Will Mancini

I spent the afternoon with the RightNow team. These guys are dreamers and Brian Mosley, the new president, shared this exhortation from his grandfather who started the ministry decades ago- “Get a dream, do a dream, tell a dream.”

Here is why I love the statement:

GET A DREAM

• Most people never discover the reason they were created
• Most people live out of fears and expectations of others 
• Most people have “healthy” addictions they won’t leave for a real dream

DO A DREAM

• Many people daydream, few stay focused for very long
• Most activity is monotony without meaning
• You can DO so, so much more when you know why and believe big

TELL A DREAM

• Your dream can inspire untold others and birth other dreams
• Many people want to contribute to your dreams
• Most people don’t practice crafting and articulating their dream

The next couple of days I will be working with leaders from the Evangelical Free Church of America. Whenever working with a network or denomination, clarity and vision start with understanding the “founding charism” or group grace of the movement. Steve Addison does a wonderful job of co-opting this term from the Catholics and using it to define all movements. Here are some quotes from his book, Movements that Change the World:

Christianity is a movement of movements- monasticism, evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism, to name a few. These movements can find expression in movement organizations such as mission agencies and denominations.

Each new movement has a unique contribution to make to the kingdom- its “founding charism” or gift of grace.

Three movement factors enable a movement to maintain a strong commitment to its cause: founding charism, alignment and movement tension.

Founding charism: unique identity and calling  To survive, every living thing is both constantly changing and constantly remaining the same. If an organism doesn’t do both, it ceases to exist. Living organisms are constantly seeking self renewal by referring back to their essential identity and adapting to their environment. Likewise, movements must adapt to their changing environment while remaining true to their identity.

Effective movements know who they are. The know their founding charism and safeguard it over time. Their methods may change, but the cause never does. A clear identity and agenda for change create a tension between the ideal promoted by a movement and current reality.

I love the idea of “Founding Charism” – its simple the way of saying Movement Unique instead of Church Unique. 

But here is the challenge. Most leaders who are a part of a network or denomination do not clearly lead from or toward the group’s core identity. If you don’t believe me go ahead and ask someone. Start with yourself. 

I highly recommend Steve’s book!

Sometimes the real problem is not the problem. And this year at Qideas the real content was not the content. What do I mean? When you line up dozens of speakers on various topics for an immersion learning event, often the patterns and perspectives bring the richest insight. If you are not familiar with Qideas, check it out, and more importantly, the learning event from which Q was adapted- TED. Here are my moleskin reflections on the flight home:

#1 The day belongs to the sound bite savvy. At Q there is a visible timer, and speakers have 18, 9, or 3 minutes to share their idea. Two lucky people get an entire 36 minutes. Some people made fun of it, some people ignored it and some people aced it.   The bottom-line is that some 3-minute presentations where unmistakably more powerful than 36-minute ones. Taking the time to refine and articulate your ideas is critical. If you can’t deliver the entire message in 20 seconds, you’re not ready to give it at all. 

#2 Cross a boundary to birth a passion. The conviction that fuels a life of significant service is often birthed at a “boundary crossing.” You know when you have experienced a crossing like this (ethnic, social-economic, etc.) because you never see life the same: the short-term trip to Haiti, adopting a child, really befriending someone of a different race or sexual orientation. The list goes on. At Q you’re drenched with pleas for social action from nuclear arms to Tom’s shoes; from to “do good” coffee, to fathering the fatherless. While I appreciate the value of their cause-orientation, I think the effectiveness of involving people is found wanting. For example, many people passionately push the “boundary crossing” that marked their own soul, rather than helping people see their own boundary opportunities.

#3 Grow your mind by deconstructing your ideas. One highlight of Q was watching Brian McLaren and Scot McKnight dialogue on some hot theological topics.  Much attention was given to the definition of the gospel. One problem as leaders, is our ability to live with tons of packed assumptions in the words that are our most important words, like “gospel” or “salvation.” To deconstruct these words, is to trace the layering of ideas that hundreds of years of history and culture form.  In addition we can scrutinize our own life history to better understand why we believe what we believe. For example, McLaren challenged the audience by asserting the Old Testament idea of  salvation as NOT including the notion of eternal life. McKnight, reminded us how easy it is to take our understanding of the gospel out of its narrative context for the people of Israel.

#4 The bigger the context the better the insight.  The speakers who added the most value have some contextual expansion to leverage. The greater context may be geographic (world perspective), historical (bringing time-forged insights on a single topic), or specific combinations of technical disciplines.  The problem with expanding you context is that it always challenges the stasis our your current perspective.   

What’s my take-away?  These are my four questions:

• Where have I not taken time to sound-bite my most important ideas?
• What is the next boundary that God wants me to cross?
• What are the most common words in my leadership and what assumptions do they contain?
• How can I enlarge my context to bring more insight into my calling? 

At the Exponential Conference last week I made a new friend- Scott Williams, a campus pastor at LifeChurch.tv. I knew of Scott from his blog, BigisTheNewSmall.com, which is ranked on Kent Schaffer’s Top 100 Church Blogs. We had a great time talking about church consulting, the culture at LifeChurch, his new role at Vanderbloemen Search Group, and finally blogging. So I asked, “What are your secrets?” 

He shared three things:

#1 Find your voice.  This insight is huge, but many bloggers don’t intentionally cultivate their voice.  I find that voice comes from one of three places: 1) your content specialization, 2) your unique perspective from life experience,  or 3) your raw personality. There is always a blend of these three ingredients, but one defines the others; one is the top of the triangle. Scott blogs about a lot of stuff and can cover lots of angles from family, to church, to social media, to leadership in general. So his voice is really determined by his personality. You see why very quickly when you spend time with Scott and catch it immediately from his blog title. What does BigisTheNewSmall mean- read it here. Scott is energetic, fun, and very insightful and it shines through his blog.

#2 Contribute consistently.  Okay, you’ve heard that before. What struck me was a simple illustration he used. He said,  “What would you read more- a good newspaper that came every day, or a great newspaper that you were never sure was coming?” That sold me more on the consistency argument. The most helpful thing I have ever heard on consistency was when Seth Godin wrote, “I blog regularly not because I have to, but because I get to.” Boom! Is you blog a calling or a chore? 

#3 Drip in Content on Social Media.  If you haven’t heard this yet, it really is a secret. Scott makes a connection of his voice with social media once every 5-6 posts. They key here is not jumping out of your voice but finding the overlap, the sweet spot. For example, my voice is defined first by content expertise around clarity and vision. My number one post in the last 6 months is one on the clarity overlap with blogging, The Christian Blogger’s Dilemma and What to Do About It. Think about that for a minute, and consider the implications for yourself.

On a recent post, Revisit Your DNA, I was asked by Kevin Rossen if it’s worth even stating values. I wish this was a silly question, but it’s not. It’s easy to run into weak examples of values articulation and more importantly, feeble efforts at developing leaders. In such a context it is worth examining the whole idea.

Placed in context of vision and clarity, values, or what I call missional motives, define 1/5 of the equation. Of five things we must be clear on, the question of “why we do what we do” is critically important. I think of values as springboards for daily action, the glue of the team, and collective soul of the church. Why should you state what you value?

1. Enable your ministry to do more of what it does best
2. Define the basis of good decision-making in order to release leaders
   
3. Free your church to say no to things other churches do
   
4. Connect people emotionally to the stuff that never changes
5. Facilitate change easier because the core ideals are clear
6. Attract more people (staff, leaders, members) who share your motives
7. Filter out people who don’t share your values (blessed subtraction) 
8. Demonstrate God-honoring unity AND collective personality
9. Increase trust by making what’s most important more concrete
10. Create enthusiasm because everyone knows “why we are going to win”

The technical definition of values in Church Unique is “shared convictions that guide decision-making and reveal the strengths of the church” Remember, a river without banks is just a large puddle. What matters most in your church or ministry?