Will Mancini

After completing a 12-month journey with Auxano, the pastoral staff of the MET, lead by Sal Sberna unveiled their Vision Frame to over 500 people in their leadership community last Sunday. On exciting aspect of The MET’s vision is a 100-acre plot of land in the middle of one of the largest master planned community in the country- Bridgeland in Northwest Houston. The spearhead of their vision is their missional mandate to “connect people each day to the real Jesus in a real way.” They articulate 5 values or missional motives that guide their uncommon community:

Because we are the recipients of Undeserved Grace we value:
• Unexpected Authenticity
• Unselfish Service
• Undiluted Truth
• Undivided Living
• Unapologetic Evangelism

Last Sunday, Faithbridge had their first Values Blitz of the year. Three “blitzes” a year make up the backbone of our leadership development process. Basically the Values Blitz is an unforgettable shared experience around one of Faithbridge’s six core values. By having three a year, every leader gets total exposure to all six values every two years.

The idea behind the shared experience is rooted in the model of Jesus. He seemed to focus on identity much more than activity. Likewise our goal was “be more” together and not just to talk about our “doing.” Jesus also would immerse his followers into symbolic experiences that would find meaning after the fact.

During this blitz on fervent prayer, we emphasized the dynamic of listening to God. The total experience together was designed with 25 minutes of teaching and celebration and 25 minutes of unexpected silence. For the silent part we used Rob Bell’s Nooma video, Noise, which kicked off a powerful 8 minutes. Following this we asked leaders to respond to “What is God saying to you right now?” by writing on large listening wall. The whole 25 minutes was held in a very dynamic silence. God was in it and four days later, many leaders have not stopped talking about the unique time together. As leaders left, all had a dot sticker on their cell phone with the number 10, symbolizing a commitment to listen to God in silence for 10 minutes a day for the next week.

Henry Ford said a basic human problem is trying to do too much at once. When Jesus prayed to the Father just before his death, he recounted, “I have completed everything that you called me to do.” I am always stunned by the reality that Jesus did no more or less than he was created and called to do. Yet he had more than a few opportunities each day of his ministry. Like Jesus, leaders today are met with far more “opportunities” than God wants us to pursue. The question becomes what “opportunities” are really distractions in disguise. So how did our Savior know what to dive into and what to avoid? What gave him crystal clarity when confronted with an ocean of urgent needs? Certainly his knowledge of Scripture and his intimate relationship with the Father were indispensable. But what else was at play? It’s a great question to ponder as a team. At the end of the day, the question begs for the development of shared values. What are the missional motives that a team can use each day as the constant backdrop for filering opportunities and making decisions.

Tonight I witnessed the clarity that comes from keen observation. Many times this quality separates the Holy Spirit-gifted leaders from the general pool of influencers. I ate dinner with one of Auxano account executives, Shawna Stengle. She has two beautiful 18-month old twins names Kyla and Kyrsten. As I starred at those little blue-eyed bundles of cuteness, I was taken by their identical attributes. So I naively asked Shawna how she tells her girls apart. A list of attributes quickly reeled from Shawna’s lips, from the veins on their faces, to their distinct hairlines. Oh, how the affection and proximity of the mother sees what no other can see! Her keen observation made me reflect on gifted leadership. What would our churches be like if our leadership observed their people and their communities with the proximity and affection of a mother. What if our vision was forged from a Godly preoccupation with our locale rather than what works at another church? It reminds of a definition of genius as the ability to scrutinize the obvious.

Real vision is a living vocabulary. I see it as the living language that illustrates and anticipates God’s better future. I was with two groups of leaders this week where moments were marked with living language. One was Dave Saathoff the leader of Bandera Road Community Church in San Antonio. At one point Dave said, “We are not seeker driven, we are seeker freaks” What are the missional life marks that guide this passion? They have a list of short, sticky imperatives. One is “share a meal;” the simple step of hospitality is their beachhead for spiritual conversation. The second is “keep your passport current” which cultivates a global missional perspective.

The other group was the staff at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy. They view their mission as a quest to love God and love people as they equip the generations, one home at a time. As each staff shared about their role, I was inspired by the constant repetition of seeing “parents as the primary faith trainers.” Many churches have identified this value, but few have gained real traction like Kingsland. They have developed a legacy pathway with life milestones that integrate into the church’s adult bible fellowship and other teaching platforms.