Will Mancini

Churches are not franchises to be reproduced as exactly as possible wherever and whenever—in Rome and Moscow and London and Baltimore—the only thing changed being the translation of the menu. But if we don’t acquire a narrative sense, a story sense, with the expectation that we are each one of us uniquely ourselves—participants in the unique place and time and weather of where we live and worship—we will always be looking somewhere else or to a different century for a model by which we can be an authentic and biblical church. The usefulness of Acts as a story, and not a prescription or admonition, is that it keeps us faithful to the plot, Jesus, and at the same time free to respond out of our own circumstances and obedience.

Peterson, Eugene H. (2011). The Pastor: A Memoir (p. 119). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

In light of Peterson’s words, I ask again, “How is it going?” Or maybe the better question to ask is “Where have you been looking?”

It’s my dream that each pastor find the time and place for the authentic church.  And the amazing answer is “It’s right now, right where you are.”

If you are new to my blog, thanks for stopping by. You may want to consider a book I wrote about discovering the authentic church for your time and place. I called the book Church Unique to highlight what Eugene Peterson is talking about here. It’s really about entering more deeply into the context that God has placed you to develop your own model of ministry. It’s about faithfulness to The Plot rather than mimicking another person’s story.

Every July I stop consulting for personal downtime. The time usually includes visiting grandparents, a study break or special trips with the family. Each year I learn a little more about the importance of taking such time.

This year, the stakes feel higher with personal clarity for a variety of reasons. My ministry is growing, my family is growing. Growth always means more complexity; more options, more distractions, more opportunities, etc.

In order to maximize the time, I created a list of question to think through. What’s most interesting to me is how some of my questions have changed. The questions with the astericks are ones I have never considered before. The main point of this post then, is not to give you my questions but to challenge you to write your own.

Here’s what it looks like for me:  A month before my downtime I carved out a 3-hour time of focus. For me its a plane ride. I spent time in the Word and prayer.  I journaled a bit. Then I wrote questions. I didn’t worry if they are good questions or not. I didn’t worry about answering them.

Why not give it a try?

Here is what I will be thinking about over the next 30 days.

• What is God teaching me right now?
• How do I want to spend my time every day?
• What is the single greatest way I want to change how I spend my time everyday?
• What is the single greatest thing I don’t want to do everyday that I currently do?
• What are my greatest strengths as I understand them now?
• What are my greatest limitations as I understand them now?
• *How have my accomplishments enabled me to better leverage my strengths?
• *How have my accomplishments magnified my weaknesses?
• *How is money influencing my strategy and direction inappropriately?
• What are time-limited opportunities that I now have?
• *How am I misdirecting my best time and energy?
• *Where do deepest my frustrations come from? Why?
• What ideas am I most excited about?
• What is the single most important thing to do or decide to do right now to achieve my life vision?
• *How am I failing to give my best time and energy to my family. Why?

I was with a well know pastor years ago who was very gifted at preaching. He invited me to lead his church through a 9-month Vision Pathway. As the journey progressed I realized that his gift for communication on Sunday morning kept him stuck as a visionary. Why?

Preaching should never be the only or even the primary vehicle for vision.

Our mental framework of church is so captive to what happens on Sunday morning, that this principle may sound strange or even crazy to some. But let’s explore the other vehicles that wonderfully expand and increase the delivery of your vision.

Let’s start with one vehicle of vision that is more important than the preaching event. In fact, I would call this your primary vehicle for vision.

Vehicle #1 is your church’s connecting environment.

Every good church will have some place (not worship services) that people connect relationally, whether it be small groups, adult bible fellowships, Sunday school, etc. Because this environment is the relational “point of integration,” it is a more important delivery system for vision.

For example, Clear Creek Community Church plans on launching their third multisite this fall. While Bruce, the senior pastor, has talked passionately about it in worship, the most important delivery is when Jeff, my small group, leader passionately shares his excitement in his living room. More than sharing his excitement, Jeff explains why he is going to be a part of the multisite and invites us to do the same.

No some of you are still thinking, “Is that really the primary delivery system of the vision?”

Yes. And here’s why.

#1 Jeff doesn’t get paid to preach or cast vision for the church. Therefore his vision casting immediately carries ten times more weight and credibility.

#2 After Bruce’s preaching on the next multi-site initiative, people will talk about it in the church’s connecting environment. (The scary thing is that people will talk about it with brutal honesty, much more than the pastoral staff realizes.) And, most people will be influenced by the dominant tone in the group. Therefore group dynamics are the most important factor in interpreting and validating the vision.

#3 Every pastor should hope that people grow in their awareness, understanding and appreciation of the vision. But this simply can’t happen without dialogue. Dialogue requires time and relational investment. Since the church is already investing into some connecting environment, doesn’t it make sense to use that as the primary vehicle? Consider Bruce and Jeff. There is no way that Bruce can dialogue with every person in the church. And Jeff is already building relationships and dialoguing with 12-15 other people in a weekly basis.

So if you want to maximize your vision’s…

• Credible source
• Meaningful tone
• Validating presence
• Positive interpretation
• Growing awareness
• Deepening understanding
• Increasing appreciation

You better stop relying on your worship experience to be the only or even primary vehicle for vision.

How are you delivering vision via your church’s connecting environment?

Now remember, we have several other vehicles for vision for you to consider. Stay tuned for some follow-up posts.

Today I talked with 5 different ministries in pursuit of clarity. At one point, Tim with the E4 Project, started sharing the benefit of the process as we were refining their Vision Frame. I love the image he used:

“It’s giving me a mental base camp as a leader”

Bam! That’s it. Another brilliant picture of the power of clarity.

What is a “base camp?”

A center of operations, organization, or supply

A camp from which expeditions or other activities set out or from which they can be carried out.

A main encampment providing supplies, shelter, and communications for persons engaged in wide-ranging activities, as exploring, reconnaissance, hunting, or mountain climbing.

These definitions highlight three different aspects  the power of clarity. The Vision Frame is like a mental base camp because:

1. It creates a center of operations of how we think.
2. It defines the place from which every idea, conversation, decision and action initiates.  Everything sets out from a prior understanding of our “base” identity and baseline mission.
3. It supplies, protects and communicates essentials so that people can be involved in a very broad range of activities and pursuits.

In the end, where there is no base camp there is no common gathering point and no great summit experience.

Do you have a mental base camp as a leader?

I had lunch today with Jeff Meyer, lead pastor of “the Church” and lead navigator with Auxano. I asked him to share his Vision Frame to illustrate the power of clarity for everyday pastors.

Jeff is a very intentional leader and is gifted at coaching and consulting churches through their own clarity journey that we call the Vision Pathway. In addition, he is one of the few innovative practitioners with the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) in charting a new course, not just of multi-site, but of serious missional engagement. For example I love Jeff’s switch from “Every member a minister” commodity language to “Every member a missionary.” You might enjoy connecting with Jeff at jeffm@auxano.com or follow him on twitter: pjfire. In addition, he is speaking this week with Alan Hirsch and others at the FiveTwo conference in Houston.

One thing to remember as Jeff shares his four mission measures of “life-marks,” is that each one is broken down into four developmental areas, creating a dashboard with 16 spiritual growth areas.