Great Prelaunch Vision Video on Local Predicament
Uncovering your Kingdom Concept is practice along the Vision Pathway to answer the question, “What can your church do better than 10,000 others.” In defining this reality for each church we look closely at Place (Local Predicament), People (Collective Potential) and Passion (Apostolic Esprit).
Jack Thomas is a church planter launching in urban Pittsburgh in May of 2010. I not only love his cultural exegesis, but the succinct and quality way he is communicating his Local Predicament via video.
10 Profound Lessons from the Catalyst Godfather
I was glad to see Chuck Swindoll get the legacy award at Catalyst today. He just got off the stage and truly engaged the young audience. It was fun to watch the crowd “surprised” by the wisdom and humor of this ministry giant. It really exposes our taste for trend. We have little patience and appetite for seasoned ministry perspective at our conference pep-rallies.
Chuck is a giant, and I have been close enough to him to validate that he lives the top ten lessons that he shares. I first met Chuck while at Dallas Seminary, and had the privilege as a young consultant to be his vision navigator during his fourth year at Stonebriar Community Church. Stonebriar, planted in Frisco in far North Dallas, had 700 people at its first public worship and grew by 1000 people each year for the first four years. As I mentioned in Church Unique, Chuck’s big idea is “joy.” His mission is to encourage all people to pursue a lifelong, joyous relationship with Jesus Christ.
My favorite learning experience with Chuck was a small think tank with Greg Mott at Houston’s First Baptist. I remember thinking: here is a 70 year-old church planter meeting with a 30 year old senior pastor of a 70- year old church. Chuck’s humility and his command of Scripture is always amazing. In fact he is one of the most humble and teachable pastors I have ever worked with. That’s why I especially appreciate his 10 lessons from 50 years of ministry:
- It’s lonely to lead
- It’s dangerous to succeed
- It’s hardest at home
- It’s essential to be real
- It’s painful to obey
- Brokenness and failure are necessary
- Attitude overshadows actions
- Integrity eclipses image
- God’s way is always better than my way
- Christlikeness begins and ends with humility
Places to Push the Envelope on Vision
My speaking ministry has ramped up a bit with more people engaging Church Unique. Here are a few places I will be in the next 6 weeks. I will begin updating the blog more with events like these. The reason I speak is to push the envelope on vision. It's all about what God wants to do uniquely through you and your ministry.
- September 29: A Day of Clarity, Portland, OR
- October 12-13: Sticky Church Conference, San Diego, CA
- October 20-21: CB Plus ‘24’ Conference, Anderson, IN
- October 27: Cornerstone Conference, with WFX Charlotte, NC
- November 10: Society for Church Consulting, New Orleans, LA
Take a NINES Intermission- A Guide for Knowledge Junkies
Knowledge Puffs Up, But Love Builds Up - Apostle Paul
While the NINES is new, the feeling of being drenched by an information fire hydrant is not. As I watch folks tweet and celebrate and whine about this blast of kingdom wisdom, I wanted to share a few thoughts to guide your learning experience. Consider taking a 5 minute intermission to reflect now.
What we are aiming for is not the picture of a child playing and splashing in the hydrant’s water-works. There is no learning there. We are looking for the leaders ability to sip from the hydrant (without loosing your lips!)
Three things can drive your knowledge junkie “drenching” over a learning leaders “drinking”
#1 Omission Paranoia - This problem has come with the cultural phenomenon of hyperchoice. We are constantly provided with so many options and so many evolutions of improvement with products, services, and everyday choices, that we can live overwhelmed and not even recognize it. If you are an opportunistic person like me, the problem can be worse. Eventually, an unsettled spirit creeps its way deep within our soul. The result? We live paranoid that we are going to miss out on one of the options, the “right angle” or the “winning choice.” Attending the NINES is pure hell if you have omission paranoia. Don’t worry about what you will miss. Drink and ingest what is meaningful when you can.
#2 Hidden Jealously - One of my mentors, Howard Hendricks used to say, “You focus on the depth of your relationship with God and let God determine the scope of your ministry.” If you’re like me, there is a little commentator inside your head when you see 70 plus speakers get platformed in a cool venue like the NINES. We wonder what we would say, how they got invited, yada, yada, yada. With these conversations in your head you really can’t drink well.
#3 Photocopied Vision - If you follow me you know that this is my continual burning platform. The longer I look under the hood of ministry teams across the country the less I am surprised by the clarity vacuum. Please know that most leaders are missing some clarity and the more you’re lacking the harder it is to sip from the hydrant. Why? True clarity provides a frame or filter through which to evaluate everything. (I call it a Vision Frame.) Robust clarity actually makes learning more aggressive and meaningful, because you continually cull out or highlight content based on the needs of your vision and strategy. You know when this “personal calling filter” is working when you can skip chapters in a book or hit pause on a NINES presenter without a second’s thought.
What’s the answer to these challenges?
They all push me back to Jesus. Battle omission paranoia by resting in God’s goodness and sovereignty. Repent of hidden jealously. Take time and create margin to refine your ministry vision and understanding of God’s call on your life. A potential action step: In the next few weeks we will be starting Vision co::Labs for this purpose. It’s the polar opposite of the NINES. Instead of spending 8 hours with 100 leaders spend 24 hours of vision coaching with a small group of 8. More info here.
Change has Changed: Your Vision is Outdated Part 3
A pastor left a message on my 800 line yesterday and on my cell phone today (he was referred from a friend who used Auxano). Interestingly, he used a long string of different terms to describe what he is looking for in his two different voice messages:
- developing a long range plan
- a strategic planning process
- visioning
- strategizing
- helping us think through the future
- defining our DNA
Its noteworthy that there are many ways of trying to articulate the very process at arriving at vision today. The way we think about vision is
being challenged, pushed and stretched to adapt to new sets of problems and
opportunities.
- Conferences (event-based inspiration) have become the primary tool for thinking about the future
- Church growth methodology that peaked in the 70's and 80's was based on cultural assumptions that have changed
- Traditional strategic planning (and the resulting notebook from the process) is more of a hindrance than a help in energizing a church's future.
What's the bottom line? We need new words, new tools, and new processes today to help us with vision. (This need is the holy discontent behind the book Church Unique.) Until we regain an adequate model for visioning in this context of rapid change, the effectiveness of every other decision in the church will decrease.
