Will Mancini

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.

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

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:

1. Release expectations
2. Seize opportunities
3. Anticipate what’s next
4. Pace your church
5. Build mission-enhancing rituals
6. 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.

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.

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.

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.