media-” It’s a short digital book, combined with embedded video, audio and social media. Check out the intro video:

I have been working with the LN team on it for the past couple of months as a contributor of one of the first four Leadia Experiences. Here is my take on why you are going to love this innovative app.

#1 It’s a totally new genre that’s more fun and more effective than other ways of learning

#2 The experiences are less than 10,000 words so you can interact with them in one sitting

#3 The learning is customized and expandable allowing you to go deeper if you want

#4 New and diverse content will come from a broader range of authors

#5 The content costs less than a book and lots of ebooks

#6 It’s downright fun because use you can be surprised as you go through the experience

#7 It’s great for individual or team use.

I will be sharing about my contribution (FLUX: Four Paths to the Future) once Apple approves it for publication within the Leadia app.

The Missing Link to Delivering Your Ministry Vision

Will Mancini — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:13:29 +0000

Before jumping into this third post on “Vehicles for Vision” I want to remind you that it’s useless to talk about vision delivery if you are a little foggy on vision. Don’t feel bad if you are- it takes attention, time and work, but the payoff is infinite. Here is the tool you may want to use to nail down the identity and direction of your ministry- we call it the Vision Frame.

Now…

Is it possible that there is one vehicle of vision that is literally a missing link? For practical purposes, yes.

The missing link is the leadership pipeline as the second vehicle for vision.

Why? The answer requires a bit of explanation.

Remember, because it’s easy for a pastor to rely on preaching alone to deliver vision, they can miss the more important vehicle of the church’s connecting environment. We dealt with this challenge in the first post.

Now, let’s say that you agree that vision should be delivered through small groups or whatever version of group life that your church serves up. The big question is then, “How do you lead through the volunteer leaders who facilitate and guide group life?” The question reveals why a leadership pipeline is the missing link. It’s impossible to conceive of using your connecting environment as a vehicle for vision if you don’t have a linkage or some mechanism to make your connecting environment leaders carriers of the vision. Strangely, this leadership development piece is missing in most churches.

The quick test of wether or not you have this in place is a few simple questions:

When was the last time every leader in your church gathered for training and vision casting?
What does your church do to build a leadership community identity among all leaders?

Again, when I ask these questions, I often receive a blank stare.

We miss this important ministry of leadership development for two primary reasons.

First, pastors are taught study scripture, preach, and maybe even lead small groups. But most pastors are NOT trained in how to develop leaders. As a result pastors can focus entirely on DOING the ministry rather than RAISING UP others to do them ministry. (The purpose of this post in not to argue for the basic, nuts and bolts Ephesians 4:11-14, but it may be worth revisiting the text.) Second, if your church has a few decades of history, you have existing structures and decision-making processes that simulate “leadership” but don’t function as a “leadership pipeline.” That is, increasing numbers of leaders are not multiplied and mentored through a process in which the vision and DNA of the church is transferred.

So here is a set of questions to get you thinking about what a leadership pipeline might look like:

If you had to rely on your small group leaders or class facilitators alone to deliver the vision…

How often would you get this group together?
How much time would you spend with them?
How much time as a group vs. one-on-one?
What kinds of things would you do together?
How would you model the vision with them?
How would you teach them to model the vision?
How would you train them to communicate the vision?
How would you pray for these people?
How would you measure their progress?
What tools and support would you provide?
What ongoing questions would you ask them?

In the end, you will never multiply your ministry if there is no dedicated time and process for leaders sharing the vision with other leaders. And this is unfortunately a missing link in American evangelicalism.

If you would like more information on this subject, Aubrey Malphurs and I wrote a book called Building Leaders on how to build a leadership pipeline for your church.

“I’ve been looking for something like this for years” Now it’s FREE through July

Will Mancini — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:27:51 +0000

The title of this post came from one of our Church Unique Visual Summary readers. He was able to boil down his review to four words. “Amazing design, profound content.”

Yesterday Auxano sent an announcement that the Visual Summary will be FREE through July.

Sign up for exclusive Auxano content.

Download the summary.

How Eric Geiger Can Help Your Church

Will Mancini — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:12:08 +0000

I am grateful for Eric Geiger, and how he can help your church. As the co-author of Simple Church, Eric and Thom Rainer’s writing has had a significant impact on the church in North America.

But Eric is not an author first, but a leader. He was navigated growth from 1200 to over 6000 in worship attendance at Christ Fellowship in Miami as an executive pastor. In addition to his primary work at Christ Fellowship, Eric now serves as a navigator with Auxano. Imagine spending 6-9 months with a ministry design coach like Eric! Here is a post on his blog where he tells his story. As you check out his story, here is an insight into his thinking at Christ Fellowship. The tool is called the Strategy Book- check it out.

Though God has taken us on distinct journeys, Will Mancini and I share common passions birthed from similar God-given burdens. We long for churches to understand their unique identity so they can most effectively bring transformation to their communities, believe a church must be absolutely clear on mission and strategy, and abhor complex programming and directionless sub-ministries that pull a church in a plethora of contradicting directions.

While Will has pleaded with leaders to not settle for “photo-copied” vision, I have challenged leaders to be careful of a “schizophrenic” direction that results from multiple yet varying philosophies that subtly but inevitably erode at the power of a single direction. In other words, we have shared essentially the same message.

Will founded and leads Auxano (from the Greek word which means growth) to help church leaders navigate growth. I am excited to be a part of the incredible team as a “navigator.” On my “day off” from Christ Fellowship, I come alongside a church leadership team once a month for a 6-9 month process to bring clarity around mission, values, and strategy. I am currently in month three of the journey with a great church outside of Philadelphia. The content and insight we provide through Auxano, I believe, is also making be a better leader for my context. So I am very grateful.

Because of my primary role at Christ Fellowship, my time is very limited and I will only be working with a select few churches a year.

If you are a senior/lead or executive pastor who would like more info about working with Eric, email me here.

The Church Unique Visual Summary

Will Mancini — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 06:10:05 +0000

The Church Unique Visual Summary has been a fun little project for me and the team at Auxano Design. I hope it helps you engage the concepts of Church Unique by way of review or for the first time, if you have not yet cracked the cover.

Check out the Visual Summary full screen version in the reader below or download the PDF for free.

Open publication – Free publishing – More church unique

Who do you know who might benefit from the Visual Summary? Thanks for taking a moment to pass it on!

6 Rhythm Strategies For Church Leadership

Will Mancini — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:49:09 +0000

This January, Bruce Miller released an important new book entitled, Your Church in Rhythm.

Rather than writing a review, I am simply posting the foreword I wrote for the book. I was delighted that Bruce asked me. This is one of the few books, like Church Unique, that transcends models. Yet it explores an important gap on leadership writing in the church today.

If genius is the ability to illuminate the obvious, then Bruce Miller is a genius. The insights in this book just might transform how you lead for the rest of your life.

This moment, you are whirling unaware in patterned motion as planet earth spins like a bike wheel and pedals its orbit around the sun. Inside of you and all around you, reality dances to the cadences of a creator’s music. When God painted this world, his favorite brushstroke was rhythm.

Yet we are tempted to miss a large context of our lives. Rhythm to us is like water to a fish. As such, the reality of rhythm becomes something we take for granted. It’s always there but rarely explored.

Hence, this book is a wake-up for every leader who has left rhythm an unexamined feature of life in general and church life in particular. I know I’ve been guilty. The alarm clock’s ring left a powerful question- both challenging and haunting- echoing in my mind: “What if, in our casual awareness of rhythm’s ever-present dynamic, we have missed the deepest wisdom of leadership?”

Prepare to be struck by the peril of ignoring rhythm. Guilt, busyness, stress and even despair can win the day in our “rhythm-dumb” approaches. Among many strategies stained with artificial idealism, Bruce will debunk the kingpin- the notion of “balance” that marks many of our mental models in ministry.

As you dive into this book, I am particularly excited to commend its content on three additional counts.

First, the principles of this book are incredibly actionable. Bruce boils down six simple and compelling strategies that you can take and use everywhere you go. Don’t be surprised when you get up from your favorite reading nook to find these six new tools strapped to your pastoral tool belt.

Second, the principles of this book are universally applicable. There is no time or place and there is no theological conviction or leadership style where rhythm doesn’t apply. If you, like me, are tired of the myriad of “how-to-do-church” books, then be happy! Your Church in Rhythm delivers 24-karate gold by transcending models, methods and trends.

Third, the author of this book is a one-of-a-kind kingdom laborer. As a leader, Bruce couples the mind of a military strategist with the heart of a willing foot soldier. As a follower of Jesus, he fuses intensity with integrity, and honesty with optimism like no one I know. Over the last twelve months, I have enjoyed getting to know Bruce and his team. They glow with a rare spirit that is “All in” and “All together” for Jesus.

Now, with the turn of each page, journey into this lost river of wisdom. From wet feet to waist deep, you will discover that which is at once strangely familiar and yet completely new.

The six strategies that Bruce covers in the book are:

Release expectations
Seize opportunities
Anticipate what’s next
Pace your church
Build mission-enhancing rituals
Oscillate intensity and renewal

Here is a little snippet of Bruce’s motivation for writing the book:

I highly encourage you to check out this book: Your Church in Rhythm.

The Church as Redemptive Tribe: 6 Ingredients

Will Mancini — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:33:20 +0000

One year ago, I blogged a 7 part series that I thought was worth revisiting on the application of Seth Godin’s book, Tribes, to church leadership. Because I picked up the pace of writing since that time, many have started following my blog after this series was posted. The six ingredients of a redemptive tribe are passion, leadership, movement, communication, focus, and greatness.

Post #1: Take Seth Godin to Church: Here I introduce the series, challenging readers on how they apply the information they read from books. I set up the driving question of the series: Are you managing a program factory or are you leading a redemptive tribe?

Post #2: How Passionate is Your Tribe – 5 Team Questions: In this post I talk about the first ingredient of a redemptive tribe: Passion. I include some practical team questions. Every leader in your church can be placed on a continuum of emotional ownership. How do you increase their passion?

Post #3: Pastors are Tribal Leaders – 4 Things We Must Do: This post brings the second ingredient, leadership, to the forefront with four imperatives for every local church pastor. I pull my favorite quotes from Godin and spend more time on the fourth “must do:” Committing before its successful.

Post #4: Limit Your Limitations: The third ingredient of a redemptive tribe is movement. Here are some incredible questions to think through as a team about your story, your communication, and your unintended barriers to doing more as a church.

Post #5: The Essential Lesson of Tribal Communication: The fourth ingredient of communication brings us to a one primary application. What is the most principle for us to apply?

Post #6: Stop Trying to Reach Most People: This provocative little post had the highest hits in the series last year. I think you will enjoy the counter-intuitive principle here on tribal focus, the fifth ingredient.

Post #7: Your Church Was Made to Be Remarkable: The final post discusses greatness as the sixth ingredient of a redemptive tribe. Jesus is the most remarkable human to walk the planet. The gospel is the most remarkable message ever communicated. Now look at four quotes from the book through the lens of being a remarkable church.

I hope you enjoy this series and use it with your team. If you benefited from the extended series, please let me know.

FREE Chapter From Sam Chand’s New Book on Church Vision and Culture

Will Mancini — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 20:14:51 +0000

Sam Chand is one of the few thought leaders today that discusses the relationship between culture and vision in the church. His new book is entitled, Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code, Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration. His ministry is distinctly flavored by his work with with the charismatic tribe, but I find his thinking broadly applicable. I have not received my copy yet, but I have been looking forward to this book more than any others in the Leadership Network Series since Church Unique came out.

One of Sam’s favorite lines is “Culture trumps vision.” While I agree with the statement it is most true when we erroneously define vision as a “statement” rather than a state of mind. I look forward Sam’s thoughts on how visionary leadership shapes culture.

Here is a link to the free chapter.

Here is a link to the a free culture survey.

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.