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 undershepherd 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?
3. Apostolic Espirit: What particular focus most energizes and animates
the leadership. I struggle with this one. To me it fits in the collective
potential. If God has gifted a church, then that will also be their
passion and God’s calling for that church. Separating this out has the
potential of making it about me. What is my pet project I’m excited
about as the leader. There is a need for a different third circle.
X. Take a Closer Look: Navigating Your Discovery Process
A. p. 99 “To do the most good requires saying ‘no’ to the pressures to stray
and the discipline to stop doing what does not fit.” -- Jim Collins
B. Kingdom Concept = the intersection of Local Predicament (Community
Needs), Collective Potential (Gifts and Talents of Church Body), and
Apostolic Espirit (calling of the Holy Spirit + passion of leaders).
C. Alignment: Mancini is basically calling for alignment in ministries. Rather
than each ministry being an island to itself, each ministry is aligned to the
vision of the church. Collectively they function as a team striving for the
same win.
D. P. 105 “There is uniqueness within the call to ‘love God and love others’
that goes unmentioned.” The idea is that every churches shares the
generic mission to Love God; Love Others. How that mission is lived out
in the life of the church is the Kingdom Concept and what makes the
Church Unique.
XI. See With New Eyes: Defining Your Vision Frame
A. The Kingdom Concept is the OS of the church running in the background
largely unnoticed. The next step is to put that into words, to articulate the
vision.
B. Exercise: How would you describe your church in 10 words or less? Will
your words communicate well? Will they capture attention? Will your
words communicate clearly about what God is doing in the world in and
through the church?
C. The Vision Frame p. 113
1. Mission as missional mandate. What are we doing? Clear and
concise statement that describes what the church is ultimately
supposed to be doing.
2. Values as missional motives. Why are we doing it? Guide actions and
reveal the strengths of the church.
3. Strategy as missional map. How are we doing it? Demonstrates how
the church will accomplish its mandate on the broadest level.
4. Measures as missional life marks. When are we successful?
5. Vision Proper as missional mountaintop + milestones. Where is God
taking us?
6. The first four provide the framework for the vision proper.
D. Two Ways to Falter
1. Take too long to put the frame together. Significant progress should
be made in multiple day sessions over no longer than six months.
2. Too quickly creating Vision Proper. “There is something wrong if you
do this too fast. The goal is not to put a one-page vision on paper and
be done but to keep the work of visioning in the daily flow of
leadership. The Vision Proper takes a lifetime.” I’m assuming that he
means a lifetime to implement. The Church culture should be
saturated with the Vision Proper in other words.
E. Adhere to 5 C’s to measure success of the Vision Frame.
1. Clear, Concise, Compelling, Catalytic and Contextual
2. When these 5 are there the vision is contagious.
XII.
Carry the Holy Orders: Mission as Missional Mandate
XIII.
A. Missional Mandate is the heartbeat of the organization. It should touch
members on an emotional level and act like glue.
B. Anchored in Sent Theology. How do you remind people that they are
Sent?
C. Lack of a Missional Mandate is a growth barrier. P. 122 “When it comes
to growth challenges, leaders jump too quickly to the branches: parking
lots, seating capacity, finances, staff and so on. But when God’s people
are deeply stirred with redemptive passion, the church becomes an
unstoppable force, hurdling other barriers with ease.”
D. The Missional Mandate weaves its way through every activity in the
organization (Alignment). It’s a compass to set your bearing. It
perpetually nourishes a sense of God’s calling to us.
E. Tips for developing the missional mandate
1. Boil down your current statement. Make it as clear and concise as
possible. Then decide whether you need to start over or tweak.
2. Start with the A to B structure. A is the people or context to which the
church is sent. B represents what we are becoming as followers of
Christ. Brainstorm the two lists separately. Compare the lists and look
for any ideas that contrast meaningfully.
3. Keep reviewing the 5 C’s.
F. Jesus taught people to act act; the emphasis was practice over
knowledge.
Feel the Common Heartbeat: Values as Missional Motives.
A. The values or Missional Motives are the things that we are ready and
willing to die for. Think of motives not as what we do but rather as what
characterizes everything we do.
B. Problems with Values
1. Most values statements have too many values listed (no more than
six).
2. They tend to say what we are not rather than what we are.
3. Redundant: They repeat doctrinal beliefs or general ideas such as
worship, evangelism and fellowship. Every church values these.
4. They fail the call to action rule.
C. Identifying values is like defining your team colors. Imagine gearing up for
a big game for a team with no colors. You’d have nothing to wear but
white on white. That’s what its like at a church with no missional motives.
D. Number of Values: Four is ideal; six max. If they can’t be remembered
then they can’t shape action and can’t be shared.
E. Live the motives first. They need to be modeled top down..
F. The Action Rule: p. 133 “If the motive or value communicates an idea and
not an actionable idea, it is a piece of deadwood.”
1. Articulate a “demonstrated by” statement(s) for each value.
2. Ex. – Mutual Respect. “Demonstrated by going out of our way to
listen, communicate, support, and celebrate one another, so that each
person and their contribution in ministry is held in high regard.”
G. Realized vs. Aspirational
XIV.
XV.
1. Ratio of 1 aspirational per 3 realized.
2. Aspirational are realities we hope to create but do not yet have.
Show me the way: Strategy as missional map
A. No strategy = Meaningless ministries = Confusion about next steps
1. Mission statement and a brochure with a list of ministries. The
question is What in the world do I do next? Then you choose nothing.
2. Too many ministry options
3. Ministries themselves have no connection to the mission. No vertical
alignment with the mission and no horizontal alignment with each
other.
4. Individuals stay lost with where they are and what to do next.
B. The map serves as a strategy bridge between the mission and all of the
activities.
1. Members know why we exist and how we get there together.
2. Story of Good Samaritan is followed by Mary and Martha. Jesus
corrects Martha. P. 141 “So on the heels of the famous parable we
see Jesus giving a corrective on pursuing service for service’s sake.”
Aimless service for service sake is not helpful.
C. Benefits of Illustrating the Missional Map
1. Fewer choices for me, simpler structure for us. Enables your Church
Unique to serve up a few great ministry specials. Talked about a
restaurant that has limited specials as opposed to several will sell more
specials.
2. Clearer pathway for me, real synergy for us. Ministry is no longer
measured by “butts in the seats” but by how people progress through
the Missional Map. Leadership shares a common goal. They know
what it means to score a touchdown together.
3. Better quality for me focused energy for us. The collective potential of
your leadership is as effectve as sunlight shining through a magnifying
glass. What was mild and “effect-less” becomes concentrated and
potent – even burning hot.
4. More life for me, less activity for us. Not all activity is progress; the
blood, sweat and tears of many pastors are the fuel of a church
machine with little life-change output.
D. Summary: Wal-Mart or Starbucks
1. Wal-Mart church has lots of programs and attracts people that way.
2. Starbucks church is laser focused on a process for producing disciples.
3. P. 149 “Programs don’t attract people; people attract people.”
4. P. 150 “Growing people grow people. Consuming people consume
programs. We cannot miss the way of Jesus in this regard.”
Talk the Walk: Measures as Missional Life Marks
A. Question: What ministry bull’s-eye are you all aiming at together?
B. The Marks are the church’s portrait of a disciple and definition of spiritual
maturity.
C. Your mission is what you measure. Too many churches only measure:
attendance, finances and building.
XVI.
D. Question: What Kind of Christian is your church designed to produce?
E. Reggie McNeal in The Present Future p. 155 “I am convinced that the
reason for so much burnout, lack of commitment, and low performance in
our churches among staff and members is directly related to the failure to
declare the results we are after. We don’t know when we are winning.”
F. Top three reasons churches are unsuccessful at making disciples today
1. Few churches or Christians have a clear and measurable definition of
spiritual success.
2. We have defined discipleship as “head knowledge” rather than
complete transformation.
3. We have chosen to teach people in random, rather than systematic
ways.
G. Marks answer the three problems
1. They create the definition of a disciple
2. They correct a knowledge-centered spirituality
3. They constitute the foundation for systematic teaching
H. Language confusion
1. Each ministry needs to communicate using the same language.
2. “It takes consistent use of the same language over three years for the
culture to be affected.” P. 156
I. Marks vs Map: p. 159 “We would say that the Map is where Joe goes and
the Marks are what Joe becomes. Using churchspeak, we would say that
the Map is about assimilation into the organization and the Marks are
about spiritual formation for the individual.
Frame the Future: Preparing for a Vision Lifestyle
A. The work of vision is fundamentally living and not static; there is constant
nuance, surprise, and art as leader and followers “play into the future”
together.
B. Missional Vision
1. Living Language: People do not follow your compelling page dumps;
they follow you! The vision cannot be separated from the vision caster
and the vision caster cannot separate his message from his life as a
model.
2. Anticipating God’s Future: The use of vision has so emphasized a
static snapshot that communication risks becoming information, not
inspiration.
3. God’s Better Intermediate Future.
C. Vision Proper within the Vision Frame
1. Principle 1: It provides dynamic tension. There is a constant tension
between a fluid (changing/adapting) vision and a fixed frame.
2. Principle 2: Permits Distributed Application. Everyone has what they
need to lead. Different personalities gel with different pieces of the
frame. Process people have strategy defined for them. Resultoriented people have measures defined, etc.
3. Principle 3: Promotes Daily Usefulness. As soon as vision is
unshackled from the vision statement, we put it back into people’s
hands and it becomes part of daily life. Saturating vision as lifestyle.
See figure 16.4 p.175
XVII. Speak with New Tongues: Articulating Vision Proper
A. Clarifying the difference between Mission and Vision. See Deuteronomy
8:7-10. God supplied living language here.
B. Vision as Missional Mountaintop + Milestones
1. Ex. Missional Mountaintop: We are a place where no one stands
alone…where people are elbow-deep in each other’s lives. May I ask
you, Who is your 2am friend?
2. Ex. Missional Milestone: By this time next year, we will have 100 small
groups, and 70 percent of them will have apprentice leaders.
C. Employ the art of metaphoric language (story telling).
D. 6 Essentials of Vision as the Missional Mountaintop.
1. Common Denominator – Do I Build an Emotional connection based on
shared history? Great vision starts by looking back before looking
forward.
2. Burning Platform – Do I Frame the Larger Need and Speak to the Fear
of Loss? Vision is always a solution to a prior problem. It addresses,
“What is the problem for me if the vision goes unaddressed.”
3. Golden Tomorrow – Do I promise a better world in which people will
want to live? Stop vision casting to making the church better and show
people how the church makes life better.
4. Wake-up Call – Do I create urgency and induce action?
5. Mind Stretch – Do I enlarge faith and challenge the imagination with
audacious, God-sized goals?
6. God Smile – Do I clarify my biblical basis and show how God’s heart is
pleased?
XVIII. Wage War Against the Status Quo
A. Alignment is the critical work that must be done early in the rollout of
vision. You don’t just hit the gas pedal when you see where God wants
you to drive.
B. Established Church Alignment
1. Stage 1: Communication. In the communication stage, leaders and
ministry areas learn the value of sharing information and keeping
dialogue open.
2. Stage 2: Coordination. In this stage there is hard conversation about
what to do with programs and people that aren’t aligned with the vision.
It is equivalent to spring cleaning in the church.
3. Stage 3: Collaboration. In this stage you have all the horses pulling in
the same direction. Everyone is working towards the same thing. If
the church is generally successful, collaboration can be achieved in
three years.
C. New Church Alignment (15 years and younger)
1. The new church starts off aligned. As it grows the new church adds
ministries and programs. It goes through the stages in reverse.
XIX.
XX.
D. Once the missional map is developed the work of aligning existing and
new ministries begins. 5-fold approaching in asking the question, “How
does this ministry or program fit?”
1. Catapult the Ministry: Lift it as high as you can to capture the attention
of your congregation. Only do this with ministries that are a direct fit
with the map.
2. Combine the Ministry: Considers how the study could meaningfully be
adapted to be considered a legitimate connect offering within the map.
Ex. – Sunday School. One church added discussion instead of purely
lecture to help the ministry align.
3. Contributize the Ministry: Adapt a ministry so that it becomes a
contributor to one of the key components of the map. Ex. – If more
men are needed in the service part of the Map, the monthly morning
Bible study could end before its usual time for a special testimony and
appeal for an immediate opportunity for service involvement. Or the
study could focus on developing an attitude of servanthood.
4. Cage the Ministry: It is clear that some ministries will not be able to fit
in the map. But it can be equally clear that some ministries can’t be
killed. Perhaps there is a critical mass of influential people emotionally
tied to the ministry. The idea in this scenario is to cut it off from new
resources and promotion. Eventually the ministry will die.
5. Cut the Ministry: Close down the ministry
Meet Long in the Upper Room: The Secret of Attunement
A. What alignment is to structure and communication attunement is to human
emotion. How do you help people want to go and not have to go?
B. Create Real Dialogue
1. Discussion vs. Dialogue: A discussion creates winners and losers, but
in a dialogue everybody wins. Attunement is not about everyone
getting their way. It is about everyone having the opportunity to be
heard and truly understood.
2. Listen up and Listen In: The key to attunement is listening.
C. Important Questions
1. How do I talk to someone in my congregation with wisdom and grace
even though she disagrees with the vision?
2. Have I allowed enough time for adequate dialogue with this person?
3. When is enough, enough, and I have to ask the person to leave?
D. The Power of a Positive No
1. The vision is the deepest yes, and as such the integrity of the vision
requires a thousand nos.
2. Anytime you have to say No make sure you root it in a deeper Yes.
Transform the Future: Delivering Vision Daily - Integration Model:
Conversation tool for discovering how to release vision.
A. Developing Leadership
1. How will you use the vision to recruit leaders, develop leaders,
structure people, and divide your attention among the right leaders?
2. Staff Get People Who Get the Vision
a. Do their personal values align with the organization’s? You can’t
ask, but must discern this.
b. Do they demonstrate the egoless clarity required to collaborate on
a team?
c. Does their own apostolic espirit mesh with that of others on your
leadership team? What is their team chemistry?
d. Do they have experience leading in an organization with clarity?
Ask them about the vision of where they are coming from.
e. Do they resonate with you vision articulation? Do they get excited
about it.
f. Are you hiring for progress (D, I on DISC) or order (S, C on DISC)?
Weight the staff more for progress.
g. Don’t hire a person without the demonstrated gift of leadership.
Hire delegators rather than doers.
3. Structure: Let Strategy Determine Structure. Rules for integrating our
Vision Frame into your structure.
a. Communicate vision in how you name the position
b. Clarify top three responsibility areas, including accountability for
map components.
c. Structure for strategy over affinity (such as young adults or men’s
pastor). Hire first around the missional map. The problem with
structuring affinity over strategy is that the affinity-based staff
person cannot easily be held accountable for a component of the
strategy.
4. Engine: Lead Leaders
a. The engine of your vision is your leadership. Place more emphasis
on leadership development over crowd development.
b. Whenever the largest crowds were gathered in the gospels, Jesus
had an agenda for training the twelve more than he did for teaching
the crowd. We do the opposite today by building everything around
the crowd instead of the core.
B. Intentional Communication: communicate the vision in everyday moments
1. Attention: Grab attention or hold nothing.
2. “Information and talent are no longer your most important resource, but
rather attention itself. People cannot hear the vision unless we cut
through the clutter.” P. 221-222
3. Be bold and relevant as you integrate vision into the internal
communication of the church.
4. Brand: Communicate Vision Visually
a. Logo, Tagline, Graphic Identity
b. Church communications should be branded to communicate the
vision.
5. Awareness: Broadcast Your Position
a. Let people know that you exist and where you exist. Think like a
retailer.
b. Differentiate yourself among other churches in your community.
c. There are competitors to your mission: Hope Depot, Old Navy, 24
Hour Fitness. They do everything they can to broadcast their
position.
d. Marketing can be a power ally of personal evangelism.
C. Duplicatable Process
1. Its not about what you can do but what you can duplicate.
2. 3 Processes
a. How do people move other people through the map?
b. How do people do the work of evangelism?
c. How does your church body multiply itself?
3. Assimilation: Help People Attract People
a. Golden Rule: Programs don’t attract people. People attract people.
b. Equip people to take others through the map.
c. Develop a customer service impulse.
4. Evangelism: Accessorize the Mission.
a. Give people the tools and processes for them to be evangelists.
b. Encourage the practice of missional living.
c. These two things missional living and evangelism go hand in hand.
5. Multiplication: Decide how you multiply.
a. Based on your Kingdom Concept and Vision Frame, determine
what size and timing is best for multiplication.
b. Are you planning to grow to six hundred before you plant or sixteen
hundred?
c. Are you reproducing ministries, church plants, house churches,
services, venues? Are you planting a church in your city, state,
country? Will you play an active or passive role in church planting?
D. Compelling Environments
1. Worship, connecting and serving environments
2. “Amid a missional reorientation we must acknowledge that our
environments have tended to be an end and not a means to Christian
mission. The missional leader must constantly show that the church
gathered is actually a time of preparation for “being the church” outside
of its walls.” P. 227
3. Worship: Refocus Jesus, Together.
a. How does your vision integrate with the worship?
b. What aspects of the vision are communicated during the worship
experience?
c. How do the elements and order of worship communicate values?
d. How does the vision affect the design of the worship space.
4. Connect: Integrate Everything Relationally
a. For discipleship to happen in a church of 400+, the relational point
of integration for the Vision Frame necessarily moves from a staff
pastor to a lay leader in the church’s connecting environment. Ex.
– in the medium sized church the DNA is communicated through
the small group leader.
b. Connecting environment = spiritual formation + vision discovery.
5. Serve: Serve Inside the Church and Out.
E. Conscious Culture
1. Scripture: Reveal God’s Signature
a. The vision frame must be illuminated with God’s Word.
2. Folklore: Retell the Story
a. As you lead stories demonstrating the vision will emerge.
b. These stories can create the culture. Be a collector of missional
stories.
3. Symbol: Mark Defining Moments
a. Your symbols hold secret stories
b. Church logo is the most important symbol.