I. Unoriginal Sin: Neglecting Uniqueness

Church Unique

I.  Unoriginal Sin: Neglecting Uniqueness

A.  “God doesn’t mass produce his church.” P.6

B.  Uniqueness=Culture “Culture is the combined effect of the interacting values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions that define the life of your church.” P. 7

C.  Sources of Culture: Leaders, Gifts, Heritage, Experiences, Tradition, Values, Personality, Evangelism, Recovery, Motivation. P. 8-9

D.  6 Thinkholes in the church p. 10-12

1.  Ministry Treadmills: “The treadmill is set in motion when the busyness of ministry creates a progressively irreversible hurriedness in the leader’s life.”

2.  Competency Trap: “The gold medals of yesterday’s accomplishments become the iron teeth around the leader’s ankle.” They think I know how to do this. Young leaders challenge this perception because they don’t have the experience to know it works.

3.  Needs-based Slippery Slope. “leaders are constantly trying to meet people’s needs and expectations.”

4.  Cultural Whirlpools: The culture around us is changing rapidly. Two temptations: 1. BuzzChurch: define the DNA around innovation. 2. Stuck Church. The majority are here. Failure to adapt and learn.

5.  The Conference Maze: training events provide direction and vision. Copycat the vision.

6.  Denominational Rut: old structures and processes keep the church stuck and resources disregard local uniqueness.

II.  The Fall of Strategic Planning

A.  Strategic planning is no longer the preferred tool for leading the church into the future.

1.  Manciini assumes strategic plans are complex. He reports on p.19 a series of mission, vision, value statements that are complex and confusing. I’d say that’s just bad planning.

2.  Mancini argues that strategic plans do not provide steps to achieve the stated goals.

B.  Three Fallacies

1.  Vision Shredder: “Too much information shreds the big picture into so many small pieces that the vision is hopefully lost. More information = less clarity…The ability to break the whole into parts does not inherently help us keep the whole in mind.” Mancini adds that a good strategic plan clarifies the mission as a singular idea, but a says that never happens. Mancini argues for a singular purpose. What is the one thing you will be good at.

2.  The Silo Builder (Fallacy of Accountability): “More goals typically create a more fragmented approach, as each leader focuses solely on his or her responsibilities and outcomes. In an effort to establish positive steps of accountability within ministry areas, the church misses out on synergy among all ministry areas.” The staff should function as a football team not a golf team.

3.  Leadership Blinders (Fallacy of Predictability): Despite rapid change strategic plans present 5, 10 and 20 year plans. Planning relies on predictability. Focus instead on preparation which equips leaders to be flexible and able to seize opportunity. Aruges from Jer. 29:11 that God does the planning. Kind of deterministic.

C.  Seems somewhat self-serving for a consultant to write a chapter on how other consultants planning process is ineffective. He paints a worst case scenario of strategic planning and says that the good of strategic planning is unattainable. Strategic plans do not need to be complex and can contain steps to achieve goals. A plan is not complete without steps to completion and evaluation along the way. A plan is a fluid document that adapts not a solid immovable object.

III.  The Iniquity of Church Growth: Caging the Kingdom

A.  Stages of the Church Growth Movement (A Historical Perspective)

1.  The Church Growth Movement.

a.  The movement has its roots in Donald McGavran, a missionary to India. In his later years, he returned to the US and became the founding Dean of Fuller’s School of World Mission. Peter Wagner co-taught with him.

b.  He taught the idea that “apostolic ministry is more effective when we target people groups than when we target political units of geographic areas.” P. 30. The movement lost steam with his death in 1990.

2.  Popular Church Growth Expressions

a.  Seminary classes, seminars, books, magazines and consulting.

b.  Entire disciplines arose: church marketing, survey researchers and business management.

c.  Negative side: preoccupation with numbers, overlaying business practices without theological critique, transfer growth.

d.  The expansion of church growth to these other arenas has led to a misunderstanding of the movement.

e.  Sub specializations: church planting, small groups, spiritual warfare, conflict management, change management, marketing, strategic planning, and fundraising.

3.  The Parenthesis of “Church Effectiveness”

a.  Movement became focused on methodology. Pastors were confused. Which methods do I follow?

b.  Shift to a focus on church health. Purpose Driven church led the way. If the church is healthy, it will grow.

c.  Large scale cultural shift happening. Modernity to Postmodernity or Christian era to post Christian era. Now there is no imbedded Christian influence within culture.

4.  Missional Church Reorientation

a.  Church is not something you do or a place you go, but what you are. P. 33 The challenge today is to move from church with mission to missional church. P. 34

b.  Sent Theology p. 34. “The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit [is] expanded to include yet another ‘movement’: Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church in the world.” Therefore the church’s new identity is a reclarification of its ‘sentness.’ Sending is not something you do, but being sent is something you are.

c.  From Attractional to Incarnational. Attractional is bringing seekers into the building to experience Sunday morning the primary evangelism vehicle. Incarnational focuses on sharing the gospel where life is lived. In attractional, the church is gathered (building). With incarnational, the church is scattered (community).

d.  Change of Language. Lost people and prospects shifts to the precious and the people Jesus misses most. Evangelism shifts from something we do to something we embody. Shift in language changes the Christ follower’s identity. It encourages them to be the church and not just go to church.

B.  Analysis of Church Growth Movement

1.  Presuppositions were bound within Christendom; they worked in the Christian era. P. 36. It was a better evangelism methodology within the paradigm of accepted Christianity. The culture has changed.

2.  Church Growth vs. Idolatry (an idol is anything we add to Jesus to make life work).

a.  attendance numbers

b.  Bigger facilities. People like it small but leaders like it big.

3.  Indicators of idolatry

a.  Little financial generosity outside of their local ministry.

b.  When churches get the bigger building and don’t know what to do next.

c.  Rapid expansion of multi-site.

d.  Church growth fell victom to the mentality that we are the architects of the work of God.

IV.  Lost Congregations

A.  Vision Vaccum. In an absence of vision, what excites the heart of the attenders? What fuels their dreams? Something does. When there is a vacuum of meaning where do people find meaning? Soul Fast Food.

1.  French Fried Places. These are places that hold spiritual value to us. They are addictive like fries. The use of the term church to connote place compounds the problem. These places are important but without vision, space fills the void of a deep connection to the church. Space becomes central.

2.  Big Mac Personalities. People become attached to a spiritual leader. “Charisma is not vision. It is a vehicle to deliver the vision. The under-shepherd is not a substitute for the Good Shepherd.” P. 44.

3.  Supersized Programs. “When the program exists in a vision vacuum, the how of doing the program displaces the why in the heart of the program’s leaders. That is, mastering the how is what makes the volunteer feel important.” P. 44 Most pastors can identify programs that need to be killed. “The problem is not the volunteer but the vision. We need the vision to raise our sight to see the why behind the program to begin with. Without seeing the more compelling why, we cultivate masters of how.” P. 45

4.  Apple Pie People. People get connected to other people. This is “community without a cause”. “These familiar friends, albeit essential to church life, have become central to the person’s identity.

B.  Granite Etching vs. Sand Writing

1.  Great illustration of how we only put the values or essential things etched in granite and the how or methodology is writing in sand that can be easily erased.

2.  Sunday School: Authentic growing relationships is the core value. Meeting for 60 minutes in a lecture format is the noncore method.

3.  When we fail to nurture the things etched in granite, people get attached to things written in sand.

4.  “The leaders should help people embrace change by nurturing an emotional connection to the unchanging core vision. The leader should then preserve and champion the core vision by showing people how to constantly adapt…Make no mistake: our change management problems today are vision problems first and people problems second.” P.47

V.  The Good News of Clarity

A.  Analogy of using monster cables for his Xbox. The clarity was already there by the designers but the cables brought the clarity to life. As leaders we do the same. We help people perceive what has gone unnoticed.

B.  Clarifying Vision is p.53

1.  looking to the past as much as the future.

2.  Requires careful consideration of strengths and limitations.

3.  As much about identity as it is methodology.

4.  Always about what God is already doing.

C.  Catalytic Dynamics of Clear Vision p.53 - 55

1.  Clarity Makes Uniqueness Undeniable.

2.  Clarity Makes Direction Unquestionable. Followers cannot travel an unmarked path. The leader must know where he/she is going.

3.  Clarity Makes Enthusiasm Transferable.

4.  Clarity Makes Work Meaningful.

5.  Clarity Makes Synergy Possible. Without clarity, collaboration is lost to sideways energy.

6.  Clarity Makes Success Definable. People must understand what a win is.

7.  Clarity Makes Focus Sustainable. Enables the church to say no to good things and stay focused on the best things.

8.  Clarity Makes Leadership Credible. Real leadership is not just about creative ideas. It is about having creativity within a clarity that builds momentum over time.

9.  Clarity Makes Uncertainty Approachable. Turn fear of the future into confidence.

D.  Clarity Gaps

1.  The leader’s perception vs. reality. BRIDGE: relational connectivity and disciplines of observation and listening.

2.  The leader’s thinking vs. what the leader is saying. BRIDGE: Journaling or formal writing can help the leader process thoughts better.

3.  The leader’s words vs. how followers receive the leader’s words. BRIDGE: Understand the people and pursuing feedback.

4.  The follower’s understanding vs. how followers communicate their understanding. Understand how people learn, patience, pursuing feedback.

VI.  Clarity Pre-Evangelism

A.  The process of clarity is hard and gut wrenching.

B.  Four imperatives to leadership repentance.

1.  Frame it First: Leaders need to repent from stabbing at the future. State your vision framework before you frame your vision statement.

2.  Listen Till You Glisten. Leaders must repent from neglecting the obvious. Discern the future by seeing more clearly what you already have. Listen to people in and out of the church. Listen to the Spirit.

3.  Team The Horses. Leaders must repent from doing it themselves. Go farther by pulling together.

a.  P.65 “There has never been a time when twelve to fifteen people in the visioning process did not produce something far better than any one person could.”

b.  Collaboration: Four hats: initiator, challenger or devil’s advocate, the processor and the supporter. See www.collaborationcube.com

c.  Define success of collaboration: 100-80 rule. Reaching an agreed-on decision as 100 percent of the group feeling 80 percent good. Not 80% feeling 100% good about a decision.

4.  Work outside in. Leaders must repent of the myth of objectivity. Once a leader is around for a while they can no longer claim objectivity. Get a coach or consultant.

VII.  The Alpha and Omega of Clarity

A.  The ultimate source of clarity is God’s perspective as revealed in Scripture.

B.  P. 74 “As you work to discover your Church Unique and articulate a missional vision, the pursuit of God must come first.”

VIII.  Hear the Cloud of Witness

A.  p. 76 “Visionary leadership is the art of protecting the past as we champion the future. Bold aspirations must be rooted in the values and visions that have come before.”

B.  P. 76 “Many emerging leaders have practiced this in worship settings with the recovery of an ‘ancient-future’ experience. But this has been largely relegated to the practice of worship and is still blooming in the art of leadership.”

C.  The gist of this chapter is that you have to look back to discover the vision artifacts of the past. Vision is not only rooted in Scripture (ch. 7) but is rooted in the visionaries that have gone before us. These vision artifacts are part of the story of the church and cannot be ignored.

D.  Great ?’s: What led this ministry to be birthed in the first place? What words still echo in the walls of this church from previous seasons of leadership? Which stories belong in the hall of fame for the church? Which ones would make the top three? If your ministry had a shoebox of memorabilia, which objects would be in it? What are the two biggest defining moments in the history of this ministry? How did those moments shape the ministry?

IX.  Discover Your Kingdom Concept: How to Ascertain Vision

A.  p. 84 “The Kingdom Concept is the simple, clear, ‘big idea’ that defines how your church will glorify God and make disciples…Your Kingdom Concept is what differentiates you from every other church in how you develop followers of Christ for God’s ultimate honor.”

B.  To determine the Kingdom Concept Mancini encourages to find overlap in three circles.

1.  Local Predicament: What are the unique needs of the community? A great tool for discovery would be the community needs assessment.

2.  Collective Potential: What are the unique resources that God brings together in us. The focus is not on individual giftings but corporate giftings. Mancini lists several biblical examples of collective personalities ex. Revelation 2, Gen. 49. What defines your tribe collectively?