Will Mancini

I just finished a great day with the Faithbridge team and the folks at Granger Community Church in South Bend, IN. The team is made up of humble and leadership-savvy folks who serve the broader church through great coaching and content. The list includes, Tim Stevens, Kem Meyer, Mark Beeson, Mark Waltz and a ministry called WiredChurches.com

On the plane out, I reread Kem Meyer’s book, Less Noise. Less Clutter. It’s a unique book on church communication with practical insights, illustrations, humor and lots of juicy bullet lists. Here are some thoughts on “Nobody’s Listening:”

1. People aren’t open to your change prescription
   
2. People aren’t motivated by your need
3. People don’t know who you are
4. People multi-task and can’t remember squat
5. People are turned off by lack of preparation
6. People relate when you talk about them or people like them
7. People feel left out and frustrated when you use insider language
8. People are not impressed with your technical language or holy dialect

At the Exponential Conference last week I made a new friend- Scott Williams, a campus pastor at LifeChurch.tv. I knew of Scott from his blog, BigisTheNewSmall.com, which is ranked on Kent Schaffer’s Top 100 Church Blogs. We had a great time talking about church consulting, the culture at LifeChurch, his new role at Vanderbloemen Search Group, and finally blogging. So I asked, “What are your secrets?” 

He shared three things:

#1 Find your voice.  This insight is huge, but many bloggers don’t intentionally cultivate their voice.  I find that voice comes from one of three places: 1) your content specialization, 2) your unique perspective from life experience,  or 3) your raw personality. There is always a blend of these three ingredients, but one defines the others; one is the top of the triangle. Scott blogs about a lot of stuff and can cover lots of angles from family, to church, to social media, to leadership in general. So his voice is really determined by his personality. You see why very quickly when you spend time with Scott and catch it immediately from his blog title. What does BigisTheNewSmall mean- read it here. Scott is energetic, fun, and very insightful and it shines through his blog.

#2 Contribute consistently.  Okay, you’ve heard that before. What struck me was a simple illustration he used. He said,  “What would you read more- a good newspaper that came every day, or a great newspaper that you were never sure was coming?” That sold me more on the consistency argument. The most helpful thing I have ever heard on consistency was when Seth Godin wrote, “I blog regularly not because I have to, but because I get to.” Boom! Is you blog a calling or a chore? 

#3 Drip in Content on Social Media.  If you haven’t heard this yet, it really is a secret. Scott makes a connection of his voice with social media once every 5-6 posts. They key here is not jumping out of your voice but finding the overlap, the sweet spot. For example, my voice is defined first by content expertise around clarity and vision. My number one post in the last 6 months is one on the clarity overlap with blogging, The Christian Blogger’s Dilemma and What to Do About It. Think about that for a minute, and consider the implications for yourself.

As a leader or facilitator, never underestimate how you create an atmosphere, the moment you walk into a room you. One key question is, what kind of atmosphere does your presence generate? 

The answer to this question, must be attuned to who you are (being yourself) and the particular work that you do (for example, conflict resolution vs. strategy brainstorm). Given the fact that I tend to be a people-oriented initiator (“DI” on the DiSC, ENTP on Meyers-Briggs) and that I work in the field of vision, here is a description of the atmosphere I want to create:

• Engaging – creating positive connections with EACH person
• Thoughtful – being interested and not just interesting
• Expectant – modeling enthusiasm and confidence that God is at work
• Curious – reminding people that I bring questions before answers

Here are some of the practical facilitation steps I keep in mind when I work with teams.

#1 Set up early enough in order to  focus 100% on people when they come in. This seems like a no brainer but it’s easy to slip here. If  I’m distracted with tasks when people come in the room, the desired atmosphere dies quickly. 

#2 Greet each person in the room starting with the least important person, if there is any “hierarchy” present. (For example, children before adults, lay leaders before staff people, people who don’t know me before people who do know me.)  The dynamic here is that everyone feels more at ease when each person sees that everyone matters. I don’t start a meeting until I have shaken every hand with an eyeball-to-eyeball genuine greeting. Think about the “hierarchy” idea: What parent doesn’t appreciate you greeting their children first?

#3 Start interaction early and have everyone speak. I don’t like kicking off a meeting with a long intro by me or an extended prayer time. There is a time where people get to know me and there is a time for extended prayer, but not to kick things off. This strategy creates interaction, positive energy and let’s people know that I am there to listen more than talk.

#4 Pray passionately and expect God to show up. Even though I don’t start with extended prayer, I do start by clearly and strongly “leaning into God” confessing our utter dependence on Him and faith-full anticipation of His blessing. I always ask for supernatural wisdom, with James 1:5 as a springboard.

Craig Groeschel knows the value of writing the unwritten. In a 3-part series on “Code,” he is sharing a fresh rework on why they do what they do. So far he has shared 9 of 13 deeply held convictions:

We are faith-filled, big thinking, bet-the-farm risk takers. We’ll never insult God with small thinking and safe living.

We are all about the “capital C” Church! The local church is the hope of the world and we know we can accomplish infinitely more together than apart.

We are spiritual contributors not spiritual consumers. The church does not exist for us. We are the church and we exist for the world.

We give up things we love for things we love even more. It’s an honor to sacrifice for Christ and His church.

We wholeheartedly reject the label mega-church. We are a micro-church with a mega-vision.

We will do anything short of sin to reach people who don’t know Christ. To reach people no one is reaching, we’ll have to do things no one is doing.

We will lead the way with irrational generosity. We truly believe it is more blessed to give than to receive.

We will laugh hard, loud and often. Nothing is more fun than serving God with people you love!

We will be known for what we are for, not what we’re against. There are already enough jerks in the world.

I tell leaders repeatedly, that great accomplishment is accompanied with great clarity. Groeschel didn’t get his vision from a book or a conference but from a God-led, God inspired process. If you didn’t think you had the time to foster conversations and carefully articulate your core code, then consider how much busier Craig should be too. Then consider the cause and effect. Maybe the commitment to processing clarity is one of the primary, dynamic, and systemic reasons for LifeChurch.tv’s effectiveness.  

The secret to processes for discovery or mastery is to avoid straight line thinking. There are two important times when making a “b-line” for something will hinder you. I use both of these diagrams frequently when I navigate the Vision Pathway. 

The first diagram I use is called the “clarity spiral.” I use it when for any visioning process to illustrate an important truth of process: In discovery, vital movement at the beginning of the process will feel indirect and therefore slow. This indirect movement includes steps of preparation, orientation, and perspective development. But with each process step, like a 4 hour collaborative meeting, the movement toward the center speeds up. The first two meetings take you only slightly close to point B, but in the last two meetings you can zip around pretty fast. I had one pastor validate the spiral by using the illustration of his kitchen renovation. He said it felt like his kitchen was a mess all of the time, until the end, when it all came together quickly. If you are leading a discovery processes, lead the journey and set expectations with the spiral . It will buy you the patience you need in the beginning. 

Like a discovery process, you also can’t follow a straight line  in a mastery process.  This simple idea was drilled home in Set Godin’s little book gem called The Dip. Here is the picture from the book. The premise is that you can’t move directly, via straight line, from a basic state to a mastery state in any category. You actually have to go through a season or stage where greater effort yields less results. I call it the tunnel of chaos. It is critical to anticipate this stage to know when enduring the dip is worth it or a waste of time. Any good coach appreciates the dip and the role of encouragement, support and direction to guide someone through it.

Where can you use these drawings this week, or this month in your leadership?