Will Mancini

The only thing better than digesting Andy Stanely’s book, Communicating for a Change is hearing a communicator apply it! Bruce Wesley, Yancey Arrington and Greg Poore are my teaching pastors at Clear Creek Community Church, and they really hit it out of the park. Over the last two years, the teaching team has zeroed in on a less is more communication strategy that leaves the message resonating in the heart throughout the week. The key feature of the message delivery is a “sticky” central idea around which the entire message is built. This last Sunday Yancey continued his Suburban Legends series, and spoke on the Myth of “New is Better.” Yancey brought a great blend of humor and urgency as he uncovered our tendency to tinker with the real Jesus to brew a more appealing spirituality. Reasserting a clear gospel, he ramped up the central idea that “to mess with the truth is to miss the truth.”

On the airplane from Spartanburg, SC to Dallas, TX to speak at Leadership Network, I was reflecting on the nature of vision. Although we know vision is important we tend to think of vision as intangible and in the future and therefore as not real. Well that seems simple, right? Maybe not. Unfortunately vision for most is words on paper- statement- rather than a vital, pulsating reality in the heart of the leadership community. Is it possible that vision could be and should be more real? Should it be as real, perhaps more real, than the physical objects around us everyday? I am still thinking about this, but my thinking left two questions to ponder:

Is what God has imagined any less real than our current reality?

Is your imagination what God has already imagined?

Last night Upward Sports kicked off its 2008 training tour in San Antonio with its typical “service beyond expectation” style. On Friday night, Caz McCaslin, the founder and president retells the creation story with humor and passion, urging church partners “to race to the heart of the child” cause “the first one there wins!” Upward is introducing somewhat of a paradigm shift this year to take their mission deeper in cities across the world, “to introduce children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunity to serve through sports.” The paradigm shift is the cultivation of a stronger missional heartbeat in the churches that run the sports programs. Caz says, “Upward is not a program for your church, its a program for your community!” The picture of this kingdom perspective is painted by their vision proper- the memorable numbers “4-1-1.” Over the last twelve years Upward marked the moments that there programs reached four thousand kids, then forty thousand kids, then four hundred thousand. The vision is now is 4-1-1. Reaching four million kids with one million leaders that lead to “won hearts” for Christ.

After completing a 12-month journey with Auxano, the pastoral staff of the MET, lead by Sal Sberna unveiled their Vision Frame to over 500 people in their leadership community last Sunday. On exciting aspect of The MET’s vision is a 100-acre plot of land in the middle of one of the largest master planned community in the country- Bridgeland in Northwest Houston. The spearhead of their vision is their missional mandate to “connect people each day to the real Jesus in a real way.” They articulate 5 values or missional motives that guide their uncommon community:

Because we are the recipients of Undeserved Grace we value:
• Unexpected Authenticity
• Unselfish Service
• Undiluted Truth
• Undivided Living
• Unapologetic Evangelism

A bedrock assumption at Auxano is the belief that a “strategic outsider” is indispensable to effective ministry. So when I see a post like this one by Todd Rhoades of Leadership Network I want to pass it along…

“As a leader in your church, do you have people who will tell you what you need to hear? You know, straight shooters who tell it like it really is, challenge you, and tip you off when things are straying off course? We’re not talking about the typical church complainer or antagonist. We’re talking about individuals worthy of respect, have a good pulse on your church’s life, and hold you accountable to the church’s mission and vision…

Michael McKinney has a fascinating post at his LeadershipNow.com Web site where he cites author Keith McFarland (author of The Breakthrough Company). McFarland calls these types of people ‘insultants.’ They’re willing “to ask the tough questions that cause a company (or a church) to think critically about its fundamental assumptions. The value of insultants is that they will go to great lengths to get their [church] to reevaluate a position or adapt to a changing environment.”

Do you have any church insultants? According to McFarland’s research, 90 percent of business CEOs believed they did. However, only 60 percent of their direct reports believed the same companies had a culture that insultants could have input.

What’s the value of a true insultant? According to McFarland, “Often authority figures are wrong, and if an organization doesn’t have a strong insultant culture, errors are likely to be propagated throughout the [church].”

So, here’s today’s question to ponder: Do you have any church insultants who speak into your leadership and vision? If not, who would be willing to become a valuable insultant for your ministry?”