January 12, 2009

Mind Stretch by Group

I was at Group Publishing today in Loveland Colorado to dialogue about the condition of vision and leadership development in the church.  I had a great morning with Thom and Joani Schultz (Thom founded the organization 35 years ago.)  The facility is impressive with 350 employes and two notable accomplishments: 1) The sell more VBS curriculum than any other publisher, 2) They are repeatedly mentioned as a great place to work from folks who measure those sorts of things. What I liked best about the place is that you could sense the ministry-corporate culture they have created. 

I enjoyed time with the new leadership of the pastor resources (including Rev magazine) – Dave Thornton and Brian Proffit.  In particular, I was struck by a mind stretch vision that Group has with the Church Volunteer Central initiative. They call it the 80/20 vision by 2020.  The idea is that they want to reverse the 20% of the folks doing all the work in the church by seeing a general trend toward 80% involvement from churches who use their equipping resources. Is that a Big Hairy Audacious Goal or what?  The heartbeat of the place was inspiring! 

Posted at 10:53 pm in Culture, Environments, Leadership

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December 26, 2008

Life Elevated

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I just finished a week with the kids in Park City, Utah- an annual getaway for inspiration, excitement and reflection. This year we were snowed-in an extra day due to Christmas eve blizzard with over 2 feet of snow.  The extra snow raised the bar on our family adventure! Here is my son Jacob on a run called Hidden Splendor.

It's interesting how the state of Utah wants to nourish my emotional connection to the place that has become a regular retreat. They do it through branding and marketing which culminates in the tagline, "Life Elevated." Every tagline makes a promise- think of the multiple facets of tis one- from the thrill of extreme sports to better quality snow to higher social status. in this case, their promise always delivers (OK, being from Houston makes it easier to deliver on the promise.) Their clever campaign in 2008 has snowflake dressed athletes in the clouds "trying out" in order to make the cut to fall in Utah- every snowflake's dream come true. Picture 4Picture 5
   

I encourage every church to think through their brand promise and external messaging in a similar way. What's your church or ministry's promise to people who have yet to experience it? 

Posted at 4:24 pm in Clarity, Communication, Culture

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December 15, 2008

Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds

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My friend William Vanderbloemen at Faith Search Partners just sent over this NYT article on church attendance in difficult economic times.  

When it comes to stewardship and generosity so many church's rely on the plug and play programs, which obviously can be very helpful.  My question is, "How to you articulate the Missional Life-mark of stewardship or generosity as a continual standard for discipleship and maturity?" What language do you use based on your church's unique culture that transcends whatever program you may inject at any given time?

Posted at 10:36 am in CHURCH UNIQUE, Communication, Culture, Process

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December 14, 2008

Ambient Intimacy: The Opportunity of Social Networking

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I entered the world of social networking somewhat reluctantly about a year ago.  At the time, Church Unique was set to release in four months; initial encouragement from the publisher and best practice from other authors pushed me over the edge.  Immediately I started using facebook and was turned off by myspace (after getting spammed to death). Not long after I heard of twitter, but I was not anxious to bring the complexity of another tool into my world.  Several weeks ago that changed.  The final straw for me was the the two words "Ambient Intimacy."  This idea reinterpreted my observations and some initial conclusions about social networking.  The term was introduced by this New York Times article. (free login required) or Download I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You. Another article that I enjoyed is this one in Business Week on CEOs who twitter. 

Last week at our semi-annual Auxano gathering, I asked everyone to sign-up for twitter and to use it once daily. Members of my extended family are signing up each day. 

Clearly this is an opportunity for Christ-followers to utilize, experiment, and adapt these powerful tools for the purposes of Jesus in the world.  Twitter: willmancini 
 

Posted at 2:02 pm in Communication, Culture

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November 21, 2008

10 Most Unique Church Buildings

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I ran across this fascinating post.  If you were wondering how unique churches can get, wonder no more!

Posted at 12:09 am in CHURCH UNIQUE, Clarity, Culture, Environments

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