Vision Navigator

Back on 09/09/09, Leadership Network and Catalyst sponsored an event known as “The Nines.”  Beginning at 9:09 am CST, this online event featured dozens of nine minute streaming video messages presented by Christian thinkers and ministry leaders from around the world.  Each message was essentially a response to the question:  “If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of church leaders, what is the one thing that you would tell them?”

I had a two hour window in which to participate, and saw about twelve of the day’s speakers.  In that span, I took over six pages of notes (and I write small), and noted via twitter that while I was loving the experience, the rapid-fire pace of it all made it feel like I was drinking from a fire hose!

The event created quite a stir as well.  For three hours on 9/9, the conference was the top trending topic on twitter, with over 6,000 tweets containing #thenines hashtag.

While I was tempted to regurgitate my notes and create a couple of quick posts to capitalize on the buzz, I decided instead to slow down, step back, and take time to really reflect on what I had heard.

So in keeping with the nines theme, I’m creating a series of nine posts called Nine Words from “The Nines,” where I’ll be reflecting upon the following key words that emerged from my notes:

1. Christ
2. Context
3. Scarcity
4. Paradoxy
5. Measures
6. Mission
7. Team
8. Innovation
9. Heart

Look for the first installment in the near future.  In the meantime, I’m interested to hear your thoughts.  Did you catch any of The Nines?  Do you have any insights or observations you’d like to share?

Nineteen years ago today, my bride and I were wed.  Below is photographic evidence of the event.  Please note that the original photo has been bronzed, in honor of our bronze anniversary (yes, I had to look that up, and no we’re not that old, yet) …

I was curious to see what other events may have occurred on this day in history, and apart from the 14th amendment being adopted in 1868, I was surprised to find a list of rather unfortunate events:

1914:  Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia (start of World War I)

1945:  Plane crashes into Empire State Building

1948:  Movie studios observe 3 minutes of silence in honor of D. W. Griffith’s funeral

1965:  Johnson announces more troops to Vietnam

1973:  Bonnie & Clyde’s V-8 sold at auction

1976:  Worst modern earthquake

Not exactly a banner day, huh?  That is until 1990, the day of our wedding.  The day that turned the tide for this date in history.  Don’t believe me?  Consider this:

1991:  Dennis Martinez pitches a perfect game.

Exactly one year after our wedding.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.

One other bright spot on the historical timeline occurred in 1814 - when Percy Bysshe Shelley, the English poet, and Mary Shelley, of Frankenstein fame, eloped to France.  And just as I was inspired to write a poem for my bride, so was Mr. Shelley, author of the famed “Love’s Philosophy,” which reads:

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In another’s being mingle–
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;–
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

Well said Percy, well said.

Happy anniversary to my precious bride.  I’m a blessed and lucky man.

Ever wonder where the word “lousy” comes from?  It’s derived from the word “louse,” aka the tiny, parasitic bloodsuckers that come in three handy human tormenting varieties:  1) head lice, 2) pubic lice, and 3) body lice (go here for a nice lice overview).

My interest in lice started about a month ago, when my bride and I discovered that a whole colony of head lice had taken up residence in my youngest daughter’s hair.  Which was pretty good for the lice, since my daughter’s long, thick hair is apparently the louse equivalent of a 5-star hotel.

So what’s a louse to do?  Settle down, and start laying eggs, or “nits” - hundreds of them (maybe even thousands - we lost count).  The nits are then conveniently glued (and I mean glued) to individual hair shafts in close proximity to the scalp.  This ensures that newly hatched baby lice or “nymphs” won’t have far to go for their first blood infused meal.  Being well fed then helps the nymphs to grow up, have relations, and then churn out more nits.  It’s the circle of parasitic life! Neat, huh?

Except that my daughter didn’t appreciate the life sustaining beauty of blood sucking and reproducing that was occurring on her head.  Neither did her school.  So we were charged with the task of ridding our daughter of said lice infestation.  Which is much easier said than done, mind you.  Especially if you’re not open to poisoning your child, burning all her bedding/toys,  or cutting off all of her hair…

Short of this, your treatment options include vacuuming and bagging up everything cloth-like that you can’t wash, applying various concoctions to the head to kill the live bugs, and then removing the incredibly small nits by hand.  As in picking them out one by one (aka “nit-picking“).  And literally going over your child’s head with a fine-toothed comb (think unbelievably time consuming).

Fun stuff.  Especially when you spend $150 or so on various commercial neurotoxins (like Rid and Nix) that don’t actually kill the lice, but only tick them off.  Causes you to ponder at times why God allows such creatures to exist.  Seriously.

And then it dawned on me that I had never really experienced or understood how “lousy” being lousy really was.  As in imagining bugs are crawling all over you & biting you all the time lousy.  As in my daughter’s hair is ruined, we’ll never get rid of all these nits, and she’ll never be able to go back to school again lousy.  As in I’m sorry we had to bag up all your stuff, including what you just got for your birthday lousy.  As in “boy I’m glad that’s over,” only to discover they’ve come back and sent an expedition over to your other daughter’s head as well.  Kinda tests the limits of your belief in verses like James 1:2 (Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds…).

But then isn’t that the point of such trials?  To test the limits of our faith, and move us out of the realm of theory into reality.  So I began to see this as an opportunity to experience the power of vision clarity in a new way…seeing how:

• A clear mission (all lice must die!) keeps us focused as a team
• Clear values (preserving our health, hair, and sense of humor) guide our efforts and decision making
• A clear strategy (attack >  assess >  adapt, & repeat) keeps us moving in the right direction
• Clear measures (any nits/lice left alive?) help us track our progress
• A clear vision (lice free living!) compels us to press on and persevere

I know, I’m a freak, but I really do think this way…

Have you had a lousy experience?  What lessons have you learned from lice, or other lousy circumstances?

If you haven’t noticed, I’m quite the fan of Will Mancini and his latest book, Church Unique.  Which is pretty convenient, since as an Auxano team member (a firm founded by Will Mancini, by the way), promoting Will’s ideas and Church Unique also serve to promote the work that I do…

Truth be told, however, it was Will’s unique vision on vision that compelled me to become part of Auxano in the first place.  Seriously.  In fact, I was contemplating starting my own firm to do what I’m doing now when I first came across the Auxano website a couple of years ago.

Will’s own stunningly unique vision for Auxano literally “had me at hello” (to steal a line from the movie Jerry Maguire).  Why?  Because his articulation of the vision God had given him resonated with me at a deep level - and matched in an eerie and unmistakable way with the calling God was giving me.

The importance of “clarity first,” along with these three unique values especially caught my attention:

• Egoless clarity
• Carnivorous learning
• Contagious passion for the bride of Christ

That rocks, doesn’t it?!!  Well - it did for me anyway…

I have to admit though, my first thought was “dang it - somebody’s beaten me to the punch!”  This was quickly replaced, however, with a sense that I was not in fact insane, and that perhaps God was calling me to unite with other like minded visionaries, rather than seeking to blaze a trail on my own.

So why do I tell this story?  To illustrate a point, namely that a unique articulated vision is a powerfully attractive force.

The converse of this is true as well: an unarticulated vision is simply wishful thinking. If your vision is ever to have wings, it has to be articulated!

What are your thoughts?  Have you ever had an experience like I’ve described above?  Do you have a unique vision you feel compelled to tell the world about?  Is it simply a dream, or is it becoming reality?

[Editor's note:  BIG announcement from my firm, Auxano, ahead...so please keep reading...]

So who’s birthday is it? A book’s, namely Will Mancini’s Church Unique, first published this time last year.

Why is this significant?  Because this book does not present simply another model or treatise on the right way to do church.  Rather, it outlines a process that challenges leaders to discover their own God-given, stunningly unique vision.

As Max Lucado says in the foreword:

This book steers us away from the latest conference fads toward innate congregational strengths.  If you are looking for a one-size fits all approach to a healthy church, try another book.  If you are ready to roll up your sleeves and seek the uniqueness of God’s presence in your fellowship, this is your tool.

Max and hundreds of other church leaders have walked the Vision Pathway with the aid of an Auxano navigator like myself.  To celebrate the book’s birthday, we’ve designed a new way for leaders of smaller churches or church plants to realize the benefits of onsite consulting at a fraction of the cost.

We call it the Church Unique Vision co::Lab.  More specifically, it’s a continuous laboratory for your team packed with focused learning and collaborative coaching.  The cool part is that we’re rolling this out to eight cities this Spring (including Atlanta), and eight more in the Fall.

Interested?  For more info, visit the Church Unique website here.  Or, if you’re in or around Atlanta, feel free to contact me directly via email at me[at]visionnavigator.com (replacing the [at] with the @ sign of course).  Or you can always tweet me on twitter.

Have a favorite quote from Church Unique, or something unique about you or your church you’d like to share?  Leave a comment - I’d love to hear it!  Or if you’re a twitter fiend, add the #churchunique hashtag to your tweet to join the conversation.

I heard a great quote yesterday from a friend and mentor:

Man’s disappointment is God’s appointment.

With today being St. Patrick’s Day, it struck me that this quote was borne out in the life of St. Patrick himself.

For although St. Patrick’s name has become synonymous with all things Irish, he was not a native Irishman.  In fact, he was born in Wales, where he grew up on a farm.  At the age of sixteen, he was captured by raiders, who took him back to Ireland as a slave.  For six years he lived there in relative solitude - separated from family and friends, living the rather lonely life of a shepherd.

During this time, however, he began to pray, and hear from God.  Eventually he heard a voice that told him he would soon be going home.  Later he heard that a ship was being made ready for him.  This prompted him to flee his master and travel to a port 200 miles away, where he found eventual passage back to his home.

A few years after his return, Patrick had a vision.  In it, a man coming from Ireland brought him a letter representing the “Voice of the Irish.”  Patrick also imagined that he heard the voices of Irish natives calling out to him to come and walk among them.  Patrick saw this vision as a call from God to return to Ireland to serve as a missionary.

Note the significance here?  God was calling Patrick to leave the safety and comfort of home to return to the land of his enslavement.  And not only return there, but adopt it, and embrace it as part of his own calling and identity.

And Patrick did return - allowing this vision from God to transform his own view of Ireland - from a place of slavery and personal disappointment, to a place of calling and divine appointment.

During his ministry in Ireland, Patrick took on a second name, becoming known as Patricius Daorbae.  This second name, Daorbae, was a Gaelic word, meaning “he was enslaved.”

Rather than denying or becoming bitter about his bad luck then, Patrick embraced it as part of God’s unique vision for him.  His work as a missionary led to his eventual recognition a few centuries later as the Patron Saint of Ireland.  Ironic isn’t it, how God could transform a seemingly insignificant foreign slave into a revered Saint and native son?

What’s your story?  How do you view the disappointments of your past?  Do your own failures or weaknesses disqualify, or uniquely qualify you to serve God?

After a crazy week of migrating, tweaking, waiting for outages to clear, retweaking stuff messed up from outages, “finding my patience and using it” (as my bride likes to say), etc., I’m pleased to report that the new Vision Navigator blog LIVES!!!

Still have a lot a crazy tweaks and other ideas that I’ll be rolling out, but thought it might be good to actually create a blog post to remind myself what “blogging” is all about

FYI, I’m in the process now of pointing the VisionNavigator.com domain to my new self-hosted WordPress platform, and away from this blog on blogger. Hopefully, this will be a relatively seamless process…

If not, and I somehow manage to blow the whole thing up, well, you can always see what I’m up to on twitter

[Adding this text on the WordPress post for test purposes]