Culture – Will Mancini

July 8, 2009

Commanding Clarity

Last week during my friends change of command ceremony near Seattle, I marveled at the connection between the highly disciplined environment of the military and the practice of clarity. Think about it for a moment-in the military clarity is everywhere:

The mission is always crystal clear
There is a ton of communication before and after any initiative (after action review)
Lines of authority are unmistakable
A person’s accomplishments, time and experience are worn on their sleeve, literally
Lots of attention goes into training and technology for communication
Maintaining clarity requires a whole new world of vocabulary
Expectations and role descriptions for each individual are always reviewed
There is never a moment without total accountability to what is made clear

At one point I almost began weeping. As I immersed myself in a day of military culture, I couldn’t believe the sheer discipline of clarity that we exercise on behalf of our great country, in contrast to how little we achieve as leaders within God’s eternal kingdom.

Here is the mission of the squadron I was with: To provide combatant commanders with a fully combat ready strike group, capable of prompt and sustained across the full spectrum of naval operations anywhere in the world.

During the ceremony the three core values of the Navy were not only passionately conveyed by the four leading officers, they were demonstrated throughout the ceremony. For example, one aspect of the core value of “honor” is articulated as “We also honor the sacrifices our families and loved ones make to support us in our call of duty. During the ceremony, Hunter’s wife, mother and two daughters were lavishly honored with generous bouquets from the Navy. The moment reflected the value wonderfully. The other two values are courage and commitment.

Posted at 10:49 pm in Clarity, Communication, Culture, Environments

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May 29, 2009

Tweeting at Church TIME Article

I have found myself spending more and more time telling and selling pastors on the benefits of Twitter. Personally, within the last 6 months, it has become embedded into how I think and communicate throughout the day. One aspect of this, is tweeting while in church. While this TIME article talks about the interactive value to the worship service itself, I have found personal value in tweeting in church:

I am able to really think about the main point of the message when I process in 140 characters or less
I don’t take paper notes anymore; tweeting with hashtags keep my notes organized on the internet
I enjoy seeing other people interact with the same message- I call it an “emotional resonance spectrum” because you get to see what is impacting the congregation
My personal notes are retrievable by the pastor
It’s downright fun to let other people know and share what I am hearing and learning

Of course the one downside is I hate the thought that my twitter activity would be a distraction to someone else during the service. Depending on the context I may not tweet.

Posted at 8:18 am in Communication, Culture

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May 12, 2009

Resources, Motivation or Imagination?

A few months ago I was in a circle of thought leaders that included Skye Jethani, one of the editors at Christianity Today and author of a recent book called The Divine Commodity.

Here was the most important observation of the entire day of dialogue with 16 other leaders:

Church leaders don't need more resources or motivation – they need to re-ignite their imagination!!!

How many events do we go to get "pumped up" and what kind of change has that brought to our collective leadership lives?

How many resources has the collective church utilized that has led to only pre-packaged thinking and photocopied vision?

Where and when will you as a leader engage your imagination and dream about what God may uniquely do through your life and ministry?

Here are two links you may enjoy if you resonate with this observation and related questions?

First is a great blog entry from Ed Stetzer interviewing Skye

Second is NOT another conference (motivation) or resource but a collaborative experience designed to stretch your imagination like it has never been stretched. It is a "continuous laboratory" of 6 coaching sessions within a 6 month window. We call it Vision co::Lab. In these six sessions, 8 church leadership teams will get pushed to articulate a stunningly unique vision for their churches. We are hosting these in 16 cities in 2009. Check it out.

Posted at 2:17 pm in AUXANO, BOOK REVIEW, CHURCH UNIQUE, Clarity, Culture, Leadership

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April 10, 2009

Resurrection Clarity

jesus

Two national church leaders spoke out on the need to be clear NOT clever this Easter. I thought the material was very helpful and excellent summaries related to 1) Preaching a clear resurrection message and 2) Keeping a clear perspective on the extra work of worship services this weekend.

Preaching with Clarity

If you want engaging material on defining the resurrection, go to Thoughts on Easter Preaching by Mark Driscoll. As a side note, please notice that Mark references a research ministry called The Docent Group led by a friend of mine, Glenn Lucke. This is a very strategic ministry that I have benefitted from first hand and would be highly recommended to pastors.

Easter Services Clarity

Check out what Mark Batterson has to say in his Pep Talk for Pastor

Posted at 6:01 pm in Clarity, Communication, Culture

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March 10, 2009

Innovation3 Highlights #i3

I had a great day of assessment today with Marty Nicholas and the team at Sugar Land First United Methodist. One of the things that Marty mentioned is that he was bummed to have missed the i3 conference by Leadership Network last month. Well many thanks to the folks at Leadership Network for their knowledge capture of the conference. Check out these one page links:

Risk & Failure

Turning Your Biggest Idol into Your Biggest Benefit (Tim Keller)

How to Zig When Others Zag (Stacy Spencer)

Righteous Risk & Repentence (Mark Driscoll)

Try. Fail. Learn. Adjust. (Craig Groeschel)

What is Failure? (Pete Briscoe)

Shaping the Culture

Monkey and the Fish: An Alternative and Contrarian Way (Dave Gibbons)

Courage to Change (John Jenkins)

Engaging Culture and Deeping Your Church (Matt Chandler)

The Dangerous Church

Provocative Leaders for a Dangerous Church (Nancy Ortberg)