clarity evangelist

The New Clarity Evangelist Blog at WillMancini.com

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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.

Church Jobs of the Future

My daughter and I practiced her spelling bee words as I drove her to school this morning. Abby is a 10-year old. On the drive home, I pondered what Abby might do when she grows up. Every now and again you hear that most of the jobs today will radically change within a generation.  Most of the jobs available to me today will not be for my 5th grader. 

So what does that mean for church? What new jobs are we likely to see?  How will the best practice staffing continue to evolve? 

If we look in the rear view mirror we can observe a few trends in the last decade:

• The shift from senior pastor to "lead pastor" in describing the point leader 
• The development of the "teaching pastor" and the increasing use of teaching teams 
• The emergence of the campus pastor with the growth of the multi-site movement
• The ongoing importance of all things technology and media forging into top leadership

As I continue to visit with churches and watch the horizon, I believe that the trends above as well as others will keep fueling change. What will this look like ten years from now? Here are four new pastoral titles for the church of the future. I will provide some initial thoughts now and drill down with follow-up posts. 

1. The Neo-itinerant - The Neo-itinerant is a strategic outsider who doesn't work for one church, but many. There are many, diverse forms of the neo-itinerant emerging and each type will likely bring its own title. (See my post on Trends in Church Consulting.) This is the way the Auxano ministry works.  We consider ourselves "navigators" as we leverage learning and bring specialized help as strategic outsiders in the area of vision clarity. 
2. The Truth Jockey (TJ) - As the teaching function separates more and more from the leadership function, expect the use of team teaching and multi-media formats to find their full expression in the Truth Jockey. Why can't a leaders mix the best teaching and the best teachers for his congregation's time, place and life-stage? 
3. The Community Catalyst - How will the small group functions as we know them today evolve? To understand the role of a community catalyst, think of the fusion between a barista, a personal trainer and a chamber of commerce help desk.
4. The Pastor of Story - As the organized church gets larger and more complex, and the organic expressions of church become more linked, we will need better "meaning-makers" who connect everything to the larger story of God, in a both a personal and local way. 

Again, look for the follow-up posts as I explore these roles in greater detail.  I would love to hear your initial thoughts and any creative new jobs that you have heard about or are thinking about. 

I leave you with a final thought from Dan Pink, author of Whole New Mind: "The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers." He describes these people as "artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, and big picture thinkers." 

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.

Great Prelaunch Vision Video on Local Predicament

Uncovering your Kingdom Concept is practice along the Vision Pathway to answer the question, "What can your church do better than 10,000 others." In defining this reality for each church we look closely at Place (Local Predicament), People (Collective Potential) and Passion (Apostolic Esprit). 

Jack Thomas is a church planter launching in urban Pittsburgh in May of 2010.  I not only love his cultural exegesis, but the succinct and quality way he is communicating his Local Predicament via video.

LifeStone Community Focus Video from Jack Thomas on Vimeo.

Top Ten Things Church Hoppers Say

While my mind is on CAVE dwellers from yesterday's post, I thought I would pass on this top ten list I saw on Josh Reich's blog, a young pastor in Tuscon. Below is his post on a book by Bob Franquiz entitled, Zero to Sixty. It has a chapter on Church Hoppers. Here is how to spot a church hopper and what they mean (my favorite is the last one):

   1. “But my old church…” This usually means they want your church to be like their old church.

   2. “I just need time to be fed.” This means, “I don’t want to do anything. I’m here just to sit and see what I can get out of this church, so don’t expect me to serve in any way, shape, or form.

   3. “I’m looking for a church that teaches the Word.” This means, “I’m looking for a church that dispenses lots of information without challenging me to do anything.”

   4. “We came here because we are looking for deep teaching.” This usually means their last church focused too much on actually obeying the Word. They want a church that just talks about the Rapture, the Second Coming, who the Hittites were and the identity of Theophilus.

   5. “I should know my pastor.” This means, “In my last church, I got to know the pastor, but when the church grew, and the pastor couldn’t have dinner with us every Tuesday night, I left and came here.”

   6. “We want a church that’s focused on discipling people.” This means, “I want a church that’s focused on me, not people who are lost.”

   7. “I wish you wouldn’t focus so much on what people need to do.” This means they don’t like commitment, they don’t like to be told the Bible actually tells them how to live and follow Jesus. They want to come to church, live in their sin and have no one tell them this is wrong.

   8. “I wish you wouldn’t talk about money.” This is the best way to tell a pastor “I don’t give.”

   9. “My old church/pastor was…” The way people come to your church is how they will leave. If your first conversation with them is all about their last church and pastor, that is how they will leave your church and how they will go to their next church.

  10. “Pastor, I’ve been talking to a lot of people and they all say…” Translation:  “Me, my spouse and my mother think…” If they start this way, 99.9% of the time they have no one else who thinks this way, it is just the best way to complain. If someone has a complaint and uses this line with me, they need to list all of the names or my best assumption is they talked to the same person 10 times.

Are CAVE Dwellers Holding Back Your Vision?

C.A.V.E. dwellers are people Consistently Against Virtually Everything and they are alive and well in most churches. In fact a recent study by a Gallop guy named Albert Winseman says that 17% of the average church is made up of these "actively disengaged" people. 

The troubling observation for me is that church leaders get so accustomed to these people, they take them for granted and live with toxin in culture rather than dealing with it. I am often asked to advise on tactics- worship or small group or technology best practices.  Leaders look for right answers to advance their vision.  The newsflash is: If you don't know how to deal with CAVE dwellers it doesn't matter how good your tactics might be, because there will always be an enthusiasm drag and energy drain holding the vision back. 

Winseman in his book, Growing an Engaged Church, advises. "Your job as a leader is not to placate the actively disengaged.  It is to create and grow disciples." His answer is to focus on the engaged- don't get distracted trying to please the squeaky wheels! 

But ignoring these negative folks is not enough. Great leaders know how to dialogue with wisdom and grace until one of two things occur.  Either disengaged people must convert and eventually become contributors or they must leave (in an effort to find somewhere else they CAN engage.)

It's the leaders choice to let people sing off key, or to bring beautiful harmony into the world.  

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.

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.