Will Mancini

I had many great conversations after speaking at Leadership Network on Thursday last week. One was with Bill Bush of Rock Point Church outside of Phoenix. As we discussed his strategy icon at length (a visual representation of a church’s strategy) he shared how hard they have been working to “do more by doing less” by aligning and focusing their strategy. Bill said that he literally fumbled his words one day as he was discussing both simplicity and implementation with his leaders, and out popped, “simplementation” by mistake. I love it! 

Simplementation:

• How are you keeping things simple as you implement your vision? 
  
• Where do programs or structure or communication produce redundancy? 
  
• Can everyone state clearly the few key components of the vision that you are currently advancing?

Leonardo DaVinci said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy.”

One of the characteristics of great brands is delivering an experience that is consistently consistent. Today, an answered prayer was met with an inconsistency for my 14-year old Jacob. Our church leaders have trained Jacob to utilize the weekend services to invite unchurched friends. Finally, and with much anticipation, a lost friend named Juan came with Jacob to The Matrix, a seeker service targeted to the junior high crowd.

After the service, my 14-year old critiqued the ministry he loves and is committed too:

–”Dad, Juan loves X-box and I told him that we can play in the Matrix gameroom before the services starts. Today all of the games remained unplugged.”
–”They always have great videos or some creative element. Today was the first time I can remember when they didn’t do anything like that.”
–”The singer during worship was off vocally. During the worship, it killed me when Juan asked, “what are they saying?”"

Today was a helpful reminder that God’s sovereign goodness and love for Juan are infinite whether our X-boxes are plugged in or not. Yet while the battle belongs to the Lord, we must still prepare our horses.

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

I was scanning blog entries for last week’s release of my book Church Unique (on Favebot.com). I ran across a a interview on vision with Nelson Searcy on a blog called Visional Life. Here are my two favorite snippets:

Cultivating a vision:
Where does vision come from? Vision can flow from a number of sources:

* Experience: Because of what I have learned from the past, I have a vision for the future.
* Inspiration: Because of an imaginative or spiritual spark, I have a vision for the future.
* Analysis: Because of my analytical study, I have a vision for the future.

The key point on vision is that it is unique to every leader. My vision must be cultivated out of experience, inspiration, or analysis. If you borrow a vision, you are simply managing another person’s vision, you are not leading. To borrow a vision is to fail to lead.

Verbalize clearly:
If you can’t say it clearly, you don’t know it completely. You may think that the vision makes sense, but your mind will fill in the holes of the vision without you being aware. When you verbalize the vision, you’ve taken the important step of examining the holes and resolving them – for yourself and for others.

I had lunch with Matt Neely this week who recently planted The Watershed Church, a UMC church close to my home in League City, TX. One topic of conversation centered around the idea that “vision” is a tainted word today especially for emerging leaders. Its seems that the abuses of the church growth movement and the overuse use of term generates a little skepticism. One of the difficult things in writing Church Unique was trying to figure out a name for a book on vision without using “vision” in the title. “Redeeming Vision” and “Ooze Vision” were top choices. Another option was “Quantum Clarity” as I believe the idea of clarity is the key for missional leaders to embrace a bold vision with an appropriate humility. To redeem the concept of vision keep in mind how and passion without pride come together around “clarity:”

–Clarifying vision is about looking to the past as much as the future
–Clarifying vision requires careful consideration of strengths and limitations
–Clarifying vision is as much about identity as it is methodology
–Clarifying vision is always about what God is already doing