Will Mancini

This is the second drill down of the Top 11 Clarity Takeaways from the NINES.  If you have not heard of Leadership Network’s conference called The NINES check it out. 

In the following video, Neil Cole discusses the kind of clarity that must be forged to reach exponentially more people .

Problem: Your vision isn’t maximized if language is not simplified. The 3 clarity questions are below.

Here are my highlights:

• For your vision to reach the ends of the earth, strategies, tools, and resources must pass three criteria.
• #1 – Can it be received personally and make a difference in my life? 
• #2 – Can it be repeated easily?
• #3 – Can it be reproduced strategically?
• Reproducibility requires clarifying and simplifying to the most elemental and powerful form
• Does your vision today, reach the ends of the earth? 

The second story of our series on 5 Strategic Reasons to Change Your Church’s Name comes from Jon Tyson at Trinity Grace in New York City. His leadership illustrates the second strategic reason to change a name:

#2 When a name is the barrier to the people that a church is trying to reach.

Churches serious about reaching people far from God have taken great strides to “remove all barriers” to fulfilling the mission.  In Jon’s case we learn how history trumped creativity.

Jon Tyson is as smart and likable as a pastor can be. I first met John when he was on staff with David Loveless at Discovery Church in 2005.

But Jon’s vision was to plant, and  New York City was his call.  As a bright visionary and missional strategist, Jon turned on his creativity and named his church Origins. I remember hearing Jon talk about his vision, strategy and new church name at the time. He could make any church planter weep with jealously. Surely he had cracked the code of NYC as a cultural exegete!

Or not? Several years into the plant, Jon awakened to a startling conclusion. The people of the city weren’t looking for the next flavor of doing church. They weren’t responding to what appeared to be a fly-by-night Jesus operation. Rather, they were interested in the historic and the rooted.  They wanted to attend a church that had been around for 200 years.

So Jon acknowledged the mistaken moment of creativity and changed the name of his church to remove the barrier.  The church became Trinity Grace. The new name captures accurately, both the theological prowess of the leadership team and the timeless beauty of Trinitarian God and a grace-filled Gospel.

Trinity Grace is one community that consists of several neighborhood churches (Westside, Eastside, Chelsea, Brooklyn) that network together for the common good and renewal of New York City. The church is diverse, comprising professionals, families, students and artists. Read more about their vision and values.

It was an exciting day for Austin Stone, a church led by Matt Carter which has experienced a surge of awareness due to their growth and unique vision over the past few years. Today they moved into a new community center designed by Visioneering Studios, led by Mel McGowan. Here are some pics of the new facility.

In highlighting Austin Stone, I want to focus on their well articulated Vision Frame, and in particular, an excellent example of what I call the “Missional Milestone” of Vision Proper- the question in the middle of the frame which asks, “Where is God taking us?”  The milestone, called the 100 People Project, is at the bottom of the post with a video, but I wanted you to see their Vision Frame first. Note that the building is NOT their milestone. Here is their framework:

Mission:

To be a New Testament church existing for the supremacy of the name and purpose of Jesus Christ.

Values:

• Authentic & Intimate Relationship with God
  
• Submission to the God of the Bible
  
• Maturity through Discipleship
  
• Authentic & Intimate Relationships with each other
  
• The Supremacy of Christ

Strategy:  To build up New Testament people who…

• Worship Christ
• Live in Community
• Get Trained
• Make Disciples

Vision Proper (Mountiantop – Infinite Horizon):

To build a great city, renewed and redeemed by a gospel movement, by being a church for the city of Austin that labors to advance the gospel throughout the nations.

Vision Proper (Milestones – 2 Year Horizon):

100 people to start the process to be sent out in 2010 for 2 year terms to unreached peoples.  They created a link for this milestone.

Many of you liked the article I tweeted on Friday on Francis Chan’s interview with Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris. I had not seen this video yet by The Gospel Coalition. I think its worth a few minutes because:

#1  It’s a really frank conversation between large platform leaders and we need more of this in evangelicalism

#2  It gets you thinking about how we discern God’s will and His vision for our lives

#3  It surfaces well articulated challenges not just for leaders but for everyone’s sanctification journey

If you would like the most condensed and enjoyable learning experience on understanding the missional church (a repost from my prior blog), then take 15 minutes and watch these 6 videos from:

• Ed Stetzer
• Mark Driscoll
• Michael Frost
• Tim Keller
• Rich Kannwischer (PGF, St Andrews Pres)

If you want to learn more,  here is a video and other stuff from one of my favorite missional thinkers Alan Hirsch.