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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.

Limit Your Limitations - 3 Essentials for Creating a Movement

In this fourth post on Take Seth Godin to Church I want to focus on Tribal Movement.  Consider using the questions in these posts for staff or volunteer meetings in the month of December.  Use the Advent season to see Jesus as the coming founder of a redemptive tribe called The Church. The previous two posts dealt with tribal passion and tribal leadership. 

In Tribes, Godin references Senator Bill Bradley who unpacks the anatomy of a movement with three essentials:  

1. A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we are trying to build.
2. A connection between and among the leader and the tribe
3. Something to do- the fewer limits the better

Here are some questions for each essential:

Future-building Narratives

• Every church has a creation story. How clear and developed is yours?  Can your team cast a shared, compelling vision based on your creation story?
• What is your most important priority right now as a church? What are one or two signature stories that help people understand and own that priority? 
  

Note: Creation stories and signature stories are discussed further in Church Unique. 

Leader-Follower Connections

• Where are lines of communication being blocked right now? Who is suffering the most from broken lines of communication?
• Is our greater barrier right now about tools and supports systems or about our attitudes as leaders?  How would our volunteers answer this question?
• Are we leaning into social media, or creating excuses and making jokes about why we don't engage it more?

Doing Without Limits

• What limits have we created that are unnecessary for connecting and releasing our people?
• Where have limits have been imposed or created that where never intended? 
• Where does our desire for control, lead to limits that really aren't necessary? 

Pastors are Tribal Leaders - 4 Things We Must Do

This is the third post in the Take Seth Godin to Church series.  Today I want to apply Godin's perspective about leading a tribe, to Jesus. As we do, I invite you to allow the life of Jesus shape your own identity as a leader. 

You may wonder why Godin's perspective is so valuable here.  Although he doesn't sit in the academy of carry credentials of a theologian, he is a language artist who knows people and knows the times.

Here are four ways pastors can model Jesus.  Each assertion is connected to a Godin quote and followed by some challenging questions. 

1:Embrace change-making. 

"Management is about manipulating resources to get a known job done. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in."

2: Repent of 'organizational loves.' 

"When you fall in love with the system, you loose the ability to grow." 

3: Initiate something.

"Initiative=Happiness"

4: Commit before its successful. 

"If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either. A big part of leadership is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time. Long enough that the critics realize that your going to get there one way or another…so they follow."

I have ordered these quotes intentionally. Reread them again to feel the progression.  

Think about Jesus' context as a religious factory. Think about how Jesus daily ordered his steps around his Father's voice and mission. Seth's definition of management can easily speak to the problems of church in America.  

•  How are we, spiritually speaking, tempted to manipulate resources to get a known job done rather than creating change that we believe in?

Jesus created waves for people who didn't just create systems as tools but sustained systems in order to nourish their identity. What sytems do you have as a leader and what is your relationship to them?  Do they serve you or do you serve them? How conscious are you of your system? 

• What aspects of your system, tempt you to "fall in love" with them?  What personal growth as a leader is your current system holding back?  What keeps you just "going through life" at the risk of "growing through life?"

There is always status quo.  What is it right now for you? I love the phrase "initiative = happiness."  It is certainly not a statement of truth, but an overstatement for insight's sake. Before a leaders is defined by anything, he or she is defined by initiative. Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. Now think of how that joy and the culminating event of the cross was preceded by literally thousands of moments of initiative that were bold, gutsy, and downright heretical.  Start with mind-blowing act incarnation. Go to the norm-shredding engagement with the Samaritan woman. Take a boat ride for a near death experience and an indelible lesson in faith. I think pastors need a wake-up call to follow Jesus footsteps as radical initiators. 

• What initiative do you need to take in your leadership these days?  What happiness are you forfeiting as long as you shrink back from taking it?

The final Godin quote above rocks me to the core when I think of the church. We miss dreaming large, risking big and unleashing our imaginations because we want success before commitment.  Maybe the best next step to fixing this dynamic in our organizations is to name it and identify it in our own lives.  

• What does the church you are leading express commitment toward? Albeit subtle, how does the problem of wanting success before commitment manifest itself in your life?  What dream do you want to pursue that you have failed to give yourself permission to pursue because it is too bold for your current context?

Let's follow Jesus with greater clarity, conviction and courage. Let's keep moving away from church as program factory toward church as redemptive tribe. 

How Passionate is Your Tribe? - 5 Questions

Here are my three favorite Seth Godin quotes pertaining to tribal passion:

"Do you believe in what you do?  Every day?  It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy. Can you imagine Steve Jobs showing up for the paycheck? It’s nice to get paid, its essential to believe."

"Caring is the key emotion at the center of the tribe… Many organizations are unable to answer the question, “Who cares?" because in fact, no one really does.  If you don’t care - really and deeply care - then you can’t possibly lead."

"The organizations of the future are filled with smart, fast, flexible people on mission. The thing is, that requires leadership."

Because every leader in your church can be placed on a continuum of emotional ownership, consider these questions for team discussion:

1. Who are most passionate in our ministry? How did they get that way? How do we help more people catch the passion? 
2. What is keeping me from caring more?  When did I care about my mission the most?  Why then?
3. How can we make creating enthusiasm a part of our leadership development strategy?
4. What can I do today to encourage a leader down the continuum from common interest to passionate mission? How can I use Thanksgiving week to leverage this encouragement? 
5. Am I as a leader spending adequate time with other leaders so that passion can rub off?

Take Seth Godin to Church

 
You've probably been exposed to Seth Godin's book, Tribes. But have you integrated his ideas into your thinking and leadership at church? 

Integrating new learning for me always happens in stages. For example:

•   Exposure to and awareness of new ideas
•   Understanding (distillation and re-articulation) of the idea's essence as it pertains to my leadership today
•   Experimentation and practice of the new idea
•   Continued refinement of my understanding of the idea over time 
•   Re-articulation and communication of the idea with others 

I share these thoughts regarding Seth Godin's book because it is easy to get stuck in the emotional satisfaction of having been exposed to the idea without applying it.  For example, when I met Seth hanging out backstage at Catalyst in 2008, I could proudly talk about the ideas in his book, but I had not read it. It took me another six months before I did. 

The bottom line: I think Tribes is a book worth engaging as church leaders. And I would love to help you get past a surface exposure. In fact you may want to grab a free audio copy or a free copy of his companion tool.

To help you I have prepared some future posts with my favorite quotes from the book and questions for team discussion.

My dominant thought in this series is "How are you managing a program factory (whether overtly or sub-consciously) in the name of church, rather than leading a redemptive tribe in the name of Jesus?" 

Igniting Campfires that Multiply Leaders

As promised last month,the November issue of Auxano Insights focuses on Developing Leaders - one of the five categories of the Integration Model as unpacked in Church Unique. What good is clear vision without a cascading movement of leaders who carry it? 

There is an ever present crisis in the church. The crisis is not the absence of leaders, but the absence of a leadership development process. While God is in the business of providing things like leaders, we often get stuck in patterns of under-utilization that begin with failing to see the emerging leaders around us. (Check out Exodus 18 for the crown jewel biblical example of this mistake.) This idea is so big, that Aubrey Malphurs invited me to co-author Building Leaders with him to provide practical steps in designing your own leadership pipeline. Another leader who sounds the trumpet is  Mac Lake at Seacoast, a passionate advocate and great source for leadership development stuff. 

In this month's Insights, we introduce a great picture of what leadership development can look like in your church. What if every leader in your church kept a campfire burning where his or her people sat? And what if those people were then sent to start their own campfires? When you look out over the landscape of your church, how many campfires do you see? Imagine a hillside of growing fires representing the mini-tribes that are a part of your larger tribe. Do you see multiplying campfires? Are they burning bright? Read this month's Insights to learn more about how to develop leaders in your ministry - and the difference it can make. If you are not subscribed yet, you can do so here.

The Payoff of Carving Out Time for Vision

I ran into this simple but powerful post of 27-year old Sean Chandler. He is a student pastor in Round Rock, Texas that has been thinking about vision lately.

Imagine waking up one day to do leadership training and realizing that, "I had not articulated any of the basic ideas that are in my head." (Don't be surprised Sean as most leaders don't.)

But why not? Sean writes:

"Its far easier too...

• do business as usual
• focus on weekly tasks
• bog down in details
• keep a system with no direction or accountability...

...than it is carve out time in your schedule to develop a vision, cast the vision, and apply that vision to every single ministry, program, responsibility, and volunteer in your organization.

Well, it's easier in the short run. In the long wrong it leads to more work, discouragement, confusion, volunteer problems, and lack of results.

Vision requires intentionality, but the payoff is efficiency, momentum, inspiration, etc.

Great thoughts Sean- every word you chose packs a punch. Read his full post here.

Leading with a Mission Statement that Isn't Dumb

How many dumb mission statements do you hear like: Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods of empowerment so that we may continually negotiate performance-based infrastructures.

If you have been around church at all, you know that we are good at specializing in these "corporate hallmark cards" and "Air Supply-like rhythms." 

Yesterday, I spoke to church consultants from across the country at a summit in New Orleans with the Society of Church Consulting. I challenged them to consider a new approach to vision and strategic planning as outlined in Church Unique. Many resonated with my challenge. 

Ironically, while I was speaking, this article was sent before I got my hard copy of Fast Company. It is simply one of the best articles on writing a mission statement I have ever read.

The article entitled, How to Write a Mission Statement that Isn't Dumb is featured in Fast Company by Nancy Lublin, CEO of DoSomething.org

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."