clarity evangelist

The New Clarity Evangelist Blog at WillMancini.com

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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!

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.

Where Vision Begins by Mother Teresa

One of Auxano's navigators, Rich Kannwischer, just sent me this quote from Mother Teresa. We always talk about how unlocking the future is about going deeper with who we already are and what we already have. To understand how much a quote like this means to the Auxano team,you will enjoy Rich's e-mail subject line, "How can I not send you this quote." It needs no further introduction. 

In our efforts to listen to God's words to us, we often neglect what might be called his "first word" to us. This is the gift of ourselves to ourselves: our existence, our nature, our personal history, our uniqueness, our identity. All that we have, and indeed, our very existence, is one of the unique and never-to-be-repeated ways God has chosen to express himself in space and time. Each of us, because we are made in God's image and likeness, is yet another promise that he has made to the universe that he will continue to love it and care for it.  (Mother Teresa, Leadership, Vol. 10, no. 4)

Rich is the new Senior Pastor of one of the Presbyterian church's great pulpits- Saint Andrew's Presbyterian Church, in Newport Beach, CA. Read about Rich's experience prior to taking the helm of of Saint Andrews 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

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!

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.

Deeper, More Challenging and More Inspiring

Max Lucado says that writing a book is like giving birth to barbwire. His words as a prolific author encouraged me through the pangs of writing Church Unique. 

But as hard as it is to write a book, the hardest thing to do afterwards is reading a poorly written one. Writing forces you to think differently about how you read. Recently, I have been excited about a few books, only to put them down, discouraged by a lack of coherent thought and skilled writing. 

That observation sets the stage for why I am posting a Church Unique endorsement from a particular pastor who is a great writer himself- Bruce Miller. Bruce pastors McKinney Fellowship and has written The Leadership Baton and Your Life in Rythm. Bruce leads with great thoughtfulness and discipline.  As a long-time protege of Gene Getz, he launched from Fellowship Bible Church in Dallas years ago to plant McKinney Fellowship- a church that grew to 2,000 in weekend attendance in 10 years.    

Today Bruce shot over an endorsement for which I am grateful:

Having read many books on church life, mission and strategy, I wondered if Mancini would offer anything new. He surprised me. Church Unique is outstanding. Frankly, at first, after a quick scan, I wrongly dismissed it as one more lightweight marketing/branding book.  In fact I was not sold on the need to focus on being a unique local church.

However, chapter after chapter took me deeper than I anticipated, challenged me more than I expected and inspired me more than I expected. Well done. I am convinced that we need to discover our uniqueness, clarify it and magnify it. Mancini’s Church Unique deserves a wide reading by thoughtful church leaders passionate for the cause of Christ.

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

The Focus Dilemma- Do you Lead a River or a Puddle?

Last night I navigated the roll-out of a church's Kingdom Concept with 70 of their core leaders. Some people were blown away by the focus and immediately recognized the opportunity to rally the entire church.  Other experienced a mental vapor lock. With bodies sitting calmly, their minds were violently stiff-arming the conversation.   

Why? Because focus requires limits. 

- "You mean were are not going to..."

- "But what about..."

- "Aren't we leaving out..."

The focus dilemma is the crisis that is created when we feel it's restrictions without seeing it's freedom and benefits. Ironically, it is the forced limitation that creates the power, the meaning, the opportunity.  A river without banks is just a large puddle. 

What's the good news of focus? Through the limitation we experience expansion. What banks have you chosen for your organization?  What channels momentum in your culture? 

Don't be surprised that the majority will never see the power of limitation. That seeing-ability is reserved for a unique subset of people.  If you are one of those people, rejoice.  For you have a special gift to lead and make a significant contribution in the world. What are you leading today- a river or a puddle?