clarity evangelist

40 Top Thoughts on Clarity at 40

A few days before my 40th birthday I was thinking about a quote that has guiding my life for the last 25 years.  I read somewhere that I can't remember the idea that in the first half of your life, the opportunity of every situation is found more in what you learn than in what you give.

Hmmmm...what does that mean now that the first half of my life is over?  For some reason, I take comfort (maybe too much comfort) in the fact that I still get to learn more than I give. It throws me back to understanding my life as a stewardship. 

The next thought that crossed my mind, was "What are the other ideas that have guided my life and work the most." In 90 minutes I had written about 70. I was surprised that I could list that many, so I boiled it down to 40 and thought it might be fun to tweet them throughout the day. I figure the rest of the twitterville could put up with my extra tweets for one day! You can see the tweets and people's ERS (emotional resonance spectrum) by searching #40at40.  

Also thanks to Brock Sawyer for typing them up on his blog here.

Here are the top six:

1. Clarity isn’t everything but it changes everything.
2. Jesus was totally clear about his origin, his mission, and his destiny.
3. In the first half of your life, the opportunity of every situation is found more in what you learn than in what you give.
4. The rest of your life will be in the future, so prepare for it now. 
5. The most important question I have ever discovered is, “What is God up to?”
6. Imagination if more important than knowledge – Einstein

The rest of the list contains my personal, family and Auxano mission; the quote that lead me to write Church Unique and some of my favorite one-liners as a church consultant. Have fun and let me know your favs!

Do You Provide Clear Identity or Glittering Generalities?

I just received a blog post from a leader who is considering working with Auxano. The team is talking a lot about identity and culture in their church and one of the staff sent this post around entitled, "The dirty little secret about the top leadership" from the Center for Creative Leadership.

What is the dirty little secret? In many organizations the top leadership can't clearly define their value proposition.  Here are a few excerpts from the full post here.  

• So, I ask, "what is the direction of the company?" We are inundated with direction and vision statements that would all serve as good examples of what my high school civics teacher called 'glittering generalities.' They are well-meaning, but often sound just like every other company's vision statement.    

• For these statements to become more than lovely aspirations something is missing. So what's missing? What's missing is clarity about the identity of the organization, its character.  

• If we know who we are and what we are becoming, the people of the organization can make intelligent choices about the investment of their time and energy. So many vision statements read like imperial dreams: to become the best...the biggest...the leading.... They can be overly involved in promises of performance. They're too pie-in-the-sky to have much effect on the majority of workers. They're not personal enough.

• It is the job of the senior leadership of the organization to model and give voice to the organization's identity. As they do, people throughout the organization understand what actions are worthy and what are not (ethics). Workers at all levels can believe in the vision, because they identify with the organization and they adopt that identify as their own (execution).

• Identity stays the same no matter what's happening in the market.

• And, as we know, people live up to (or down to) who they think they are. It's the job of the senior team to walk and talk the identity of the organization.

• Does your organization have a clear sense of who you are as an organization? If it does, the executive leadership is on the ball.

10 Profound Lessons from the Catalyst Godfather

I was glad to see Chuck Swindoll get the legacy award at Catalyst today.  He just got off the stage and truly engaged the young audience. It was fun to watch the crowd "surprised" by the wisdom and humor of this ministry giant.  It really exposes our taste for trend. We have little patience and appetite for seasoned ministry perspective at our conference pep-rallies.  

Chuck is a giant, and I have been close enough to him to validate that he lives the top ten lessons that he shares. I first met Chuck while at Dallas Seminary, and had the privilege as a young consultant to be his vision navigator during his fourth year at Stonebriar Community Church.  Stonebriar, planted in Frisco in far North Dallas, had 700 people at its first public worship and grew by 1000 people each year for the first four years. As I mentioned in Church Unique, Chuck's big idea is "joy."  His mission is to encourage all people to pursue a lifelong, joyous relationship with Jesus Christ.  

My favorite learning experience with Chuck was a small think tank with Greg Mott at Houston's First Baptist. I remember thinking: here is a 70 year-old church planter meeting with a 30 year old senior pastor of a 70- year old church. Chuck's humility and his command of Scripture is always amazing.  In fact he is one of the most humble and teachable pastors I have ever worked with.  That's why I especially appreciate his 10 lessons from 50 years of ministry:

1. It’s lonely to lead
2. It’s dangerous to succeed
3. It’s hardest at home
4. It’s essential to be real
5. It’s painful to obey
6. Brokenness and failure are necessary
7. Attitude overshadows actions
8. Integrity eclipses image
9. God’s way is always better than my way
10. Christlikeness begins and ends with humility

Take a NINES Intermission- A Guide for Knowledge Junkies

While the NINES is new, the feeling of being drenched by an information fire hydrant is not. As I watch folks tweet and celebrate and whine about this blast of kingdom wisdom, I wanted to share a few thoughts to guide your learning experience. Consider taking a 5 minute intermission to reflect now.

What we are aiming for is not the picture of a child playing and splashing in the hydrant’s water-works. There is no learning there. We are looking for the leaders ability to sip from the hydrant (without loosing your lips!) 

Three things can drive your knowledge junkie “drenching” over a learning leaders “drinking”

1) Omission Paranoia.  This problem has come with the cultural phenomenon of hyperchoice.  We are constantly provided with so many options and so many evolutions of improvement with products, services, and everyday choices, that we can live overwhelmed and not even recognize it. If you are an opportunistic person like me, the problem can be worse. Eventually, an unsettled spirit creeps its way deep within our soul.  The result?  We live paranoid that we are going to miss out on one of the options, the “right angle” or the “winning choice.”  Attending the NINES is pure hell if you have omission paranoia. Don’t worry about what you will miss.  Drink and ingest what is meaningful when you can.

2) Hidden Jealously.  One of my mentors, Howard Hendricks used to say, “You focus on the depth of your relationship with God and let God determine the scope of your ministry.”  If you’re like me, there is a little commentator inside your head when you see 70 plus speakers get platformed in a cool venue like the NINES. We wonder what we would say, how they got invited, yada, yada, yada. With these conversations in your head you really can’t drink well.

3) Photocopied Vision. If you follow me you know that this is my continual burning platform.  The longer I look under the hood of ministry teams across the country the less I am surprised by the clarity vacuum. Please know that most leaders are missing some clarity and the more you’re lacking the harder it is to sip from the hydrant. Why? True clarity provides a frame or filter through which to evaluate everything. (I call it a Vision Frame.) Robust clarity actually makes learning more aggressive and meaningful, because you continually cull out or highlight content based on the needs of your vision and strategy. You know when this “personal calling filter” is working when you can skip chapters in a book or hit pause on a NINES presenter without a second’s thought. 

What’s the answer to these challenges? They all push me back to Jesus.  Battle omission paranoia by resting in God’s goodness and sovereignty.  Repent of hidden jealously. Take time and create margin to refine your ministry vision and understanding of God’s call on your life. A potential action step: In the next few weeks I will be hosting a virtual Vision co::Lab for this purpose. It’s the polar opposite of the NINES. Instead of spending 8 hours with 70 leaders spend 24 hours of vision coaching with a small group of 8. More info here.

Missional Renaissance Notes from #Leadnet

Here are Reggie McNeal's highlights from the Leadership Network today. (twitter hashtag is #Leadnet) The Missional Renaissance Leadership Communities (LC) is a 2 year process where 10-12 teams from across the country gather for hard core collaboration, strategy development and accountability. I am here with Gloria Dei Lutheran church who is currently walking through Auxano's Vision Pathway. 

Reggie on the Missional Church

• Until we see the church as a who and not a what, we will be stuck and will not become missional.
• Missional definition: "The people of God partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world" 
• The church in the NT is never smaller than a city. 
• The church doesn't have a mission, the mission of God has a church. 
• A great question to engage people- "How can I ask God to bless you today?" 
• God created us to cut us in on the deal of world redemption.
• We are tired of the thinking, "If we fix the church we will be able to impact the world." 
• In discussing the joy, surprise and new openness of someone who goes on a short-term mission trip, Reggie asks, "What if we saw our whole life as a mission trip."  

 Reggie on Apostolic Leadership (AD 30 Leadership)

• Reggie prays, "Lord help us to know what you have put in our backpack, so we know what road to be on." (I love that quote BTW with regard to Church Unique.) 
• Reggie prays, "Lord, help us to be captured by what captures you." 
• "Imitate me" is not hubris, it is the height of accountability.  Apostolic leaders go first and ask others to follow." 
• Apostolic leaders have the stink of Jesus on them.
• Apostolic leaders have five qualities: Visionary, Listeners, Risk-takers, Developers, Glad when others win (Kingdom-minded)
• Five actions to become more apostolic: 1) Face your fears, 2) Lose control, 3) Retool, 4) Reallocate your resources, 5) Go first!   

Three Trends in Church Consulting

Almost a decade ago, I transitioned from pastoring to consulting full-time for local churches. It has been an amazing experience as I have felt euphoria in my kingdom service like never before. Therefore, I report these trends with the tingle of optimism and a feel of fervor. There has never been a more viable time for the role of the consultant, and the need is dire for more of us. In 1995, Lyle Schaller wrote that there would be a five-fold increase for the need of consultants in the next 25 years. This has been true in my experience and is the motivator behind my interest and role in the Society of Church Consulting.

Trend #1: From Knowledge Expert to Learning Broker: If you want to be a consultant today, stop calling yourself one. The market for knowledge experts is decreasing because we have been, as Gary Hamel puts it, “mugged by change.” If you presuppose that you have an answer for a local church before you show up on-site, you are less likely to be helpful. Knowledge is important, but only as it transcends itself to become perspective and conviction that leads to skillfully crafted, hand-made solutions. To reflect this emphasis at Auxano, we call ourselves “navigators.” I oftentimes write “consultant” on the board in front of a team to explain how our service is different in helping discover solutions on the inside rather than importing them from the outside.

Trend #2: From Wide and Shallow to Focused and Deep: Over time, the advantage belongs to the specialist not the generalist. Although consulting has existed in broad categories for a while (creating some sense of specialization), you can expect the categories to expand and diverge. A consultant will be a better learning broker, by being a one-trick-Johnny rather than a Jack-of-all-trades. So you want to be a church growth consultant? That might have worked as a general category in 1970, but not today. Think of the myriad of ways you can help a church grow in 2010. I am seeing new categories emerge in the capital campaign industry as ministries like Generis expand how they help churches in the field of generosity and stewardship. Lance Witt of Replenish recently left a prominent mega-church staff to be a “soul coach” to pastors. William Vanderbloemen of FaithSearch Partners is another pastor who has taken executive staff search for churches to a new level. Other expanding categories include consultants in new forms “ministry space” like Jim Tomberlin with multi-site and Rack & Roll Church with rental facilities. The list of expanded categories goes on from specialists in marketing and communications to conflict resolution. I have carved my particular niche by focusing on vision. Every day I earn a living as “clarity evangelist,” having created a useful divergence from strategic planning called the Vision Pathway to make clarity and vision more real for leaders.

By the way, it’s not uncommon to run into consultants that have a lot of different services to offer. Usually the more services they have the less busy they are. The one exception may be the consultant who works within a small geographic boundary with smaller churches.

Trend #3: From Denominational Boundaries to “Tribal” Networks: In the 20th century the needs of churches could be clustered by denominational differences. Since theological identity or ethnic heritage was the taproot factor for a church’s uniqueness, the consultant would naturally develop a client base within that domain. Today, however, the consultant is more likely to serve churches by cultivating a “tribe,” to borrow a term from marketing guru, Seth Godin. This tribe is of group of “followers” (clients) that is created from the value a consultant delivers and sustains through an ongoing relationship. An effective tribe today will quickly cross denominational boundaries. Tribes are defined by three dynamics: 1) the role that geography plays in the consultant’s work, 2) the degree of specialization the consultant maintains, and 3) the consultant’s skill in building awareness through relational networks.

What’s the bottom line? Churches are navigating all kinds of change and complexity today and, as a result, they are in desperate need for qualified consultants. It remains true that profound knowledge comes from the outside. If you are teetering on the edge of a new ministry calling, or are just getting started, I don’t think there could be a better time to jump in!

Profound Partial Truths: Your Vision is Outdated Part 4

Two quotes related to vision have trafficked through the social media space in the last six months. These quotes support the position that vision is outdated. 

The first quote came from Sam Chand and picked up speed at Leadership Network's i3 conference in Dallas.  The quote is "Toxic Culture Trumps Vision"  Listen to Sam's fantastic podcast related to the subject here. 

The second quote is from Dave Gibbons who spoke at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit.  His quote is "We need more relationaries not visionaries." 

Both of these quotes are profound partial truths.  In their context, these statements bring helpful insight. For example, Gibbons is really against the role of a visionary who is disconnected and out of touch with their followers.  He is not against being visionary.  

But as stand alone statements they reveal a subtle but powerful dynamic in church leadership circles today:  Our concept of vision is so weak and outdated we tend undermine and downplay it because all we have left is a "strawman."  Instead of living with a weak and outdated vision, I suggest that we need to define vision correctly.

Fixing Quote #1

The problem with Sam's quote is that we are left asking, "How do you fix a toxic culture?" Ironically, the answer has to start with vision!  Therefore it is more accurate to say real vision shapes culture. And what Sam should have said is "Toxic culture trumps the results of our  poorly conceptualized visioning processes" (Like borrowing a mission statement from North Point, or doing an old-school strategic planning process.)

Fixing Quote #2 

Again, Dave's statement that we need relationaries not visionaries is itself a statement of vision (ironically). Imagine for a moment where the church would be if we had all relationaries and no visionaries.  Now, I do get Dave's point as stated earlier.  But why not statement the real truth: We need visionaries who are strong relationaries. The first person who comes to mind now is Jesus not Mister Rogers- imagine that! 

Change has Changed: Your Vision is Outdated Part 3

A pastor left a message on my 800 line yesterday and on my cell phone today (he was referred from a friend who used Auxano). Interestingly, he used a long string of different terms to describe what he is looking for in his two different voice messages:

"I was interested in talking to you about..."

• developing a long range plan
• a strategic planning process 
• visioning  
• strategizing  
• helping us think through the future 
• defining our DNA   

Its noteworthy that there are many ways of trying to articulate the very process at arriving at vision today. The way we think about vision is being challenged, pushed and stretched to adapt to new sets of problems and opportunities. 

Of course this is nothing new.  As with many things in the church today, we stand on a giant threshold of change. Never has the rate of change so rapidly increased that change itself is changing. You name the subject- community, technology, justice, preaching- change is relentless.

Change also pushes divergence in how churches express their identity.  In the last century, divergence was experienced slowly and primarily through denomination and theology.  Now, divergence is driven more by context and geography. This divergence leads to a new lexicon that explodes with words like microchurch, gigachurch, church online, organic church, mult-site, and so on.

What does this mean about your vision?  It is probably outdated. Consider the fact that:

• Conferences (event-based inspiration) have become the primary tool for thinking about the future
• Church growth methodology that peaked in the 70's and 80's was based on cultural assumptions that have changed 
• Traditional strategic planning (and the resulting notebook from the process) is more of a hindrance than a help in energizing a church's future.

What's the bottom line? We need new words, new tools, and new processes today to help us with vision. (This need is the holy discontent behind the book Church Unique.) Until we regain an adequate model for visioning in this context of rapid change, the effectiveness of every other decision in the church will decrease. 

Proof that Your Vision is Outdated

Your Vision is Outdated. How do I know? 

Well I don't really. But if the last 10 years of consulting has taught me anything it's that the way we think about vision has needed to change, and yes, even for our most effective leaders in the church. So from my experience, I am really only about 98% sure that you vision is outdated. 

OK, I want you to prove me wrong, so here is the proof test.

Pick a phrase, a statement or some words that represents the most important aspect of your church's vision. We'll call that your "vision nugget."  Now run that nugget through this multiple choice answer list.  If you can answer "non of the above" then you prove me wrong.

My vision nugget is:

A. So generic it does not differentiate my church from any others. (genera-vision)

B. Being used by another church and I picked it up at a conference or in a book (copycat-vision)

C. Locked inside of a long strategic planning notebook and I couldn't think of it (caged-vision) 

C. Totally unique, but I came up with it all by myself (ego-vision)

D. The same one I had at my last church (double-vision) 

E. Now being used by a younger staff person who planted a church in our area (di-vision)

F. None of the above

If you proved my wrong, I want to know! 

What Pastors are Saying about Vision Co::Lab

I finished up my first pilot group of churches going through Auxano's new offering- we call it the Church Unique Vision co::Lab. This process for churches was birthed by increasing hunger of leaders who read Church Unique and don't want to settle for mediocre vision. Many of them are in churches that can't afford onsite consulting, but want more than reading the book. The double colon of the co::Lab stands for a COntinuous & COllaborative lab environment. 

What I love about the below comments, is that they speak to the strenuous coaching the co::Lab puts you through. The experience is not for the light of heart.  

The Church Unique Vision co::Lab sessions didn’t hand us a compelling vision. For us, the benefit of the process is that it forced us to work. It pushed us through a “tunnel of chaos” that we wouldn’t have pushed ourselves through otherwise. It asked all the right questions that exposed the weakness in the clarity of our vision. It required all of our energy, praying, thinking, digging and dreaming. In the end I found it wasn’t just immeasurably helpful for our church but it was immeasurably beneficial for me. - Brian Barr,  Church Planter, One Life Church

Although the Church Unique Vision co::Lab was challenging, the push is worth the investment. Now I am more confident about what the Lord has called and gifted our church to do in our unique situation. How freeing and rewarding to be released from the “comparison game” with other churches.  The co::Lab partnership has helped to align us more with God’s plan for us- and I will be grateful for the rest of my ministry and the rest of my life. – Carl Etchison, Senior Pastor, Grace Crossing 

Going through the Vision co:Lab has been a powerful experience for our key leaders. During our discussions, it has been amazing to see how God has imparted clarity to our leaders as to what God is doing and the uniqueness He has given us as a church. With that comes an unleashing of power because now we have key people coming alongside us rather than doing their own thing. – Darren Tidwell, Church Planter,  Life Point Church    

Keep in mind that we have several co::Labs launching in the next six weeks: Chicago, Charlotte, Houston, Denver, and Portland. Also, I will be doing a pilot process for a virtual co::Lab especially for you guys who are 3+ hours drive from an airport!  For more info click here.