Will Mancini

If you have planted a church in the last three years, know that you are one of my heroes. What you do day in and day out requires more courage, sacrifice and perseverance than 90% of roles in ministry (at least in North America).

I just had breakfast with a friend who has almost 200 people meeting on Sunday morning after 3 years. He is a strong leader, a great communicator with a unique and compelling vision. But he wishes he was further along. He feels the frustration of many obstacles right now. And he is not alone.

For many planters in similar situations, here are some things I would recommend as “must do’s.”  I would hang all of these action points around the metaphor used by a new friend, Tom Tapping. Tom said, “Planters can so easily focus on the hole and not the donut.” Who walks into Krispy Kreme and asks for 12 donut holes? We must stay focused on the donut.” Think of these actions as donut re-focusing steps.

#1 Spend time with people who will show you the donut. These are the people that breath life and energy and perspective into your soul. They remind you how far you have come and how much you really have. When was the last time you intentionally scheduled some dedicated time with the most positive people?

#2 Take 3 days away (especially if it requires a step of faith). If you feel like you can’t step away right now, this piece of advice is really for you. But first you must repent of taking yourself so seriously. Get away to get see the donut again. Spend one day to do nothing. Have only a half day agenda on the second day. And make an agenda for your third day on the beginning of the third day. Give God control of the time and relax. (Read the recent post on 3 Kinds of Days, which talks about the importance of FREE days.)

#3 Spend a day dedicated to saying “thank you.” Consider all of the people who have given time, energy and money to get you where you are now. Yes, I know there are people who didn’t give or failed to give what they really could have. But stop thinking about all of the “what if’s” for a change.  Drill down into the goodness of the present moment. And then express it. Consider spending the entire day either writing notes or making phone calls just to say thanks.

#4 Schedule a barrier-breaker brainstorm session. Yes, you are facing obstacles and some of them have been around for a while. In fact you have been thinking about the same obstacles for so long you’re probably in a rut. So schedule an entire day to get out of your “mental ruts.” Invite some totally new people to the table who bring an objective, outside perspective.  Look at your challenges differently. Do a creative problem solving session.  You want to get on the solution side of some of your challenges with fresh ideas to stop you from focusing on the hole of the donut.

#5 Believe that weakness and limitation are real assets. Receive the direct reminder that God is jealous for the glory. Why are you wanting to muscle through this thing with earthly strength and fleshly power. Put the monkey back on God’s back. Your dream was His dream first. All of your weaknesses and limitations are real. You do have  holes. But God doesn’t.  So believe again that God wants to infuse weakness with great power and smash your limitations with great creativity and innovation. Whatever way you must, preach to yourself again, the great gospel that God has called you to preach to others.  It’s God’s project. Let him have it and don’t stop dreaming big.

The American philosopher John Dewey said, “I should venture to assert that the most pervasive fallacy of philosophic thinking goes back to neglect of context.”

Could it also be said of church leaders today that our most pervasive fallacy of ministry thinking goes back to a neglect of context?  I think so, but you might expect that from a guy who sees most of our leadership sins through the lens of photocopied vision.

Remember when Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22 that we was willing to “become all things to all men in order to save some?” He was reminding us that your strategy for evangelism must be connected to your awareness of context.

The original meaning of context is “to weave together” and is often used in grammar. When words are taken “out of context” (like we often say about a bible verse) we are breaking the natural “weave” by removing elements before, after and around the words that add to a full and accurate sense of meaning.

With ministry we often bring strategies, ideas and plans for reaching or discipling people that neglect context. That is, we fail to weave our strategies together with realities of culture that live before, after and around what we do. The result is not a lack of “meaning” in the grammatical sense but a lack of effectiveness in connecting with people.

Think for a minute about why context should inform strategy:

1. Context carries localized assumptions about faith and God
2. Context creates localized nuances of and uses for language
3. Context encodes a history of heroes and enemies for your community
4. Context transmits a collective conscious of successes and failures
5. Context reflects and reinforces your community’s deepest hopes and fears
6. Context shapes and is reshaped by the real-time shared experiences of its people

Here are two action steps:

1) Consider what are you currently doing in ministry that was designed by someone else in a different context. Re-examine how your context might inform ways to tweak that ministry.

2) Before planning an new event, program or ministry initiative, spend some time thinking about context. And then let context inform strategy.

The foundational assumption of my vision work is that the greatest growth challenge in the local church is the  redemptive passion of the congregation. Are people emotionally engaged with the mission of Jesus?

Therefore, in the process of discerning vision, I want to stoke the redemptive passion of the vision team itself.

Here is an exercise I used today. I asked each vision team member to share a person or experience that grew their awareness of Christ. Some stories were dramatic than others. But every answer contained a name and an act of initiative. In the process of hearing their stories, I secretly recorded their exact words for the acts of intentionality from the people who impacted them.  When they were finished sharing, I put the words on the whiteboard. Speaking of the people that touched them, they shared:

• “They took responsibility for me”
• “He adopted me”
• “She came along side of me”
• “He wouldn’t leave me alone”

The sharing was very meaningful. We discussed how our lives today reflect patterns of this kind of initiative.  One observation that surfaces is that some people experience impact through long-term relationships with quiet presence while others through moments of bold, verbal initiative.

In order to stimulate movement toward boldness, I drew a diagram relating the time availability of a relationship (family is long-term presence, co-worker is mid-term presence, and a stranger is momentary).  The big idea of the chart is to show that if you have a short window of time, like an airplane ride, bold, verbal initiative is more important. The graph helps people appreciate the need for boldness and stimulates great conversation about missional living and evangelism strategy.

Church planters stand in a unique intersection that brings five overlapping points of tension when it comes to vision and ministry DNA.  I see these five tug-of-war ropes with every planter I meet. Each of these tensions starts with a defining question.

#1 Am I running from or photocopying the ministry DNA of where I am leaving?

The first tension is between the ministry the church planter is leaving and the church they’re starting. There is a love-hate spectrum on the “leaving” side. Planters can err defining themselves by what they’re not (hate) or by simply photocopying the launching church model (love). I see both all of the time. In our ongoing Houston co::Lab, one planter left Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY excited to plant a church just like it in Pearland, TX. He is using the co::Lab to make sure he doesn’t short-circuit his own discovery and discernment process.

#2 Will I build the church that’s in my head only, or the one that God will begin to grow?

The second tension is between the ministry DNA that’s in the church planters mind and the one that God actually begins to grow.  Defining values from the start should be a powerful magnet and filter for the core team, but this shouldn’t preclude God’s sovereign hand of provision and direction as the church takes-off. The balance here is important as I always encourage aggressive discernment and bold articulation from the start. The key is to pay attention and always ask the most fundamental question: “What is God up to?”

#3 Will my definition of success be limited by the metrics of yesterday?

The third tension is between the metrics of yesteryear and the new metrics that missional thinking and innovative ministry may birth. Planters need freedom and confidence to break from the past and the lingering expectations from peers and mentors. I am surprised by how many times a guy starts out thinking creatively only to fall into common patterns and butts-in-seats goals.

#4 Will I leverage the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lay a vision foundation?

Fourth, is the tension of the “get-r-done” factor and a sweat-saturated task list with the importance of taking time to think clearly about the church’s cultural foundation. You only pour the foundational concrete once. I encourage planters to fiercely protect the “important and non-urgent” task of articulating vision well. The Auxano Vision co::Lab is a great place for coaching and accountability for this work. Remember, you only have the lifetime of the opportunity to seize the opportunity of a lifetime.

#5 Will I choose to translate the DNA well to the core team or rely on my own talent?

Finally, planters wrestle with knowing intuitively what they’re about and creating contagious carriers of the church’s vision. Helping people tell the new story is not as automatic as we would like to think, even with the core team. Years into his ministry, Jesus was still clarifying the basics of his mission with his twelve. In Luke 9:55, he rebukes them once again for wanting to destroy and not save. If our perfect God-man-leader, Jesus, worked hard for vision clarity what makes you think it won’t take a lot of time and attention for you?

If you have recently planted or are in the process of planting, I highly recommend the Exponential Conference this April in Orlando. They will have a track for vision, values & culture, apart of which will be a pre-conference. Let me know if you plan to be there.

Do you lead a cause or an organization? “Wait,” you answer, “I lead both!” In that case let me ask it a different way:

Do you lead an organization with a cause, or a cause with organization?

There’s a big difference.

In an “organization with a cause,” leadership prioritizes the organization itself ahead of the cause for which the organization exists. From vision and strategy to systems and budgets, everything leans toward building and preservation of the institution. The value of “order” is placed ahead of need for “progress.” Despite the presence of a God-honoring cause, the sharp edge of a dynamic mission and risk-taking spirit grows dull. Eventually, a blunt point on the arrow of purpose stops penetrating the world and taking new distance.

Leaders don’t feel this “frog-in-the-kettle” dynamic. The cause cools over time. It dilutes without notice, because the organization has a large life of its own. Keeping the organization going feels good. It validates our success in the eyes of others. We can be impressive leaders when leading an organization with a cause.

In a “cause with organization,” however, the leadership’s emotional commitment to the organization itself is always subordinate to the emotional commitment to the cause. Decisions are made rigorously around expanding the cause-outcomes. Vision is visceral. Self-preservation is not even on the radar, because death-in-dramatic-attempt is more attractive than life-in-playing-it-safe.

In such a state, organization is not neglected. It’s important because it’s a platform for and instrument of the cause. But it refuses to take a life of its own. The organization is always changeable, rearrange-able and negotiable.

We usually only see this beautiful dynamic early in the life of new cause, like a church plant or social sector initiative. With success it doesn’t take long before the organization-cause equation reverses. Early on, leaders go for broke. Once established, we do anything to keep the organization from going broke. Risk is “immature” and “irresponsible.” The gravity of our nicety wins the day. Loosing the benefits of the organization hurts more than not taking new ground for the cause.

So what does a leader do to keep the cause first?

The answer always lies in the heart of the top 3-5 leaders in the organization.

• How does the leadership team embody the cause?
• What keeps them awake at night?
• What is winning the tug-of-war between safety and risk in their collective soul?
• How many times do personal benefits invisibly weigh-in with decision-making?

Ask these questions for yourself. Then ask these questions as a team. Identify the first places that each team member is susceptible to “organization-before-cause”

Commit to a new action together that firmly models and reinforces a “cause-before-organization” commitment. Improve your cause with one question this week: What are you leading?