Will Mancini

As I sit in the third session of the DRIVE 08 conference, I am grateful that Andy decided to eject his pre-planned talk on Making Vision Stick. Andy is basing his talk on five quotes that he is keeping in front of him these days. What follows are the quotes and links if you want to learn more

1) “To reach people no one else is reaching we much do things that no one else is doing”- Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv. Andy shared how more success in church makes you less aware of the unchurched. The exhortation is to become preoccupied with those you haven’t reached as opposed to those you are trying to keep.

2) “The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation” -Al Ries, Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It Andy reminds leaders that something’s next- you can fight it or fund it. The take away is to be a student and not a critic when new things arise. And be looking to the emerging generations to discover it.

3) “What do I believe is possible to do in my field, but if it could be done would fundamentally change my field.” – Joel Barker (Joel Barker had an active presence in business leadership consulting in the 80’s and 90’s on the topic of paradigm shifts.) Andy spoke to the application of multisite. Now we can separate point leadership from teaching. Usually the church has an 80 MPH leader who is slowed down by a 40 MPH leader. The multisite concepts releases leaders. What’s next?

I especially enjoy watching talented leadership in fields that I have little experience. One such arena is conducting a symphonic band. Three years ago, my 6th grade son, Jacob, had never held a trumpet in his hand. Today the skill he exhibits blows me away (pun intended), both individually and when his band comrades work their magic together. What has guided his development? The work and passion of Doug Eger his LCIS band director. Recently, at a spellbinding performance, Doug took a moment to describe the work of developing the score for the piece, American Civil War Fantasy. He mentioned the over 100 hours of detailed handwork, including sundry highlights and plentiful conductor’s notes that mark the USA Today sized book of musical measures. I absolutely love the attention to detail and disciplines of repetition that it takes to deliver a symphonic delight!

I long for church leaders to pay the same attention to orchestrating their staff teams and lay leaders. Many church environments are filled with jangling discords rather than uplifting harmony when it comes to kingdom synergy. As a leader, what is your score? What is your constant point of reference to keep your people moving with synchronized steps? What is your vision that attunes the heart of your followers?

Rich Butler is a Church Unique reader who posted the following entry on his blog. It’s an interesting and helpful perspective that having clarity is one thing but having push through is another:

IQ (What you know) __EQ(What you can handle)__AQ(what you do)

In other words, the IQ is the intelligence quotient, the AQ is the ability quotient and the EQ is the emotional quotient.

I’m not smart enough to have come up with this matrix of birthing your dreams, visions and strategies. But I’m smart enough to take notes. I was having coffee with a life coach, consultant and friend a few weeks ago and this is what he illustrated on the table as we chatted.

What I learned from our meeting. Most of us have dreams and intelligent information in our minds, yet we often times don’t have thick enough skin to move through the EQ to reach the AQ, which is the implementation.

You see this illustrated with unemployed Harvard Grads and those not finishing high school making millions on Wall Street. The EQ (your emotional threshold) determines what information develops feet and runs like the wind.

Godin calls this process the DIP.

What information (vision) do you have that hasn’t come to pass because of your limited EQ? When God gives vision, he equips you to accomplish it. However, it’s never easy. Thank goodness Jesus’ EQ included JOY.

As consultants navigators who provide professional services as “coaches” we often answer a battery of questions prior to starting an engagement. Some of the best questions however are never asked. One of those questions is “If you believe in the effectiveness of a coach, then who is your coach or consultant?”

I have two coaches right now, one formal and one informal. On Thursday, I started a growth coaching process with a long-term friend, Glenn Smith. Glenn is a strategic thinker whom I trust and respect. I want him poking around my life and ministry model. He has a simple system to help me write down my personal and ministry goals and a quarterly track where I can check in and be held accountable. The second individual, Jim, is one of the few people I can go to who has more experience and a proven track record of building an organization very similar to Auxano. In this case the value of his insight is particularly huge because Jim speaks to the nuances of our growth challenges. I can ask questions that he can uniquely address and he can share learnings that have a burning relevance. He has essentially been leading ten years “ahead of me” and has twice as many consultants in his ministry. There is no question that any great leader will value outside input. As Deming says, “profound knowledge comes from the outside.”

I have always viewed Warren Bird as a stud- a great thinker who works a bit behind the scenes as a collaborative writer for many effective leadership titles. You can imagine how excited I was to see his review of Church Unique:

“Back in 1992, when churches were just beginning to think about vision statements, George Barna wrote a highly popular book called Power of Vision. In it he defined vision as “a clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God.”

I predict Will Mancini’s Church Unique (2008, 271 pages) will succeed Barna’s classic as the go-to book for church leadership discussions…” read more