Will Mancini

Rather than adopting the latest program, churches that walk the  vision pathway with Auxano  find their own practices and nuanced approaches to engage people who are far from God.

Through the years of helping design missional initiatives and evangelism training, I have found  five essentials that any strategy MUST have in order to work in your local culture. 

#1 TOUCH – Evangelism starts with proximity, and genuine interest expressed through conversation and organic relationship building. Oftentimes churches start evangelism training with how to articulate the gospel. But when your church folks no longer have connection with people far from God, it doesn’t matter how eloquent your gospel presentation rolls.

#2 TALK - When you develop your own strategy, you can’t help but develop unique language for the process of evangelism. This distinct terminology flows out of your church culture for your surrounding community culture. In a sense, new language is a part of incarnating the the truth of the gospel in your time and place. For example, one church in the bible belt, uses the language of “hope” as a door opener in conversation. Another, in the deeply unchurched Pacific Northwest uses the terminology of  ”self-reliance” to clarify the problem of a life disconnected from God.

#3 TOOLS – Peter Drucker said that the greatest problem with non-profits (he definitely had churches in mind) is a lack of focus and a lack of “tool competency.” As a pastor, you want your people engaged in sharing their faith. The single most important question you can ask yourself is, “What tools have I provided for my people to evangelize?” Studies show that people are more inherently motivated than we think. More times than not, their primary motivational question is NOT, “What’s in it for me?” BUT “What tools are you providing for me to do what you want me to do?” Recently Gloria Dei Lutheran created a simple tool that resembles the oil change sticker  you put on your windshield. On the sticker is the name of someone to consistently pray. This simple tool undergirds their mission for membership: Helping one another live life with Jesus everyday.

#4 TRAINING – Obviously, training is an important part of equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Your church does not need another pre-packaged or denominationally based program like you think. God has already provided everything you need to get training done. How, you ask? He has given gifts to men and women and gifted men and women to your church. Some of them have the gift of evangelism. We tend to think that the gift of evangelism is for a few people to do the work of evangelism. That’s not accurate. Remember that spiritual gifts are given with one purpose: the edification of the body. (Eph 4:11-16) Therefore, your job is to release the inherent gifts of evangelism in your church to train and lead the entire body in the process of evangelism and missional service. 

#5 TINGLE - In the end the work of evangelism is the first thing that suffers with the temptations and distractions of the world around us and the flesh within us. Motivation is a critical element. Vision casting and storytelling must consistently invigorate and refuel the people of God. In the end, the greatest tingle factor for the people of your church is your own life model. Remember pastors, that we teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are. As you motivate yourself for the work of evangelism, tell your own stories of success and failure. Always celebrate each precious step that each precious saint makes toward intentional living with redemptive passion. 

When you want something really bad, its easy to call it God’s vision. But sometimes what we desire most is not God’s better future, but simply a projection of what we want to be or have.

For example, in my early call to ministry I wanted to be a great preacher. While this desire was rooted with holy intent and calling from God,  I eventually ran into walls of manufactured energy, deep frustration, and finally jealously when the “vision” didn’t transpire as I’d planned. What caused me to see a different future than the one God had for me?  Two things I have encountered are ministry idolatry and approval addiction. 

• Ministry idolatry- being fixed on gifts and levels of talent you wish you had more than humbly accepting the gifts and level of ability God has given. 

• Approval addiction- worrying about how others perceive you, or adapting to others’ expectations of you, well intended or not.

These words sounds heavy, but in fact, they are very common in the daily stuff of most people in ministry. 

What’s the remedy? While God works in various ways to help us overcome our idolatry and addictions (not the “evil” ones but the ones we wrap holy disguises on), two ways for me were moments of brutal honesty and seasons of personal brokenness. 

• Moments of brutal honesty: When these moments occur from the right people at the right time, self-perception is purified, and primary gifts are clarified. When I work with teams, what strikes me is how possible it is for people to spend their entire life in ministry without brutal honesty. What a sad thought! Proverbs, says, “Rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” 

• Seasons of personal brokenness: Many times, our failures and shortcomings glue us closer to God and free us from approval needs of others. When you actually feel the gospel in a thoroughgoing way, (beyond intellectual assent) the  hunger to do God’s will, God’s way increases. Each step of integrating the gospel in my life has taken me to a new level of  freedom from “image management.”  

As you run toward the future, don’t always assume you are running toward God’s plan for your life. Discern the difference between His vision and your projection. If you are running and you trip or feel disillusioned, don’t stop running. Just keep course correcting and seeking first the kingdom. And His vision will become clear. 

Here is a tidbit to reengage your thoughts on values. It’s a sore subject in some ways, because it’s so easy for our “statements” not to mean anything. But do the process well and you might be surprised what happens.

Joel, my 14-year old son, and I went fly fishing last week on our trip to the Teton country. We hired a guide who schooled us on what would be our first full day out and first time holding fly rods.  It’s not too hard to pick up the basics, but as experience fisherman will share, you can spend the rest of your life mastering the art of nuances fly placement. 

For hours we worked the angles, trying to lock in on the 10 and 12 o’clock positioning of the ideal fly cast. The amazing thing is when you feel the perfect cast, you discover that the fly rod does all the work in projecting the fly forward. To achieve this dynamic, two things are important. First you need to stop the backcast at the right position. Second you need to delay for a moment to let the fly line extend all the way backwards before bringing it forward.

It’s quite startling when you realize how little you need to exert force to get the best cast. All morning I was working 2-3 times harder than necessary. What did my guide say that made the difference? He said, the last 10% on the backcast makes all the difference.  Sure enough, as I focused on the last 10%, the results were huge and almost effortless. The fly jumped way ahead with much less muscle.

The parallel to clarity  in the life of the leader is stunning. Often  a leaders works 2-3 times harder than necessary. Better results are possible with less effort. That’s not an exaggeration: better results are possible with less effort. How can that be? Clarity enables you to focus energy and attention in the just the right place to maximize your return.  It removes distractions, eliminates side-ways energy and allows all the “people and parts” of the organization to be fully utilized (like the fly rod). The last 10% is particularly applicable when it comes to articulating vision. Most highly gifted leaders stay 70%-90% clear. But when you close the gap of the last 10%, exponential results will follow.

Just like my casting.

So many people today throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to mission. They say that mission statements don’t mean anything. And if you look at common practice that is a reasonable conclusion. But mission can and should live at the center of your life as a leader and your organization in an amazing way, in the same way that it did for Jesus and his 12 disciples. No one was ever clearer about the origin, their mission and their destiny than Jesus. What is your mission? Chapter 12 provides everything you need to lead with mission, as we define it as a missional mandate.