Vision Navigator

Wanted to pass along a link to a great article by Will Mancini, which was published on the web a week or so ago [link to the full article is here]– here’s an excerpt:

What if the real challenge of translating vision to reality is something inherently wrong with our current models for vision? What if strategic planning models and long-range planning teams spend countless hours developing a vision or a plan that, by its very nature, is unrealizable? What if we changed our paradigm or working definition of vision in a way that made it naturally and organically more likely to blossom? What if we could make vision so clear that action was inevitable?

I believe the real challenge of turning vision into reality is one seven-letter word: clarity.

This resonates with me on so many levels. It’s part of the reason I joined up with Mancini and the Auxano team in the first place.

For when leaders pursue clarity, they find a unique vision from God that nourishes them and compels others to join. It’s not about the latest tricks, trends, or techniques then. It’s not about coercion or manipulation. Rather, it’s about leaning into, living, and casting a clear vision that invites others to participate in God’s mission — catalyzing folks into action to become part of something larger than themselves, a unique expression of Christ’s body on earth.

What is your experience? Do you see a connection between vision and reality in your life, or in the life of your church?

Wanted to relay some powerful thoughts from Will Mancini’s blog:

Walk into a first grade classroom and ask the kids to raise their hand if they can draw. All of the kids will raise their hand. Ask if they can sing. All of the kids raise their hand. Ask if they can dance. All of the kids raise their hand. Ask them if they can read and only some will raise their hand. Now do the same exercise with a ninth grade classroom. The results are opposite- the only time they all raise their hands is when asked about reading.

Noting Einstein’s quote about imagination being more important than knowledge, he goes on to ask, “Where doe our extreme capacity for imagination go?”

What’s the state of your imagination? Is your view bounded by what you know, or by what God says is possible?

What is impossible with men is possible with God. Luke 18:27

We have a winner! Or more accurately, we have 11 winners!

1. Boz (Brian)
2. Evan Courtney
3. Joel H. Williams (if you’d like your own copy)
4. Anonymous (you know who you are, I hope)
5. Aron
6. Brian Miller
7. Joel Story
8. Jimmy (if you’d like your own copy)
9. Jonathan Brink
10. Kathy Escobar
11. Tiffany

There’s still time to get your free copy of Will Mancini’s book, Church Unique (http://www.churchunique.com/)!

[Update, 10/13/08: Check out this post to see the winner]

Like free stuff? Well, you’ve come to the right place…

The Auxano team (of which I am a part) is giving away free copies of Church Unique, by Will Mancini (http://www.churchunique.com/) at the Catalyst conference today, starting at 9:00 am EST.

If you’re at Catalyst, do the following:

TEXT “catalyst-buzz” TO 95495

You should then receive a reply that will tell you where to go to get your FREE COPY (when you get it, tell ‘em Steve sent you).

Not at Catalyst? Bummed you’re missing out?

Well, I have one free copy of my own I’ll be giving out to anyone who is not able to be at Catalyst this year.

To claim it, leave a comment on this post, explaining in 25 words or less why you’d like a copy. If your case is compelling, or otherwise strikes the fancy of my lovely bride (who will serve as the final judge in this little giveaway), you win!!

Tune back in next Monday at 9:00 am EST, when the winner will be announced!

In a post last week on Megachurches and Church Growth, I asked the question, “How do you measure the health or growth of a church?“

The problem here is that while such measures are informative, they do not adequately capture the true measure of a church’s missional effectiveness.

The reason? Because the ABCs focus primarily on organizational metrics, ignoring the more elusive and difficult to quantify relational dynamics that mark true missional success.

Put more plainly, if a church’s mission is to make disciples, they need to have some idea of what they’re trying to make.

So how does a church know this? By asking questions such as these:

• How do we determine who and who is not a disciple?
• What is our definition of spiritual growth or maturity?
• What characteristics or qualities does a disciple exhibit?
• How do we measure spiritual fruitfulness?

Such questions move beyond the mere accounting of resources, towards a more relational model that measures success in terms of character qualities or missional life marks (for more on this, see Chapter 15 of Mancini’s book, Church Unique).

How does your church measure success? Do you have a common target or bull’s-eye that you’re all aiming at?

[Silver frame photo courtesy of Michal Zacharzewski, SXC]

Auxano’s founder, Will Mancini, is one of the presenters at the PGF conference (Presbyterian Global Fellowship), going on this weekend. Sharing a coaching platform with Alan Hirsch yesterday, Will relayed on his blog a great quote from Alan, which ties in with my recent posts on doing church and kingdom imagination. He writes:

My favorite quote of the day was, “There is no silver bullet, but there is a silver imagination.” “Constantine is still the emperor of our minds” when it comes to how we think about church, Alan states. The silver imagination is about re-calibrating to our founder- Jesus; a process Alan calls radical traditionalism. He urged the presbyterian leaders wrestling through missional transformation to think like beginners and not experts- “we have to be OK with not knowing all of the answers.”

These are great thoughts. Rather than a quick fix or silver bullet, we need silver imaginations.

Minds that are transformed and renewed by our willingness to sacrifice everything at the feet of our Savior. Minds that are taken captive, and are captivated, by Christ. Minds fueled by the Spirit to see beyond current circumstances and past experiences. Minds that can only imagine where God is leading…

Do you tend to look for silver bullets, or silver imaginations? What has God placed in your imagination?

Latest version of Catalyst is out. Check out Mancini’s article entitled “Uncage Your Vision” here.

Quick word association — when someone says “Vision” nowadays, what’s the first word that comes to mind?

Following up on yesterday’s post, below are some bullet points, pulled from p. 173 of Will Mancini’s book, Church Unique, that show how “Vision” can be both grounded (linked to God’s Word) and unbounded (free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit).

To put this in some context, Mancini argues for a radical new way of understanding vision, uncaging it from traditional definitions associated with strategic planning. He defines “Vision Proper” as living language — not simply a statement to frame on a wall, but a dynamic vocubulary framed within a larger thinking and acting strategic framework (the “Vision Frame”). Vision Proper then, is like an ever-growing treasure chest of stories, ideas, metaphors, and phrases that repesent the unique, shared and God-inspired vision of a local faith community.

That being said, here’s what Vision Proper provides:

• Anchored adaptability
• Responsible extravagance
• Confident humility
• Directed release
• Constant emergence
• Active reflection
• Assertive openness
• Bold dependence
• Defined unboundedness

Do any of these phrases resonate with you?

[In the interest of full disclosure, Mancini is the founder of the firm I now work for, Auxano. I quote these not to earn brownie points with him -- though if that's the price I pay, so be it I quote them because they resonate with me on a deep level, capturing many of the dynamic tensions I believe followers of Christ feel when they attempt to live out and articulate their faith together in community. At some point, I may blog about how I came to know of Will and Auxano in the first place, but that's for another day.]