Will Mancini

In our journey toward Vision-Soaked Communication, we’ve filled the pool by articulating vision and boiled it down to a great tagline. Step 3 is like describing the water: crafting your church’s key messages. In this step, we’ll talk about how to develop key messages that describe your unique vision and personality as an organization. Remember, this is all about Taking Vision Public with communication that is soaked with vision, so we’re thinking first about the external audience that doesn’t know much about you.

If your vision is like a pool, your key messages describe the water. What makes your pool unique? What will it be like when people jump in? Good key messages begin to answer these questions. Below are 5 stages of vision-soaked key message development. Let’s dive in. (I couldn’t resist.)

1. List key words and concepts.
Start the key message development process by gathering a long list of words and concepts that are a part of a church or organization’s brand. This list may have 70-100 words and include descriptors like energetic, warm, and diverse and concepts like transformation, discipleship, and service. You can pull these words from your Vision Frame and other language you’ve developed for your church. It’s amazing how different churches end up with lists of words and concepts that are very different (with some overlap, of course), which reflect their unique personalities.

2. Force-prioritize the list.
You can’t have 70-100 key messages. You can realistically only have 4 or 5 (6 at the most). So, prioritize the list of words and concepts you’ve developed, weeding out words that don’t convey your unique mission and personality. Also, look for different words or concepts that convey the same idea like “transformation” and “life-change.” Delete one of them from the list, keeping the one that is more consistent with your Vision Frame language and internal vocabulary. Repeat this process until you have only 7-10 words left in the list.

3. Define the categories.
Usually, by this point, the final 7-10 words from your list will fall into 4 or 5 categories. Those categories are the foundation of your key messages. List the categories on a separate page—don’t worry about specific wording yet, just capture the concepts. As you look at this list, ask yourself, “Are these true of us?” The last thing you want to do is develop key messages that sound good but describe something your church can’t deliver.

4. Create the language.
This is where you need to tap into your creativity. Each key message should stand on it’s own, but the best key messages also have a connection with the others. Symmetry in structure is good (adjective/noun like “Inspiring Community”) and memorable is even better. Memorable messaging usually involves some sort of interesting twist on language that makes the audience pause and say, “Hmm. That’s interesting.” Even the phrase above, “inspiring community” has a small twist in that the word “inspiring” can have multiple meanings. If you’re not a writer, find one in your church who can help with this. Remember – the key messages are primarily for your external audience, so try to stay away from Christianese and phrases that people outside of your congregation won’t understand. Make sure to remember to articulate the problem you exist to solve. This is so important that we’ve devoted the whole next step to it – Tap into the Thirst. We’ll look at that in more detail next time.

5. Revise, revise, revise.
The first draft is only rarely the best draft. When you invite others to review and give comments, hold your ideas with an open hand. If there are things about them that aren’t resonating with the team, that’s fine. Always remember—there’s another idea. The ones you’ve come up with to this point aren’t the only ideas that exist…you can find new ideas. So, with humility and openness, listen to feedback and make adjustments. The end result will be much better, and the team will have a different level of buy-in.

At the end of that process, you should have key messages that reflect your unique personality and are consistent with your Vision Frame. If you’ve been following along with this series, you might be interested in seeing Vanguard University’s key messages that were developed by using the process described above. You can download the one-page PDF here.

You’re almost ready to break out the hose and start drenching people with your vision-soaked communication. But next, let’s look at how to tap into the thirst that exists in people’s hearts.

How do you take your vision public? How do you communicate it clearly and in a way that compels your audience to join in and be a part of it? The answer is what I’m calling “vision-soaked communication.” Last time, we looked at filling the pool by articulating your unique vision in the Vision Frame. This time, we’ll boil it down by looking at how to develop a strong tagline. I’ve already written a series of posts on the tagline process, so in this post, we’ll  look at the specific example of Vanguard University and how their tagline serves to communicate their vision.

In our last post, I shared the Vanguard Vision Frame. With that as background, let’s look at Vanguard’s new tagline.

This tagline was born in a unique way – it came when one of our team members was listening to a Vanguard alum present a work of art she had recently created. It was a video that chronicled the stories of a few Vanguard students and alumni—how God was using their lives to make a difference in the world. She made a statement in her introduction that immediately jumped out at us as the core statement and invitation that Vanguard is making with their vision. She said, “Your story matters at Vanguard.” The team member scribbled it down as soon as she said it: “Your story matters.” Although we eventually landed on “your story matters” as the tagline, it was one of dozens of ideas we brainstormed and considered as a team.

If you remember, the mission statement of Vanguard hangs on two words: “equipping students.” The word “equip” comes from a sailing term that was used to describe the process of preparing a ship for a journey. But why is equipping students important? Why is it worth being a part of? Because the story of every student matters.

As we worked through “your story matters” as the potential tagline for Vanguard, we developed a paragraph that articulates the compelling nature of the tagline, illustrating the direct connection to the mission.

Your Story Matters
At Vanguard, your story matters. Where have you been? What are the experiences God has used to shape and prepare you? We care about your story, about who God is making you to be. And we want to equip you—to give you the skills, knowledge, and experience you need—for the journey God specifically has for you. More importantly, your story matters after you leave Vanguard. Our alumni are making a difference in education, the arts, ministry, business, and more. They’ve been prepared for a Spirit-empowered life of Christ-centered leadership and service here at VU, and God is using them in powerful ways to shape this world. Your story matters. Where will it take you next?

Do you see how the tagline functions as both a statement of fact and an invitation to discover more? And, by pairing it with the simple question, “Where will it take you next?” we set the foundation for the specific key messages we want to share with Vanguard’s audiences. (We’ll look at the key messages next time.)

When you take your vision public, your tagline needs to boil your vision down to its essence. Why should people care that you exist? How will you invite them to be a part of what you are doing? The tagline can’t answer every question in great detail, but it should serve as an emotive and compelling invitation for your audience to learn more about who you are and why you exist. It can become a kind of rallying cry that reminds people of your mission and vision that you can return to again and again.

Now that we’ve filled the pool and boiled it down, next time, we’ll talk about how to describe the water by crafting your key messages. Each of these pieces is critical to vision-soaked communication.

You can’t take your vision public until you’ve articulated your vision. Seems like that should go without saying, right? Kind of like the assumption that you’ve got to fill the pool before you’re going to dive in. But you’d be surprised how many churches and organizations have never taken the time to understand and articulate their unique calling from God. Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised…because you’ve been a part of them before. Maybe you’re leading one right now.

I’ve been writing and speaking about assessing and articulating vision for years now, so I’m not going to try to summarize Church Unique here. Instead, I’d like to share a couple of pieces of my recent experience in leading Vanguard University through the Vision Frame process. Over a period of about nine months, I facilitated an assessment and articulation process for a group of Vanguard’s key leaders. Each month, we would spend a day or two together, wrestling with different aspects of their Vision Frame to more clearly articulate the unique mission God has given Vanguard. I was honored to work alongside these committed, passionate leaders who have dedicated their lives to Christian secondary education.

By using Vanguard as an example, I’d like to answer the question I am most frequently asked about the Vision Frame process.

Why does it take so long to articulate vision clearly?
Many people assume that clarity means simplicity. That’s not usually the case. The best kind of clarity—clarity that provides fuel for the organization—is only find by slogging through the complexity. Only after wading into the complexity of organizational history, internal dynamics, multiple priorities, personal callings, and, most importantly, listening for God’s voice together, can a leadership team emerge with unified clarity. If you just want a nice mission statement, you can do that in a couple of hours. If you want a fully-formed vision that fills your leaders with an unquenchable fire to do whatever it takes for the cause…it will take a big longer. You can’t microwave clear, compelling vision. Period.

With Vanguard, there were many complex issues that needed to be discussed openly and honestly in the process. We included key people from these different constituent groups (faculty, staff, administration, etc.) in the core team, but at significant points in the process, we needed to hear from the wider group as well. In order for us to be able to move forward confidently, it was absolutely critical to hear the voice of the larger group. And (this is important), we had to be willing to go back and make adjustments to the way we had articulated things based on their input. There are times when a leadership team must listen and adjust and other times when a team needs to set the direction clearly, inviting everyone to join in. A wise leader knows which is which and leads accordingly.

Do you see why it takes longer than you think to fill the pool with a clearly articulated vision? You’re going to need people to help you maintain the pool and invite others to jump into the pool in the future, so you can’t do it all yourself. Articulating vision clearly is a collaborative effort, not an individual task.

Vanguard’s Vision Frame
After months of work with Vanguard, here’s the result…their Vision Frame. Over the next few posts in this series about Taking Vision Public, it’ll be important for you to have their Vision Frame in mind so that you can see how all the different pieces work together and are built on this foundation.

Mission
Equipping students for a Spirit-empowered life of Christ-centered leadership and service.

Values
Truth – We pursue truth by knowing Christ who is Truth.
Virtue – We honor God by committing ourselves to the person and model of Jesus Christ.
Service – We develop our talents to their potential and discern God’s purpose for our lives.

Strategy
Cultivating the Spirit-empowered life in Christian experience and service
Promoting academic excellence that integrates faith and life
Providing professor-mentors in a dynamic community environment

Measures
Spiritual vitality
Academic excellence
Institutional health

As a part of articulating the Measures, we developed what we called the Vital 9, a grid of more specific mission marks in the life of each student. The Vital 9 were developed by placing the values on one side of the grid and the measures on the other side of the grid and describing the resulting attitudes and attributes that Vanguard wanted to see in each student.

This Vision Frame articulated the unique vision and approach of Vanguard, filling the pool with clear, refreshing water. That meant it was time to move on to the next step of vision-soaked communication…the tagline. We’ll cover that next time.

How do you effectively invite people to take an active part in your vision? This is a constant challenge for leaders of every organization I work with. The answer? Vision-soaked communication. Get clear about your vision, develop a palette of tools to communicate it, and then let it soak into and through every way you communicate.

This is what the best organizations in the world do so well. Apple. Starbucks. Target. Every piece of communication or interaction you have with these organizations is absolutely soaked in their vision, mission, and values. Just when you read the names of those organizations, colors and feelings were evoked inside of you, weren’t they? That’s the power of vision-soaked communication.

And, just in case you’re tempted to go here, this  approach to vision-soaked communication is not just about “secular marketing strategy.” These same principles fueled the way Jesus and his first followers used as they announced and demonstrated the Good News. “The kingdom of God is here!” they announced. And then they used all sorts of imagery and compelling language to tell more about what they meant…and they invited people to live in this new reality.

And although the communication tools at our disposal today look very different than they did 2000 years ago in the towns and villages of Israel, the ideas and the approach are still the same. How do we invite people into a vision that could change the world? I believe it’s a part of our calling as church leaders to wrestle with this question and find creative methods to share the message God has given us in the most compelling, grab-you-by-the-heart-strings, kick-you-in-the-gut ways possible. That’s why communication matters so much in the church.

Through a series of posts, we’ll look at six steps to vision-soaked communication. Here’s an overview.

Step 1: Fill the Pool – Articulating Your Vision

Step 2: Boil it Down – Developing Your Tagline

Step 3: Describe the Water – Crafting Your Key Messages

Step 4: Tap into the Thirst – Communicating the Big Why

Step 5: Break out the Hose – Leveraging Every Medium

Step 6: Drip, Drip, Drip – Talking Vision Daily

As we walk through these steps together, we’ll look at a specific example of an organization we recently worked with: Vanguard University. Although this series of posts will speak specifically about church communication, there are many parallels and, hopefully, a non-church example will help you to focus on the approach I’m presenting and not the specific language in each step. (Vanguard is a Christian university in southern California with a great vision for training and equipping Christian leaders.)

I truly believe that if you can learn to leverage the power of these six steps, your communication will be soaked with vision and your church will gain more momentum toward achieving that vision.

In the last month I have been evaluating a pretty big decision. One of those kinds where, for better or worse, my resting moments are flooded with pros and cons and “what ifs.”  Here are some things I have been been doing in the process of discernment.

#1 Keep it about the walk.

Whatever the decision, remember Jesus is walking next to you and your life belongs to Him. How will the decision affect your relationship with Him? This question alone should be the only one you need to ask. During this season, I have been reflecting on the pattern of big decisions in my life and relishing the memories of Jesus guiding me for 30 years. Prayer this way becomes more than an act, it’s an expression of long relationship.

#2 Don’t get advice, get better questions.

Getting advice is a no brainer. The real pursuit is getting better questions. You will have the top three or four people from whom you receive general wisdom. What about the next 15-20 who can give you special, very specific insight? With each person, ask, “What other questions do I need to consider about _________?” or “Here is an assumption I am working from, but what question am I not considering?” I have had some big explosions of insight by asking these questions.

#3 Create a tug-o-perspective-war.

It’s important to “mine out” the conflict and tension of the decision. I even imagine a tug-of-war of different perspectives. Who can you enlist to pull on the different sides by offering new perspective? Of course you’ll have to live with the internal battle in keeping the first and last “move” of this list in mind. In the last month I have different sides “winning” as I stack each side of the rope with new people offering new points of view.

#4 Travel in time, while watching time.

God gave you an imagination so that you could dream forward and exercise faith. While we can’t predict the future, you can play out your decision, and practice in your minds-eye the blessings and byproducts of your big decision. How does the decision change your life in the next year? In the next ten years? How will the tone of the hours of your day be affected? How will all of your key relationships be affected? The list goes on. Remember there are times when your creative mind is more active, like the fringes of sleep and hypnotic states, like taking a long shower or driving. I intentionally use these times. But remember to watch your time. Don’t make a decision to quickly, and don’t forget that some opportunities expire. You only have the lifetime of the opportunity to leverage the opportunity of a lifetime.

#5 Do the trust fall.

In the end, every decision is an act of trust. Remember that crazy thing you did at camp when you were a kid? You really didn’t know if your buddies were going to let you hit the ground for a laugh. But you did it. You let go. You trusted. The final act of the decision-making process is the moment of commitment. How does this act of trust feel for me? I simply tell God, “I have listened and discerned as much as possible and I am making this decision for you. If this is not the right decision, I trust you to show and to direct my path. Everything I have and I am belongs to you.”