I attended the pre-conference session with Will Mancini. Will is the author of Church Unique and a very helpful voice on leadership and clarity. I have not yet read Church Unique, but it has fueled a number of conversations recently between me and Jason. I found Will’s session to be very thought-provoking and challenging.
I took copious notes from Will’s session which you can access as a PDF here. However, here are some highlights from those notes:
- Vision is the most overused and least understood term in the leaders’ vocabulary
- Most churches are over-programmed and under-discipled
- Ironically, church plants can be the worst at copy-catting one another
- God wants to do something cosmically significant yet locally specific in your church
- If your vision is not stunningly unique, you probably don’t’ have one
Counterfeit Clarity (these might be helpful steps, but not vision in themselves):
- Photocopied vision: you can see within 5-minutes what the last conference the staff has attended (e.g., “fully devoted follower,” “environments”)
- Lofty One-Liner: not necessarily vision
- Compelling page dump: that by itself is not visionary leadership
- Strategic planning notebook: don’t need a huge planning notebook
- ADD Pastor: unbounded creativity does not necessarily equal visionary leadership
Four-fold Movement – process for gaining vision
- Rethink Vision – repenting of how we’ve thought of vision previously
- Uncover – discover your kingdom concept
- Talk Up – Before you frame a statement, you’ve got to state your vision framework (common definitions)
- Live Out – tools to help us integrate vision with life; how well is everything in your church configured around whatever the big idea of your church is?
For more from Will Mancini, read my full notes here.
[This is part of a series of note-posts from the Exponential 2010 conference.]
Jeff
May 4, 2010 at 5:43 am
Great post, Matt. Thanks!
Matt Erickson
May 4, 2010 at 5:53 am
You’re welcome, Jeff!
Jeff
May 4, 2010 at 6:03 am
OK so now read all the notes…overwhelming! Are you going through the vision process recommended here, Matt?
Matt Erickson
May 4, 2010 at 6:11 am
I’m reading Will’s book, Church Unique, to help clarify a few things and process through what he was saying in the workshop.
I realized that there are pieces of this (mission & values) that we’ve already done well at Brooklife. The other pieces have shifted and need greater clarity (strategy & mission marks/aims) to fill in what Will calls the vision frame. Our lead team is hoping to work that out.
Will has a consulting group called Auxono that is available but we’re doing this on our own.
brian hofmeister
June 8, 2010 at 7:20 am
Didn’t read the full version yet, but like where this is going. The photo-copied vision is easy to gravitate towards – copying what has worked for others feels safe. It’s dangerous to run with a unique God-given vision – no one knows if it will work!
Matt Erickson
June 8, 2010 at 8:44 am
Mancini accuses most churches of simply stealing the vision of other churches and trying to make it work in their own settings. I like his impulse toward finding what God is calling your church to be and do that 10,000 other churches cannot be and do.