Will Mancini

I ran into Marian Liautaud with Christianity Today last week. She made the remark, “Gosh it seems like Church Unique is staying active as a book.” She meant it as a compliment which I gladly received. But part of me wanted to scream, “That’s because it’s not a book! It’s a field manual for vision.”

I am grateful for the daily e-mails and feedback I get from my heros. My hero is the everyday pastor living out the mission of Jesus. At some point they want to articulate really, really well, their unique calling. Many get charged-up to think that God has given them the stewardship of a vision FOR Him and FROM Him.

Here are a few recent comments I received. First is a pastor from Arizona:

I’m a Sr. Pastor in Tucson, AZ.  Over the past 6 months, the leadership of our church used your book as a tool to reshape our vision.  It’s been a great success.  I recently  preached two messages to our church describing what’s next for us.  Overwhelmingly, the church is behind it and we’re making adjustments to reach our community.  The vision map we created has seemed to be most helpful.  People understand their role, and they are excited about it.  I just wanted to thank you for sharing your knowledge.  The book helped us tremendously.  Our church is unique, and it’s clear to see through our vision articulation.

Another Pastor from Idaho…

Church Unique has been a great book for stoking conversation and bringing clarity to the mission of individual churches.Maybe its just the way my mind works, but the illustrations and processes just make sense to me.  I just started another round of using Church Unique to help our leaders grab hold of the unique opportunities God has given to us.

What gets me pumped up is the fact that Church Unique is not a book, but an on-ramp to process. A journey of prayer and discernment; a voyage of dialogue, collaboration and risk taking!  

I also just heard from a pastor in Kentucky. He is working through the book with 8 other pastors all hammering out their vision together, though the virtual peer learning groups represents churches in five states.  I love it!

How is your process going?

I am grateful for Lindy Lowry at Outreach Magazine and her interest in publishing topics related to vision and clarity for church leaders.  Recently they published:

A feature article on Vision as The Indespensable Element in the Nov/Dec issue.  I was really hoping that Bill Hybels was getting old enough that they might put my picture on the cover. No chance, as Bill is aging pretty well!  Here is a link to the original article. that builds from chapter four of Church Unique.

A follow-up original article entitled, “Why Your Church Needs a Vision Frame” can be read in it’s entirety at Outreach. 

In addition, Brian Orme has done an excellent job launching ChurchLeaders.com (an Outreach Magazine website) and is a great collection of top blog content from many different church leaders. I am grateful for his including my content including two features in October: 7 Checkpoints to a Great Guest Experience. and 10 Power Principles of Church Strategy.  You will definitely want to check out these great tools if you haven’t already.

This story continues a series started from the 5 Strategic Reasons to Change Your Church’s Name. The first reason is…

 When the scope of a church’s ministry grows beyond a name that is geographically limited.

This reason has occurred for many churches venturing into a multisite strategy. For example, as First Baptist Church of Springdale prepares to launch it’s third campus, they recently navigated a change to become Cross Church. 

 At the dawn of the multisite era, First Baptist Church of Springdale made a bold move to launch a second campus called The Church at Pinnacle Hills. It was a prime location along a north-bound growth corridor from its original campus in Northwest Arkansas. With tremendous success and the opening of a beautiful Pinnacle Hills campus in 2005, the church looked ahead toward a third campus launch. Prior to their campus opening, the churched hired Auxano to guide a vision clarity process and brand development work that included primary research for name options and rationale for geographic strategy for new campuses. 

The primary research also provided priority geographic targets based on variable criteria.  Most multisite churches emphasis only the existing geography of the membership base. But First Baptist Springdale was able to look at other specific factors like:

• Where small pockets of the community are growing the most
• Where the highest percentage of younger adults are living and moving
• Where the highest unchurched population lives

In the end, they chose to launch their third campus in Fayetteville, which is the most unchurched city in their region of Northwest Arkansas. 

And they recently rolled out their new name: Cross Church. 

This naming strategy is a great example of strengthening identity and removing the limitations of their geographic based names. For now, the church’s logo design can exist with one simple and strong name (two syllables) with a secondary emphasis on all three locations. In addition, the church is able to emphasize the centrality of the cross and the Gospel, rather than denominational affiliation. (The church strongly affirms it’s connection with the Southern Baptist denomination.) The icon of the logo shown was designed in partnership with Auxano Creative.

Here is the church’s 4 point explanation of the change:

Why are we moving to a centralized identity?
To strengthen our identity in four key ways: Greater CLARITY in our communication, cause, and our convictions. Greater UNITY in our fellowship. Greater VISION about who we are and where we want to go. Greater SYNERGY which leads to greater effectiveness, partnerships, and results.

The timing of the name change was also strategic as the senior pastor,  Ronnie Floyd, conducted the survey several years in advance. Why did he wait? In the early excitement to launch a new campus it’s sometimes hard to appreciate the “identity frustration” that grows from the complexity and inefficiency of two locations with two totally different names. Names like  “First Baptist Springdale” and “The Church at Pinnacle Hills” are so different, that the names themselves may tend to promote a cultural disconnect. At the very least, it requires extra work from the communication team with every element of execution, from web to business cards. When the escalating complexity of communication commingled with the anticipation of a third campus, the name change  became a no-brainer. The church had to simplify in order to multiply.

 See the name change video.

Congratulations to Ronnie Floyd and the leadership of Cross Church!

Unnecessary complexity lives to some degree in every church. Effective leaders know how to identify it and deal with it because complexity always drains energy, attention, and other resources from the mission of Jesus. Be aware of these three kinds of complexity:

#1 Decision-making Complexity. The first kind of complexity is the classic “How many people does it take to change a light bulb?” Every decision in your church has a “people count.” The people count is how many folks are given permission to speak into a decision. And every decision in your church has a “decision weight.” The decision weight is a measure of the decision’s importance. Is the decision a small, medium or large decision? Are we buying copy paper, selecting the color of the carpet,  or purchasing property?  Using these two variables you can discern the complexity of decision-making. How many people are involved at what level of decision-making? The higher your “people-count-to-decision-weight” ratio the more dramatic the complexity you let in.

#2 Doctrinal Complexity. Every ministry has a theological conviction. The question is what defines the core? Do you have a simple “pail of orthodoxy” or do you wheel around a heavy metal tool box with dozens of “critical issue” compartments? Remember, when Pharisees tried to stump Jesus, they steered him into the complexity of 613 laws of the Torah (as traditionally numbered). They literally tried to set verbal trap for him by asking him which commandment is the greatest. But he evades their sting with stunning clarity- the entire Law and Prophets hang on two love commands (Matt 22:37-40)

#3 Programmatic Complexity. Although many churches are waking up to the problem of the program paradigm, this kind of complexity inhibits the mission and vision of our best churches. Churches in North America are over-programmed and under-discipled. We raise up program managers instead of disciple makers. We think that more programs attract more people, when in fact, fewer, more meaningful initiatives engage people. Engaged people, then, attract people, inviting others to know Christ and to follow Him together. One simple diagnostic question is, “If I stood in your primary ministry environment (usually worship), how many “doors” of possible next steps or programmatic ministry options would be presented before me?” If you have three or more doors you probably have too many. It’s not uncommon for churches to have 8-13 “doors.”  

What should the leader do about complexity?

The answer is found in the axiom, do more by doing less. If you don’t see complexity as the addition of the unnecessary than you will never receive the less is more principle in your leadership heart. There are three logical ways to do less: reduction, combination and elimination. 

Reduction. Many times the first step is looking for ways to do less of some dynamic that created complexity. For example, you reduce the number of people involved in a decision, or you might reduce the word count in your statement of beliefs as a church. Even in an over-programmed environment you can simply without eliminating a program just by reducing the number of programs advertised in the Sunday worship guide. 

Combination.  Combining things is an often overlooked strategy for battling complexity. Sometimes two teams, two belief statements, two programs or two initiatives are not so different. Two can and should become one. With a little more work and conversation, the synergy of a good combination will be well worth it. One church took a separate Wednesday night men’s ministry event and combined it with the primary strategy of Adult Bible Fellowships. At Auxano we wanted to launch both a coaching network (called co::Labs) and a Church Unique Certification process at the same time. After developing them separately, we decided to scrap the certification model and use the co::Labs as the primary step of certification.

Elimination: The most obvious step to remove complexity is to just flat out cut stuff. Gardeners know to prune the branches for maximum health and growth. My mentor, Howard Hendricks used to say, “The secret to concentration is elimination.” Jim Collins recommends a “stop doing list.” Right now, you could probably be more effective by eliminating 20% of what you are doing as a church. What would that 20% look like for you? Don’t be afraid to stop doing things, but make sure you have the right conversations and look for ways to reduce and combine first. 

Every leaders who takes their culture seriously will name that which matters most. This expression of “values,” if not called “values,” will then be articulated. 

• David Loveless of Discovery Church calls it The Discovery Difference
• Bruce Miller of McKinney Fellowship  calls is it Our Heart 
• Larry Osborne at North Coast Church calls them Plumb Lines

How do you articulate your DNA and your deepest guiding principles?

Steven Furtick of Elevation Church calls it THE CODE. Elevation has received much attention as a fast-growing church in the Charlotte area, reaching an attendance of 5,000 at three sites after four years. It’s a remarkable story, with a notable feature: The commitment to clarity. 

Here is the CODE, in 12 statements, and an example of a branded environment (large hallway graphic) to communicate vision visually.

We Act in Audacious Faith – In order to dominate a city with the gospel of Jesus, we can’t think small. We will set impossible goals, take bold steps of faith and watch God move.

We Are a Generation of Honor – We freely give honor to those above us, beside us and under us because of the calling and potential God has placed inside of them.

We Lead the Way in Generosity – Our staff and church will go above and beyond to give sacrificially to the work of God in our city.

We Are United Under the Visionary – Elevation is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will aggressively defend our unity and his vision.

We Need Your Seat – We will not cater to personal preference in our mission to reach this city. We are more concerned with the people we are trying to reach than the people we are trying to keep.

We Think Inside the Box – We will embrace our limitations. They will inspire our greatest creativity and innovation.

We Dress for the Wedding – We will continually increase our capacity by structuring for where we want to go, not where we are. We will remain on the edge of our momentum by overreacting to harness strategic momentum initiatives.

We Are Ruth’s Chris, Not Golden Corral – Simplicity enables excellence. We place a disproportionate value on creating a worship experience that boldly celebrates Jesus and attracts people far from God.

We Are All About the Numbers – Tracking metrics measures effectiveness. We unapologetically set goals and measure progress through all available quantitative means.

We Eat the Fish and Leave the Bones – We will always maintain a posture of learning. We seek to learn from everyone and incorporate a variety of influences into our methodology.

We Are Known for What We Are For – We will speak vision and life over our people. We will lift up the salvation of Jesus rather than using our platform to condemn.

We Will Not Take This for Granted – What we are experiencing is not normal. This is the highest calling, and we will remain grateful for God’s hand of favor.