Will Mancini

Seeds come from living plants. But before they bring more life, they must die.

Good Friday reminds us of a life-death-more life pattern. The death of Jesus would bring a dramatic multiplication of the body of Christ on earth. Seeds would be scattered to the four corners of the globe as “dead-to-self” disciples lay down their life in Gospel service.

I am thinking about the death that must come before multiplication in a different way this week. As I enter a new chapter of multiplying my work as a Vision Pathway Navigator with Auxano, I meet the end of my own gifts. For one man’s passion, ability, and experiences to really multiply, death must happen. Death to efficiency, death to control and death to ego. For me to multiply I must die to enjoyment of doing and being good at doing. Only then can I significantly invest in others and see the benefits of my clarity cause reach more leaders.

If you aspire to multiply, a great question to ask is, “How are you dying to your doing?”

• How are you dying to efficiency to show someone else the ropes?
• How are you dying to control to let someone else have 100% responsibility?
• How are you dying to ego to let someone else be the hero?

Remember, the first command given to humans was all about multiplication – “Be fruitful and increase in number (Gen. 1:28)” This verse is the proto-commission to everything, including the Great Commission.

• Are you a disciple? Then multiply.
• Are you given a unique set of spiritual gifts and natural talents? Then multiply.
• Do you have a special vision or calling? Then multiply.

You have some thing to multiply. Just don’t forget death before multiplication.

Where have you see this principle at work in your life?

I can’t tell you how many conversations I see about reaching the next generation:

• “Our average age is getting older…”
• “Our neighborhood is changing…”
• “Our kids don’t come to church anymore…”
• “Did you see those stats on millennials…”

In an effort to help church’s think through their strategy, I have developed “the five.” Please excuse any notion that I have figured out “the” strategies. Rather, I am trying to provide a water-tight approach that logically covers all of the possible directions. It is meant to challenge assumptions, uncover expectations and reveal best practices. Warning: this post is pretty direct and will be a wake-up call to some leaders.

Before identifying the four strategies let’s cover one guiding principle:

Generational relevance is always a leadership issue first. Because the gift of leadership naturally develops leaders in its wake, a lack of presence with the next generation is a lack of leadership in some way. The implications are:

• Leaders beget younger leaders
• Those leaders and churches who reach young people aren’t thinking about it as much as it is happening naturally
• The more conscious you are of the problem of reaching younger people, there is a leadership issue to identify
• Younger people are primarily reached by younger leaders
• If you don’t have young leaders, you don’t have old leaders

Now to the five strategies:

Strategy #1: Segmentation

Segmentation is the most common approach for churches. It happens whenever empowered leadership lets younger leaders “do their own thing” in a separate environment. For example, a church launches a “contemporary service” to reach young people. Or a youth group has its own events and programming as it spins in its own orbit.

While all churches do segmentation at some level (children and youth), the general approach warrants some caution. Here are some things to consider:

• Segmentation usually occurs because a more natural approach doesn’t (see strategy #2). Therefore it may reflect a lack of the leadership gifting (Romans 12:8-9) in the leadership team.
• Segmentation may lead to a fragmentation. It reinforces a personality-based culture, rather than a shared vision, if two sub-congregations form around preferences of different leadership styles

Strategy #2: Sharing

Sharing sounds simple because it is. And for a Holy Spirit-gifted leaders it happens naturally. Sharing means that younger people are consistently and seamlessly being integrated into the empowered leadership core of the church. Sharing means that a senior pastor who is the primary preacher is not threatened by sharing pulpit time. Sharing means younger leaders are given real authority, not over a segment but over the whole. And make no mistake, sharing is how our most effective churches reach young people. Examples include:

• At Faithbridge Church, Senior Pastor Ken Werlein spends less than on-third of the time in  preaching. Two younger leaders preach regularly during the other times. Other young men play key roles on their lead team.
• At Clear Creek Community Church, Senior Pastor Bruce Wesley brings younger men on the elder team. One is Yancey Arrington (a teaching pastor ten years younger) who preaches just as often as Bruce during weekend services.
• At North Coast Church, Larry Osborne keeps a younger leader,  Chris Brown in front of the congregation 50% of the time .

Keep in mind the general rule that a typical communicator’s “sweet spot of connection”  is 10 years older and younger than their current age.

Strategy #3: Succession

The big question with succession is whether or not its intentional. Unfortunately, most are not. Usually, a beloved senior pastor retires too late (for an ideal transition) and fails to raise up leadership through an empowered process. But we are seeing more and more successful transitions. For example, I’m working with a pastor in his mid 50s, who is young-at-heart and very energetic. He is handing his point role to a guy (over 15 years younger) after an 18-month succession plan. This church has and will continue to reach young people.

Strategy #4: Sending

Some ministries will only reach young people by sending their best young leaders into different ministry initiatives or geographic locations. The difficulty here is that these young people don’t stay “at home” to work on the generational needs of the sending group. Nevertheless, it is a legitimate way to invest resources into the next generation, even if it means accepting with grace the necessary decline and death of ministry. Last week I talked with a development leader of a national parachurch ministry. The ministry’s founder is making the difficult decision to discontinue its existence. Practically, this will disperse all of the younger leaders into different roles and ministry vehicles.

Strategy #5: Stopping

I debated whether to include this fifth strategy. I did because it is a decision that some churches make. And they must know it is a decision. If a church doesn’t segment, share, plan for succession, or send with younger leaders it will stop reaching young people.

Which strategy are you using?

A few days ago I posted some church leaders take-aways from the Kony 2012, Invisible Children video, 70 Million Views in 7 Days: A Vision Analysis. I also mentioned  the opportunity to see this video through The Six Elements. (Grab the free tool on the previous post.)  Here are just a few observations of how the video weaves through The Six.

And remember… Scheudule 45 minutes in your staff meeting in the next 2 weeks to watch the video and discuss this as a team (30 to watch it and 15 to discuss). Have each team member right down a few phrases for each of The Six Elements.

Common Denominator

• The video opens with a child being born and a statement about how we all come into the world. The framework of a Father son relationship is leveraged for all the viewers.
• Use of his own child’s ability to understand the story’s gravity brings stunning clarity and universality to the cause
• Justice as a universal concept and basic human drive is established
• The use of social media, great design and simple things like bracelets create a community identity and emotional bond to the cause
• The inclusion of Jacob and his story, makes the cause personal and relatable and sets up the “Jacob thread”

Burning Platform

• The repetition of child abduction and reality of being transformed into murders.  The emotional connection made by referencing his own son, “If my son was abducted and forced to murder, it would immediately make the news.”
• The emphasis on “invisibility” of the children as the dominant idea to drive the movement. The emotional connection is deepened by the political irony that initially the US turned a blind eye, because there was no self interest on the basis of self-defense or financial gain.
• The use of the international criminal list to strengthen the credibility of the problem and Invisible Children’s cause. The emotional connection is heightened by the use of Hitler as a comparable figure to Kony.
• Jacob Thread: Hearing Jacob talk about wanting to die. Watching Jacob cry and long to be with his dead brother paints a picture of pure hopelessness.

Golden tomorrow

• The video clip of an abducted child returning to their parents.
• The idea that common people can make a difference in a world that is connected.  A better world is one in which the worst bad guy is really captured. This is heightened by the simplicity of the action kit. It’s easy and fun to be a part of the solution.
• The better world that we currently live in as Americans is continually seen throughout the clip. The better world is one where this basic freedom is extended naturally by those who enjoy it. The better world is one where we are “responsibly free” not “selfishly free.”
• The dominant story of Jacob helps us feel the better world. What will happen to all of the other like Jacob?

Wake-up Call

• The reference to the fact that during other times in human history we could not have acted like we can now. The reference to how easy it is to forget the ongoing problem by politicians after the first 100 soldiers were sent.
• The use of 2012 and gutsy claim that it must be over by December 31^st. Strengthening this punch of this end date is the reference to the years of battle undertaken.
• The immediate action step of “Covering the Night”  on April 20^th The amazingly simple action steps: wearing a bracelet, sharing a poster, etc.
• The promise to Joseph that something will be done about the problem.

Mind Stretch

• The multiple layers of evil – child abduction, sex slavery, arming children for war, forcing children to kill their parents, the pure selfishness of Kony. The ironic idea that by making him famous we will stop him.
• The idea that everyday people can make a such a dramatic difference. The use of the pyramid logo to demonstrate the big idea that the people can set the agenda for justice to reign rather than pure political influence and financial motivation alone.
• The idea that 20 culture makers and 12 policy makers all feel passionate and have been recruited in advance
• The use of Joseph to show how everyone is the same. We all want to have a home and be with our family. But based on where we are born, with no choice of our own, can lead to dramatically different outcomes.

God Smile

• The video does not reference God.  Christian leaders should note how humanistic some of our most God-like causes can be. Is the Gospel being integrated into the Invisible Children work and chase for Kony? I hope so. If not, the movement will have remedied a short-term hell unaware of the eternal one. Thanks be to God for the Great Remedy, Jesus.

On a side note: I am aware of the both the controversy and unfortunate incident surrounding the leader of this movement in the last few days. (Please pray for Jason Russell.) Yet, the amazing response to this video alone warrants our attention as ministry leaders, vision-castors and story tellers. This video has reached 100 million viewers faster than any other in internet history.

Are you going to be satisfied with a future for ministry that is more of the same?

Very few pastors break from norm of mediocre church ministry. But I am convinced it doesn’t have to be that way.

Last fall I was honored to participate in Leadership Network’s roll-out of their Leadia Experience. My conribution was FLUX: Four Paths to the Future. FLUX provides a guide for thinking, adapting, and innovating in order to discover new possibilities for your church. It starts with one whiteboard drawing and gives you a matrix for assessing and planning your future.

I encourage you to engage with the full experience. But for now, I challenge you to rethink and reimagine your ministry with this post mini-series  from FLUX.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination, do not become the slave of your model - Vincent Van Gogh

Every once in while, I find a new feature on my Mac or iPhone, because I discover a default switch or button that I didn’t know existed. In fact there is a specific definition for this:

Default: a selection automatically used by a computer program in the absence of a choice made by the user

Many times it’s no big deal, but sometimes I want to kick myself for missing out on some cool functionality. I didn’t know the default switch even existed!

After a decade of daily conversations about vision with ministry teams, I have discovered a hidden vision switch with a default position in the minds of church leaders. But this default setting is not just about missing out on a nifty feature. It’s about a fundamental mode of thinking that’s limiting us.

Let me explain.

One question I always enjoy asking church leaders is “How do you want your church to be different two years from now?”

What kind of answers do I get?

The most common two-word response is “more people.” Of course that expresses itself in many forms:

• Increased worship
• More growth
• Higher attendance
• Additional services
• Reaching more people
• Reversing decline

Think about that for a minute. “How do you want your church to be different in two years?” Imagine the infinite number of answers possible to this question. For example, pastors could have responded with answers like:

• More desperate for Jesus
• More intimacy between husbands and wives
• More engaged in social justice and civic responsibilities
• More families having devotionals together
• More friendships with people far from God
• More students serving other students

But for the most part, they don’t give answers like this. Despite the rainbow variety of gospel-centered, life-transforming possibilities the most common answer is always, in one form or another, “More people.”

Keep in mind that the one-dimensional answer of “more people” transcends an incredibly wide variety of church settings and leaders, from uptown to small town, mainline or online – from the newest staff newbie to the post-retired, hard-to-expire. Everyone wants “more people.”

And “more people” is good. Jesus wants more people too. And yes, churches “should count people because people count.”

But there’s something important behind the answer of “more people.” And that something reveals this default setting in the life of the everyday pastor. Church leaders are not just saying that want “more people.” What they are really saying is…

KEEP READING (part 2 of 3)