clarity evangelist

Early Christmas Present - My New Blog

Auxano's creative team gave me an early Christmas present: a new blog and switch-over from Typepad to Wordpress. Thanks to Cheryl Marting our chief connections officer and James Bethany our creative director. 

Those of you who have subscribed via e-mail, the feed will transfer.

Those of you connecting via RSS will need to switch over (My apology for the inconvenience.)  

Please check out WillMancini.com. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Stop Trying to Reach Most People

Before engaging this post, please know that I want you to reach as many people as possible with the gospel of Jesus for the Glory of God. The challenge is simply a matter of how.

Here is the Tribes quote I would like you to consider: 

Almost all growth that’s available to you exists when you aren’t like “most people” and when you work hard to appeal to folks who aren’t “most people.” 

We often talk about the downside of trying to be "all things to all people" through an organizational approach to ministry that leaves us "nothing to anybody."

Seth Godin introduces another way of looking at the same tension, by using the phrase "most people." In a nutshell he shares that tribes have dramatic results when stop trying to reach "most people" and can focus on their strength, their niche and their unique vision. Even strategic church leaders can slip into a subtle desperation of wanting to reach "most people" and miss the opportunity to leverage their strengths to reach more people.

Again we run into the dynamic, counter-intuitive principle that focus expands. Its that simple- do you want to reach "most people" or more people? 

• How are the people in the community God has given you to reach not like "most people?
• How are you and your team not like "most people?"
• How does your ________________ limit you from reaching "most people?"  Insert in blank: Church building (or lack of), programs, worship style, denomination, etc.
• Look at the ministry of Jesus.  Was he always trying to reach "most people?"
• Consider the four Gospels. Why are there four? Was each one written to "most people?"
• How would you summarize the people you are best at reaching with five words? 

Note: Some of these question are not easy and may lead to very robust conversations. Engage the dialogue and work through to clarity.

The Essential Lesson of Tribal Communication

Seth Godin writes with a dash of bravado and his overstatements are both playful and insightful. But on the topic of communication, he delivers what he calls "the essential lesson" and it's not exaggerated.

"The essential lesson is that every day it gets easier to tighten the relationship you have with the people who choose to follow you."

If you have even dipped your toes in the world of social media, you know that this is true. The question is what are you doing about it?

Consider some interesting facts from my last week regarding twitter alone:

• While at Chilis, my 16-year old son showed me people tweeting close by on Google maps from a new app.
• Todd Wilson of Exponential, personally invites speakers to tweet about the conference 7 months in advance with 70 pre-written promotional tweets.
• Last night I watched the pre-recorded service video of Matt Chandler because a friend tweeted it.  I saw this the same day his congregation did as I continue to praying for him.
• While at my home church yesterday, I tweeted two of my favorite quotes from the service.
• I talk to dozens of people every week who tweet about the book Church Unique.
• Twitter "lists" is a new function that is making it easier to meet and organize people to follow.
• After the Houston co::Lab on Friday, two participants initiated follow-up direct messages that I was able to reply at a convenient time.

The list could go on and twitter is only one of many tools to communicate. Last night, I played team SWAT on Halo (a popular online XBoX game by Microsoft) with 7 people at a time among the other 6,000 global game participants at that time. We could talk with one another while we played. I also enjoyed 30 Thanksgiving photos of my nephews and nieces sent to me via Shutterfly.

The point is that Godin's "essential lesson" is sitting there with crystal clarity begging leaders to act.  So the big question today is:

What are you doing to tighten your connection with people who follow you?