Will Mancini – Auxano

What if your next step to effectiveness is NOT the latest resource, silver-bullet program, or leadership pep rally? What if your greatest asset is imagination – fueled by faith, that translates into a stunningly unique, God-honoring vision for your ministry? You will find out as you navigate through organizational clutter and gain insights that will equip you and your team to achieve unprecedented clarity.

• How do you create missional DNA carriers?
• Prerequisites for an effective vision-casting experience
• Effective strategy development and goal setting
• Understanding your “great permission” within the “Great Commission”

My take-aways

If your vision is not stunningly unique, then you probably don’t have one.

Christ has given one vision to His church but the expression of that is unique to each church.

What would you look for to justify whether you are a visionary church?

• Life change
• Map
• Cant keep up with pace of life change happening
• Focused energy
• Change
• Purpose behind every ministry/activity

Vision – most overused, under practiced term in our vocabulary

Have you borrowed language from somewhere else?

Vision – compelling page dump
Unbounded creativity is NOT vision

How do we begin to redraw vision?
Need to reboot the Hard drive

Are you limiting the organic growth of your church by using someone else’s vision?

Punt the “photocopy” vision. God’s plan is so much bigger for your church

Vision Frame – tool with 5 clarity Questions

• What are we doing? (Mission)
• Why are we doing it? (Motives/Values)
• How are we doing it? – (Map/Strategy) Draw picture
• When are we successful? – (Marks/Measures) Bullet points
• Where is God taking us? (Mountaintop + Milestones/Vision Proper)

How do you live it out?

Vision dripping is more important than vision casting.

Rethink - We’ve lost our imaginative thinking as leaders
One of top human fears – fear of thinking

Think Holes

1.  Ministry Treadmill
Not going to get us to the place of uniqueness

2. Competency trap
Gold medal of yesterday’s success becomes an iron medal around today’s success

3. Needs-based slippery slope
Needs aren’t sovereign in the universe, God is

4. Cultural whirlpool
Riding one ‘cool’ wave after the other

5. Conference maze

6. Denominational rut
One-size fits all

Why do your congregants call your church home?

Where does your congregation draw their identity with your church?

4 Sources of a Malnourished Identity

1. Place
   There was no dedicated architecture in the greatest movement of the church (Alan Hirsch)
2. Personality
   Most connected to your church because of a relationship with a paid staff person
   “I’m important because I have a special relationship with a paid staff member”
3. Programs
   Affirmation of programs leads to pain when program needs to end
4. People
   ‘comfiness’ of going to your special corner of the sanctuary.
   Community w/o cause
   Familiar face dynamic, I feel at home

Lower room – the 4 “P”s above & the people who hang out there

Upper room – have you ever invited people to the upper room?

• Invite people to a different place to nourish their identity
• want you to learn to cook fresh organic meals, been trafficking in frozen meals far too long.
• A place to digest/assimilate the vision of our savior
• Cosmic significance, local engagement

How do you invite people to the upper room?

Uncover the Genius – (ability to scrutinize the obvious)
Most artists want to find something fresh to paint
Rather find fresh meaning in something familiar

Don’t think of vision as something you don’t have yet, but uncover & developing what you already are; what already exists.

Kingdom concept

• What can our church do better than 10,000 others?
• What is your great permission within the great commission?
• Think of identity, not vision
• Think like an engineer first. Think on the code level, not user interface.

Analyze your Local predicament Utopia/New City(new Jerusalem)

• What is your community’s unique pattern of fallenness and brokenness?
• What are unique challenges/opportunites of where God’s placed your church?
• We don’t want to have a better church – want to have a better community

Collective Potential

• Your unique subset of people
• Unrecognized capability
• Patterns – natural background
• 15K working inside the box for a win that happens way out there
• Create a corporate rolodex in your church

Apostolic esprit

• What is that subjective work of the Holy Spirit that your heart dials into?
• Esprit –nooma of the spirit, practical atmospheric condition (holy discontent)
• Vision has to transfer to some palpable reality
• Most people are trained for analysis, not synthesis.

Our church exists to glorify God and make disciples by __________

What’s your church’s Signature story? Key verse?

Be okay with who God’s called you to be as a church leader.

What is the difference between mission and vision?
Mission is nothing more than a compass, a rudder on the ship.
Vision is the travel brochure. Paints the picture of what its going to look like when they get there.

You’re only 100 people away from diluting and deluding the church.

Strategy – most important piece our churches need to get right.

Litmus test – can you draw a picture of how you accomplish the mission?

Jesus said:
2 by 2
Don’t bring extra tunics
Leave as soon as you are rejected

Leaders need permission to be clear and not everyone has to like it.

Mission measure – when are we winning?
Other than attendance, buildings, cash – when are we winning?

Missional reorientation: But God’s mission has a church!

What kind of disciple is your church designed to produce?

It’ simple to make things complex, it’s complex to make things simple.

Wow! What a great experience at Sticky Teams at North Coast Church. Great speakers, beautiful facility, amazing weather…oh, and fantastic food. Did I miss anything?

Had the chance to be at Sticky Teams in person last week and the take-aways were numerous. In case you could not be there, just search the #StickyTeams hashtag on twitter for all the nuggets. I am so thankful for my friend, Dawn Carter, who came to help live tweet the conference!

If you like the tweets, you should know that a #StickyTeams 2011 is in the plans! Also – a coaching network has sprung from the needs expressed by attendees this year. For more information on coaching by the Sticky Teams crew, contact Chris Mavity at North Coast Church here.

Stay tuned, I will be posting nuggets from sessions with Larry Osborne, Wayne Cordeiro, Will Mancini and others.

STORY

What can you tell someone to impact their life? Information? History? Details?

To make the most compelling impact, you need to tell your STORY. Yes, your story will contain information, history and details…but your story also holds your heart. It is unique, untold. Within your STORY lives a lesson for each of us. Will you tell it?

Last year, I had the great privilege of attending STORY, a new experience in conferences straight from the imagination of Ben Arment, creator of the  Catalyst conference. Creative elements and great stories collided yielding an impact on my heart that my story is important, and so is yours! If you couldn’t make STORY last year, good news! STORY is back – but don’t wait too long to register, it’s limited to 500 attendees and half the tickets are already gone! Check out the information below. Hope I see you there!

STORY
Sept 23-24
Chicago, IL

STORY is a conference for the creative class in ministry on September 23-24, 2010 at Park Community Church in downtown Chicago. The purpose is to fuel the church’s artists, writers and producers in communicating the greatest story ever told. You’ll hear from some of the best creative practitioners in both ministry and the marketplace, from filmmakers and authors to actors and musicians. Presenters include:

Seating is limited to just 500 attendees, and the event is scheduled on a Thursday and Friday so you can enjoy the weekend in the city. Following its inaugural event in 2009, STORY is now a two-day, main-stage event with no breakouts or workshops; just an intimate audience with the top creative minds. You’ll be able to ask questions during the event and continue the conversation after it’s over. Visit www.storychicago.com.

A passion of mine is to reunite the Body of Christ, bridge the gaps caused from years of religious division so we can reflect a true picture of Christ to our world.  As Christians we can agree that Jesus is our path to relationship with Almighty God.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

So just thinking about it this morning raised a few questions. I would love your input. Thanks!

1. But how many paths are there to Jesus?
2. Who decides which of these paths are True?
3. Can someone encounter God without first knowing Jesus?

Looking for a quick read on how to develop a Social Media plan…then this book is for you.  Author Gary Vaynerchuk keeps it simple and focused. Vaynerchuk doesn’t waste time with facebook and twitter “how-to’s”, stating that there are too many online resources that can help do that. Rather, he lays out a step-by-step strategy for branding yourself through(mostly free!) social networking tools.

Gary’s three rules for success

1. love your family
2. work superhard
3. live your passion

Lots of good information like how to build your personal brand based on your passion, how to choose a platform… The running theme seems to be authenticity. What is YOUR passion, be true to yourself. My favorite is Chapter 9: title is “The Best Marketing Strategy Ever”. The entire chapter is one word – CARE. Powerful.

You can read Crush It! in one sitting, but you’ll be referring to it over and over as you create and implement your Social Media plan.

Thanks to all who attended the Social Media Round Table – you were a great group with good questions. Please use the comments below if you have any questions or feedback for me from the session. Here are the notes I promised you today. I would love to hear how you are implementing these tools in your church or organization.

To see all the tweets from Synergy 2010, do a search for #Synergy2010 in twitter, or click here to see them (most recent first). I saw your tweets from our breakout, great job!

Twitter is NOT all about food. Next time I’ll eat lunch before I speak. =)

DNA of a Dangerous Church

• Passionately love Jesus

• Ruthlessly eliminate ego

• Courageously go against the flow

• Selflessly extend compassion

• Unconditionally trust God

Really enjoyed Synergy today. Mike Breaux is such a real guy, down to earth. He challenged us to live courageously, not with a spirit of fear, but to create the DNA of a Dangerous Church. Below are a few other notes from his session.

When safety becomes our God we worship a risk free life
The worship of safety emasculates greatness
Fear never does anything great
200 people are going to heaven because someone took the risk to trust God and start a church
go through the open door God’s got for you
Don’t buy into the doubts, don’t let fear paralyze you.
Our problem is not weakness, it’s independence
Acknowledge our deep need for our God, the creator of the universe
Leadership – never let public opinion keep you from doing the right thing

Here are the notes from the Social Media Round Table session at Synergy 2010. They’re rough, but cover most what was said.

Those who know me tell me I’m addicted to conferences, twitter and facebook. So in the afterglow of Velocity, I’m thinking…

what it is about conferences that I love so much?

Hearing live speakers, passionate about their topic is certainly compelling and challenging. My thinking is always stretched, even if I don’t agree 100% with a speaker. I love the opportunity to ask questions in a breakout session where the goal is practical takeaways. But I don’t think it’s just the additional insights, or the gained new perspectives that draw me to the next conference.

What really inspires me is meeting all the people doing Kingdom work! From the volunteer support staff to the potential pastor; the worship leader to the vendor; the ministry ‘nuts and bolts’ to the well-known speaker. Each and every one of these people inspire me! All have found a place, or are looking, in the collective body of Christ.

my Who’s Who list

You may, or may not, recognize the people I connected with. But to me, their friendships/connections are the breath of life at a conference and beyond. I met a few people offline for the 1st time that I already knew so well from twitter that it was like running into an old friend: Aubrey Howell, Lloyd Owens, Brett Crimmel, Michael Trent. And I met some for the first time that I hope to remain friends with online: Nicole Hawker, Jenni Catron, Tricia Crimmel, Jenny Rodder, Bobby Williams, Josh Husmann, Tony McCollum, Dave Travis, Shawn Lovejoy, David Putman, Jeff Redding, Alan Hirsch, Jody Forehand, J. Michael Smith, Mark Clement, Michael Stewart, Carlos Whittaker, Jan Paron, Jeff Kestner. There were many I had already met but I just loved seeing their faces again: Sherry Surratt, Jeff Wright, Chris Mavity, Casey Graham, Larry Osborne. If I missed anyone, please don’t tell me, it would break my heart. Seriously.

I’m super excited about being at Synergy 2010 Tuesday where I will meet more online friends and reconnect with long-time friends. If you are coming, please let me know, or find me, and say hi. I can’t imagine this ever getting old!

twitter, facebook and blogs

These are just the tools that keep us connected and allow relationships to grow between conferences. See you online!

For a guy who claims to not know statistics, Alan Hirsch used both a number line and a pie chart, and lots of statistics in his session – the math major in me was cheering. But the impact was staggering. Below is just a snapshot of my in-session notes.

Cultural distance – cultural barrier to the communication of the gospel

• language

• world view

• race/history

church still lives in the idea that the church is central to society, but now many subcultures exist

have to become cross cultural missionaries again

attractional church grows less effective as cultural barriers increase

extractional – attractional church in a missionary environment Enable people to reach folk where they’re at

church expects people to cross all the cultural barriers to come to church instead of going where they are.

probs of church cannot be resolved by the same kind of thinking that created the problem in the 1^st place

can’t sell a Christendom approach to a non-Christendom world. Look at Europe.

America: 40% of Americans would be attracted to the contemporary model of the church.

95% of churches are trying to become what will only reach 40% of the population.

the 40% is not increasing, its decreasing

if you can’t imagine it, you can’t do it. Einstein

Going into a new people group… need to ask questions

What is church for this group? What is gospel for this group?

Don’t presume you know the answers.

Missiology produces ecclesiology.  Do mission, and church happens.

Reformational approach (Pharisee, tongue-clucking) – make them feel bad before you make them feel better.