Understanding the Four Horizons of Vision

by: Will Mancini

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Do you really understand visionary planning?

As a leader, can you clarify the difference between having a vision and having a plan? Vision is about the picture of your church’s future. A plan is about the steps to get there.

The vision answers the question, “Where is God taking us?” The plan answers the question, “What are the next best steps, and how do they relate?”

Solution – Understanding the Four Horizons of Vision

THE QUICK SUMMARY – God Dreams by Will Mancini

Is your team excited about the next big dream for your church?

You are a visionary leader and your church probably has a vision statement. Yet most churches are stuck in a trap of generic communication without a truly visionary plan. Just like a visionary restaurant needs a more specific focus than “serving food,” a visionary church needs something more than biblical generalizations like “loving God, loving people” or “making disciples and serving the world.”

When a team doesn’t share an understanding of God’s next big dream, leadership grows tired, overworked by an “all things to all people” ministry approach. Too often there’s no unified picture of what success looks like. People can feel uninspired and your church’s programming can seem more optional than ever.

Ministry without clarity is insanity. Are you ready for a better way?

In this groundbreaking work, based on Will Mancini’s 15 years and over 10,000 hours of church team facilitation, God Dreams reveals a simple and powerful planning method that will bring energy and focus to your church like never before.

First, God Dreams shows how to reclaim the role of long-range vision today by providing 12 vision templates, each with biblical, historical, and contemporary illustrations. These vision starters will dramatically accelerate your team’s ability to find complete agreement regarding your church’s future.

Second, God Dreams explains how to overcome the fruitless planning efforts that many church teams experience. With a tool called the Horizon Storyline, leaders can connect short-term action steps with the long-range dream, while leveraging the power of storytelling to make the plan “stick.” This tool will galvanize a diverse team of ministry leaders and volunteers with unprecedented enthusiasm.

Imagine leading with a refreshed sense of freedom and confidence, with a totally new way to inspire your church. Imagine the ability to harness the energy and resources of your people toward a specific dream of gospel impact, in your church and in your lifetime.

God Dreams is your passport to leading into a better future.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Your eyes can focus on multiple horizons. As you are reading this document, look up and notice what is in your midground – a desk and chairs, other people?

Now look to the background and note what you see. A window to look through or a bookshelf?

The document itself and your arms and hands are in your foreground.

Without moving your head, experience the ability to focus in and out of these three horizons going back and forth quickly. That’s called accommodation. It’s a natural reflex that is happening subconsciously all day long. But it’s also a voluntary process. You can consciously control it whenever you want, as you probably did while trying the exercise.

What’s natural to your daily life can also be natural to your church’s organizational life. It is possible to use the three basic distances you are zooming in and out of all day long to build a visionary planning model.

In fact, the primary reason for vision in human-body functions is to guide and direct movement. The same might be said of your visionary plan: it exists to guide and direct movement for the church body as a whole.

The Horizon Storyline is a tool to develop the right amount of vision content for the right time in the future, for the entire leadership team.

The breakthrough of the Horizon Storyline is the development of a planning tool that fits human experience. It’s natural to grasp, using the way we already see, think, and communicate. What if we could forever remove the “it’s just too complicated” barrier? What if your planning tool would intuitively and immediately make sense? What if it would actually be fun to revisit over and over again?

The Horizon Storyline is defined by how we see different “horizons” in our field of vision every day. This idea is illustrated in a landscape painting, with the background far away as the eyes can see; a focal point of the piece in the midground that draws and keeps your focus; and an object in the foreground up close, right before your eyes.

To start, we just carry over the simple idea of background, midground, and foreground using those as names for three of our four planning horizons. We will simply see them as horizons, not in three-dimensional space but into the future. They are time horizons.

Here’s how it works. The near future we will define as ninety days away. That is the foreground vision. The next horizon, the midground vision, we define as one year away. And the furthest horizon we can “see” as an organization is the background vision, defined as three years away. The eyes of your church or ministry should be able to “see” this amount of time into the future.

Now that leaves one more horizon to define. This fourth horizon is just a little farther than you can clearly see. It’s just past your visible range. I call that “beyond the horizon” as a reminder that it is far away, just over the next mountain range, so to speak. I define this time frame as anywhere between five and twenty years depending on the church’s life stage and context.

Will Mancini, God Dreams

A NEXT STEP

The horizons described above are extensions of the way your eyes naturally work.

Right now think of at least one foreground, or short-term strategic horizon for your church. Something within the next 60-90 days.

Now list one big thing you hope to accomplish in the next year.

Finally, what is a big project, idea or task that you know will need to be tackled in the next few years of your leadership?

Rate the connectedness and continuity between these strategic initiatives. Bring the team together and ask, what could be done to bring these three natural horizons of visionary planning into alignment?

More energy. Greater resources. Better synergy. Would you like to have that right now at your church? Would you have guessed that the first step toward these improvements is defining your specific vision as a church?

If you don’t have a clear vision, you certainly won’t have a culture that matches. And if you don’t have a strong culture, then what are people in your church really doing?

Why are they there?

Taken from SUMS Remix 32-2, published January 2016

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: God Dreams, Horizon Storyline, Visionary Planning, Will Mancini

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How Do You Know When Your Church is Winning?

by: Will Mancini

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How do you measure your effectiveness in ministry? Is it possible to monitor both faithfulness and fruitfulness?

I have committed my life to helping church leaders find clear, concise and compelling responses to these questions. Until leaders codify their answers to these questions through tools and equipping environments, the church will fall miserably short of its potential. Dallas Willard asserted, “Instead of counting Christians, we need to weigh them.”

For well over a decade we have seen increased conversation about “changing the scorecard.” For example, leaders who have taken the true disciple-making mission of the church to heart are trying to redo their definition of success. Churches aspiring toward multiplication and movement have insisted that new metrics of effectiveness are essential.

Within this context, the question of success has been top of mind by being a predesigned deliverable in every consulting context for over 16 years. In other words, I don’t show up onsite unless a church is really serious about answering this question for themselves. I have traditionally called this a ministry’s “mission measures” which answers the question “When are we successful?”  It is the top part of the master tool called the Vision Frame which is represented by a bullseye icon.

Now, the scorecard question is again addressed in a new tool released this week: My latest book is a 25,000-word digital workbook, made available FREE through Exponential. The Dream Big Workbook is another tool in an ecosystem of break-thru clarity and includes 24 team discussion tools on the journey toward creating a multiplying culture. Essentially it is a riff off of God Dreams which contains a template for “LEADERSHIP MULTIPLICATION” as one of 12 possible futures for your church. The Dream Big Workbook is therefore an extended toolbox for churches that have “opted into” the leadership multiplication template.

Dream Big Scorecard Resources

In order to celebrate the release of the Big Dream Workbook I am offering two previous published chapters for free. Why? I simply want you to have the best tools at your disposal to work through these critical questions.  In Dream Big, I refer to the scorecard as one side of the Vision Frame. I don’t do much teaching on it, so the workbook assumes some familiarity with scorecard leadership.

In general, the church in North America uses a defining scorecard that is NOT the true measure of the mission – worship attendance and giving. That is to say, coming to a worship service and putting money in the plate does not necessarily mean that people are becoming disciples.

To orient you to my perspective, teaching and tools around a disciple-making scorecard, I am providing two free chapters from two different books.

In Church Unique, I wrote an entire chapter on “mission measures” to create a disciple-making scorecard. I also refer to mission measures as “missional life-marks” or your church’s “portrait of a disciple.” A church’s mission measure is defined as the attributes or characteristics in the life of the individual that reflect accomplishment of the mission. The chapter on mission measures is attached here.

In Innovating Discipleship, I use the idea of “results” to define three kinds of outcomes that church leaders should be thinking about: Input, Output and Impact. I have seen this chapter play a transformative role on hundreds of church teams. In addition, I share the eight reasons that pastors tend to focus on input results only: that is, attendance and giving again. The chapter is attached here.

May God give you great clarity as you think through and articulate your own scorecard!

If you have not grabbed it yet,  get a free copy of the Dream Big Workbook.

Tags: Dream Big, Exponential, New Scorecard, Scorecard Leadership, Will Mancini

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Build a Movement, Not a Monument

by: VRcurator

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Does your church dream more about where you have been than where God is leading you?

Have you ever looked around to realize that your church might be living today by focusing on yesterday?

Many churches long for the past, dreaming about the “good old days.” When faced with questions that are not easily answered, or walking through times of trial and doubt, churches, like people, often want things to be the way they used to be.

The problem is, the past has gone. While we may look back and respect it, and maybe even at times revere it, we cannot live in the past, especially when circumstances demand answers for the future.

If you are interested in learning how to lead your church away from the past in order to focus on what God has ahead, consider this solution:

Solution #1: Protect the past while envisioning the future.

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Church Unique, by Will Mancini

Church Unique, by Will Mancini, describes a new kind of visioning process designed to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture.

Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. He does this by explaining that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions and then shows how leaders can unlock their church’s individual DNA and unleash their congregation’s one-of-a-kind potential.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Bold aspirations must be rooted in the values and visions that have come before. For you to be alive and in touch with God’s work in the world, you were necessarily touched by the vision of others who came before.

Leaders should look for the artifacts of vision every day within their specific ministry contexts. An ongoing discover of uncovering and appreciating the visionary contributions of past and present help prepare your own unique vision to take shape.

Visionary leadership is the art of protecting the past as we champion the future.

We must listen carefully to the ones who have gone before us and learn about their vision. How does their vision intersect with what God is calling us to do? What artifacts of vision exist in the past that can be used to support our vision of the future?

• Uncover the creation story – all vision has a creation story, the events and the passion that birth the idea of a better future. Visionary leaders uncover every creation story in the lineage of the people they are influencing.
• Collect the hidden gems of vision vocabulary – in the articulation of past vision, there are key terms that live large with meaning. They are “words within the walls” that often stay undiscovered or unpolished. Consequently, they are undernoticed and undercelebrated.
• Find the “Hall of Fame” memorabilia – Behind the pictures on the wall, the stained glass windows, and the sound system of your church home are the stories from the people who have forged the character of your church. These “hall of fame” memorabilia speak stories to your church’s uniqueness.

– Will Mancini, Church Unique

A NEXT STEP

Dedicate 20 minutes at the beginning of your next three team meetings to discuss the three vision artifacts listed above.

Meeting Number 1: Uncover the creation stories – the problem with most stories of the past is that they remain in rough form, half-buried in the conscious of the organization with few people who can recall a God-moment that got it started to begin with. If your church is more than five decades old, there may be few, if any, living members who were present at the birth of your church.

Create a plan to recover lost or half-buried memories of your church’s creation stories from long-term members, attic crawl spaces, newsletter archives, or historical documents in your community. The end result should be documented, sharable stories of your church’s birth and ensuing growth that serve as momentum to move forward into what God has for tomorrow. Example: Use significant historical changes like a relocation or renovation to fuel vision for significant changes that lay ahead.

Meeting Number 2: Collect the hidden gems of vision vocabulary – as your teams complete the work of uncovering the creation stories, alert them to be intentionally looking for words and phrases that are often repeated or seem to have significance attached to them. Make sure the teams collect these words and phrases for others to see and enjoy.

As you review these words and phrases, consider how they may be polished and integrated into the living language of your church today, as a way of honoring the past while honing language for the future.

Meeting Number 3: Find the “Hall of Fame” memorabilia – as your teams complete the work of uncovering the creation stories, also alert them to listen for mentions of items and objects to which others have attached importance. Most importantly, record the stories behind those objects that give them significance. Make sure the teams note these items and importance. An old window, chair, or other random object could serve as inspiration from where we have been to get where God is leading.

Taken from SUMS Remix 22-1, published September 2015.

This is a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 editions per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

>> You can purchase a subscription to SUMS Remix here >>>

Tags: SUMS Remix, Vision Clarity

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9 Forms of Generic Church Vision that Lead You to Do the Wrong Thing for the Right Reason

by: Will Mancini

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Most pastors are visionaries. But to fully realize the vision of a church, a pastor needs more than a generic sense of the future.

When it comes to vision, the biggest challenge to success is not your obstacles. The biggest challenge to overcome is settling for a lesser vision and not knowing it. If you grab on to a faulty tool—in this case the tool of vision—everything you to try to build with that tool will be limited.

Once you move past a generic sense to a vivid vision, you will still have many obstacles to overcome, but those are the natural challenges of implementation. You still have the hard work to do. But every action and every point of communication is more powerful with the vivid and compelling picture of the future in view.

If you are living with generic vision, and I believe most pastors are, more of your implementation challenges have to do with clarity than you realize. In the last week alone, I have seen issues like staff hiring decisions, children’s programming decisions, and campus launch decisions all present major dilemmas only because of unclear vision. Yet the lead pastor didn’t recognize it as such.

How then, can we apprehend the generic church vision that plagues our churches? In my book, God Dreams, I have identified nine forms generic vision to help you name it in your church. The nine stem from three healthy biases. That is to say, we empower generic vision with good motives most of the time. We do the wrong thing for the right reason. It’s a good motive taken a little too far in application.

The three healthy biases are: accuracy, growth and efficiency. I will briefly describe each bias with the three forms of generic vision they create. Also, I will invite you to receive free God Dreams resources when they are available at the link below. The next resource is a worksheet to help your team identify its specific form of generic vision.

 #1 – ACCURACY BIAS

A healthy bias toward accuracy can lead us to confuse Biblical statements with Biblically informed vision.

The story of church vision in the last two decades could be described as the great misuse of the Great Commandment (Mt. 22:34-40) and the Great Commission (Mt. 28:19-20). Most people have heard some variation of the following as a vision statement for a local church:

• “Our vision is to love God and love others.” (Love God vision)
• “Our vision is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.” (Make disciples vision)
• “Our vision is to glorify God.” (Glorify God vision) 

These are biblical imperatives that should apply to all churches, but not as a vision statement. Why? When Jesus summarized the law, He was not giving churches a vision statement. This is a meaningful summary of the law, but it’s not an answer to the question: if we’re a church, what should our vision be for the next three to twenty years?

To summarize the problem, in our efforts to be biblical we fail to be imaginative, by cut-n-pasting verses as vision.

#2 – GROWTH BIAS

A healthy bias toward growth can lead us to substitute a grow-only vision for a growth-minded vision. 

Some church leaders equate growth with vision. “If we experience momentum, we must have vision,” they reason. Here are three examples of how growth becomes an end in itself as generic kinds of vision statements for a local church:

• “Our vision is to reach more people for Christ.” (Reach more vision)
• “Our vision is to build a bigger facility or launch more campuses in order to take the gospel to more places.” (Build more vision)
• “Our vision is to change world.” (More change vision)

Every church should be reaching more people and multiplying disciples. And an increased response can certainly lead to more facilities and more campuses.

A healthy bias for growth might undergird a vision, but statements like these are weak by themselves. “Reaching more” and “changing the world” are too vague. And buildings and campuses might be important tools, but they are means to something greater, not an end in themselves.

#3 – EFFICIENCY BIAS

A healthy bias toward efficiency can lead to a done-for-you vision that neglects adequate do-it-yourself vision ownership. 

Church leaders across the centuries have been drawn to learn from other churches where good things seem to be happening. Often this happens with the best of motives: they suspect God is at work and they want to be part of it. They appreciate the encouragement, the ideas, the tools, and the training from the other churches’ leadership. They follow the spirit of 1 Corinthians 11:1 where the Apostle Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” A noble intent for sure.

But the passion that says, “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” while wisely seeking to improve efficiency, can lead to a debilitating blockage of the imagination. Who wants to leverage the learning of others to the point of sacrificing the thrill of having a God-given, handcrafted vision?

This bias shows up in several approaches to vision. But unlike the accuracy bias and the growth bias, the efficiency bias doesn’t usually express itself in a written vision statement, but in the mindset of the leaders. I would label three expressions of this intent as follows:

• Serve as a franchise vision (be the first)
• Offer the most vision (i.e., more programs)
• Be the best vision (model church, top 10, etc.) 

Of course I have much more to say about these nine forms of generic vision in God Dreams. But I bet this is enough to begin a meaningful conversation with your team.

The post will be unpacked in greater detail in God Dreams, my fourth book. The subtitle is 12 Templates for Finding and Focusing Your Church’s Future. 

I invite you to sign up for pre-release specials before the book is published in 2016 (link below). The biggest one will be a free visual summary that you won’t want to miss! The next tool I am providing is a generic vision worksheet.

Get on the list for pre-release specials for God Dreams here.

> Read more from Will.

Would you like to learn more about avoiding a generic sense of the future? Connect with an Auxano Navigator and start a conversation with our team.

Tags: Generic Vision, God Dreams, Will Mancini

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Problem or Opportunity? The Choice is Yours

by: VRcurator

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When your plans change, how do you respond?

As a leader in your church, you are responsible for the planning and execution of a large number of events or activities on a regular, recurring basis. On some occasions, you may be planning a very large, once-a-year type of event. Hundreds of hours of planning and work by dozens of volunteers lead up to the big day – but things don’t go as planned.

What happens next?

Even though all leaders intellectually know that things often don’t go as planned, they are typically not ready until that possibility becomes a reality.

Solution – Reframe apparent problems as God-given opportunities

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Reframe, by Mona Patel

Too many people feel stuck when things don’t go as planned. 

They have ideas that could really disrupt the market and help their companies create beautiful, innovative, game-changing products and services, but a host of reasons hold them back.

Those who are disappointed by the stagnation that plagues companies trying to be innovative will find fun and highly effective ways to remove mental, cultural, and organizational barriers and bring out (and condition) each employee’s creative muscle

Reframe offers a technique to help people unlock their creativity and generate brilliant ideas. Motivate Design CEO, Mona Patel, shares her recipe for the first time, along with the compelling story of how she got there, on how to spark innovation and creativity anywhere, anytime.

The goal of Reframe is to help you see the difference between facts and beliefs, impossible and possible, and problems and opportunities. The shift in how you see things changes everything.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

When faced with a sticky situation – in spite of planning and preparation – many leaders see only the black and white: the choice must be A or B. It’s an easy decision, simpler, and gets things done more quickly.

The problem with this line of thinking is that you are focusing on what you win or lose, instead of coming up with alternative ideas. Focusing on just A or B leads you to ignore the wide range of other options that could be just the one you are looking for.

Why not approach a decision with a creative mindset that encourages you to think in the “gray space” – the space between black and white, choice A or choice B?

The real problem is that you have been seeing problems as problems, not as creative opportunities.

When you feel like you’ve hit a wall, don’t waste your time complaining or trying to turn around. Instead, figure out how to build a door. Designing a new frame around the same circumstances allows new perspectives and ideas to emerge.

The concept of “Reframe-work” consists of a set of eight steps that you can choose from depending on the type of problem you have and the answers you need.

Step 1: The Real Problem – First things first, spend some time on identifying and gaining clarity around the true problem. People often think they are articulating a problem, but really they are just discussing their limiting factors or the baggage they bring to the table.

Step 2: A Different Lens – Great designs start with the user’s problem. Explore all the facets of the user’s world so that you see things from the user’s perspective. It allows you to immerse yourself in what’s known and to understand what the user needs.

Step 3: Ask What If – Ask open questions that inspire ideas to naturally emerge. The only rule in this step is Don’t Judge. Don’t judge others, their ideas, or even yourself. The point is to release your self from the usual rules and belief and to open your mind to think creatively.

Step 4: Funnel Vision – Ideas that make it through a series of activities that help sort out ideas that will solve the problem your organization is facing effectively.

Step 5: Identify the Themes – In looking at the ideas your team has selected as favorites, groups or themes will start to emerge. Bringing the ideas back up into themes helps to focus on the broad ways in which you can solve the problem rather than the specifics of one particular idea.

Step 6: BS Excuse Personas – The next step is to manage the fear that often prevents your ideas from taking shape. The goal is to help each person address and talk out their tension points and beliefs before moving forward.

Step 7: Rapid Refine – Once the excuses are handled, go back to each theme and give you team a constructive opportunity to voices their concerns about the idea that has emerged for each them. This step forces you to think through what you would add, what you would take away, and how you would pivot if asked to do so.

Step 8: Execute – Ideas are nothing without execution. Begin the execution part of the process by helping people figure out one next step to move from idea to implementation.

Mona Patel, Reframe

A NEXT STEP 

When things don’t go exactly as you planned, your immediate reaction is usually to make another choice without thinking it through. Instead of reacting, why not spend time exploring, ideating, and creating options to help you move forward?

Dedicate time at your next leadership team meeting to walking through the eight steps listed above. Copy and distribute this SUMS Remix to your team.

Identify a recent situation in which an action or activity that your team planned did not go off as you intended. Write it on a chart tablet or whiteboard.

Lead your team though each of the eight steps, reframing the original problem in terms of the steps. Write key words or phrases on the tablet.

After you have completed the steps, review your work. Discuss which of the steps are most helpful in producing creative, alternative plans to your original problem.

As a closing exercise, project this process forward to the planning of future events. Discuss how seeing things with a new frame allows all problems to feel solvable and become opportunities for creative problem solving.

When your plans change and you are looking for help in dealing with the need for a sudden shift in direction, consider reframe apparent problems as God-given opportunities.

Taken from SUMS Remix 24-2, published September 2015

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Mona Patel, Problem or opportunity, Reframe, Reframing

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5 Reasons Why Disciples Need Ministry Tools More Than Sermons

by: Will Mancini

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The discipleship results of your ministry are not defined by content of your preaching alone.  One significant factor that impacts disciple-making is tool-making.  Unfortunately, you might not recall any seminary classes or conference breakouts on making ministry tools.

Why not? The simplest explanation is that we rely too much on teaching. As a result, we as pastors, do not become good at training and spend little time on toolmaking. In fact the average pastor rarely pursues improved competency as a trainer. But pastors go to great lengths— attending workshops, digesting sermons, and reading books— to become better preachers. 

Think about it for a minute: Is your church better characterized as a teaching center or a training center? Do you consider yourself more of a bible-communicator or a people-developer? When is the last time you thought about finding or making ministry tools?

I know what you want to say— “It’s both Will, why would you separate it?” Of course your intent is both to communicate well and see a disciple form as a result.  But I want to separate the two so that you can double check your assumptions and expectations about how people change and grow. Does your teaching provide the pathway toward the modeling, practicing, and evaluating of new life skills? Are you really helping people develop new life competencies in the way of Jesus?  Or are you just preaching?

One proof that you are good at training is the presence of ministry tools. What tools have you given to people lately through one of your sermon series? When was the last time you brainstormed with your team about a new ministry tool to create? If you have small group leaders in the church, what ministry tools have you provided for them in the last year?

What’s the bottom line? If you are not adding ministry tools to the lives of your people, you are not close to maximizing a disciple-making culture. You are probably not equipping people that much.

Before explaining why, let’s define what we mean by a tool. One definition reads:

Tool: A handheld device that aids in accomplishing a task. The basic definition brings to mind a hammer or screwdriver that you hold in your hand. The definition may expand if a tool doesn’t have to be literally handheld. Another definition reads: a device or implement used to carry out a particular function.

The term “device” broadens the range for disciple-making purposes. For example, the model prayer of Jesus was a device to train the disciples how to pray. Jesus used questions, metaphors and parables as devices or tools of disciple-making that weren’t “handheld” per se.

So what are examples of ministry tools? Here are five:

• A church does a sermon on praying and provides a prayer journal (ministry tool) as people walk out the door.
• A pastor preaches on missional living and creates a table tent (ministry tool- a triangle-shaped brochure that stands in the middle of the dinner table)  for family conversations designed to encourage the application of being better neighbors for the sake of the gospel.
• A team codifies a definition (ministry tool) of what kind of disciple their church is designed to produce and then creates a self-assessment (ministry tool) to use in small groups.
• A pastor uses a 4-question, gospel fluency matrix (ministry tool) –drawable on a napkin–to help the congregation apply the gospel to the daily fluctuations of sinful emotions and actions.
• A bible study leader passes out a business card (ministry tool) with a daily bible reading schedule and three applications questions to ask for every passage of scripture.

This is a short list that begins to illustrate the endless possibilities of ministry tools. Keep in mind that I didn’t even reference the internet or digital devices that really explode the possibilities ministry tool-making.

Now that we have defined and illustrated what a ministry tool or device is, let’s get to the heart of the post. Why do disciples need ministry tools more than sermons? Why should we not rely on preaching alone if we are to train people to follow Jesus?  Here are five compelling reasons:

#1 – A ministry tool signifies importance.  A tool highlights the greater importance of the idea thus setting it up for application and helping stand out among the competing messages in every area of life. When a tool is introduced in the flow of communication, the idea behind the tool will trump every other idea. The tool immediately indicates the value of repeatability as well.

#2 – A ministry tool activates learning. A tool utilizes a part of human brain that is activated by a concrete object to hold and use, or an audio device to return to like a question or repeatable story. Again this sets up an important step toward application. It engages visual and kinesthetic learners.

#3 – A ministry tool guides application. This is the main idea. The tool itself provides a “how to” that can be practiced, repeated and eventually mastered. It shows the way and validates when action has been taken or not.  The device clarifies a step of implementation. In a way, a tool gently brings accountability to the table–every time I see the tool, I know whether or not I have used it.

#4 – A ministry tool creates energy. A tool helps people feel excited about ideas. It helps people win. And by the way, may pastors can unintentionally create a sense of failure for their people.  As people listen to sermons year after year, they oftentimes feel like they aren’t growing like they should. A tool can reverse that dynamic. It’s focuses application, so they can do it. And that gives pastors the opportunity to celebrate their new skill development. Then, even more energy is created!

#5 – A ministry tool reproduces training. A tool makes every person a trainer not just the pastor or preacher. As a leader, it’s not important what you can do; it’s important what you can duplicate. If you make a tool, it can outlast you and be passed from disciple to disciple to disciple until Jesus returns again.

This last principle has changed by personal conviction that I must spend time to make tools. In fact my two most important books (tools themselves) are Church Unique an God Dreams each of which cover how to create a master tool for church leadership, the Vision Frame and the Horizon Storyline, respectively.

I would love to hear from you. What is your favorite ministry tool? What ministry tools have you created recently?

A final illustration of one of my favorites is a how-to PDF and video on creating a family tree. This tool comes from a short sermon series at Clear Creek Community Church, my home church. To help people gain perspective and apply the gospel to the brokenness of extended family dynamics, they encouraged everyone to practice writing out their family diagram.

> Read more from Will.

Would you like to learn more about the ministry tools? Connect with an Auxano Navigator and start a conversation with our team.

Tags: Disciplemaking, Discipleship, Execution, Will Mancini, ministry tools

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Momentum Swing: 5 Steps to Take

by: Dan Reiland

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Momentum is a leader’s best friend.

If you’ve led in a local church for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced seasons of high momentum and seasons when momentum has faded.

Good leaders possess the ability to navigate both in seasons of strong momentum and low momentum; each have their unique challenges.

In the previous post, I addressed “5 Ways Leaders Grasp Momentum.” It will provide helpful and needed context for this post.

Let’s continue the topic with a focus on regaining momentum.

5 Steps to help regain momentum:

1. Take responsibility for the lack of momentum.

If you are the pastor, on staff, or a board member, own the reality of your church’s situation. Tell the truth. If you are in a decline, you are in a decline. Everyone knows it, so just say it.

Don’t panic, focus on solutions.

The people will appreciate your honesty and courage. If you are plateaued, the same idea holds true.

Don’t get stuck on the things you can’t control, take action on what you can do.

2. Find the mo in you first.

Walt Emerson said:

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

It’s what’s inside you, what you believe, the size of your faith, and the hope in you that matters. Not the mistakes in the past or the mountains in front of you.

Only the dreams within you matter. If you lose hope, you can’t inspire a congregation. If you don’t believe, the people can’t believe.

Your faith that God is with you matters. Sometimes God asks us to wait upon His timing.

Cultivate that hope and faith within you.

If you are discouraged, find a strong leader who is a friend and get some time to talk. Gain wisdom, experience, and fresh perspective. Don’t give up.

3. Re-establish a clear vision and written strategy.

Listen for God’s voice on His direction for your church.

You may need a new vision. This could be the right time for a new start. Or your vision may be solid, and your need is to find fresh and new ways to communicate it.

Don’t rush the process, take the time you need. It may take a few weeks or a couple of months, maybe a little longer, that’s OK.

Talk and pray with your key leaders. Get buy-in with your staff.

Develop your strategy. Don’t over complicate the process. Your strategy is a simple and clear written plan.

Place action over analysis.

4. Make the courageous changes that are needed.

I wish I could tell you that re-gaining momentum is easy, but it requires that we step out of our comfort zone and embrace change.

The change may involve more boldness in your weekend communication, a difficult staffing move, a new approach to ministry, or a major overhaul in the style and execution of your worship service. There are so many possibilities.

Keep in mind, if you make a change and no one gets upset, you just changed something that doesn’t matter.

5. Aim for the small wins first.

Let me restate something from the previous post. Momentum is fueled by vision and activated by faith.

This is clear evidence of the partnership we all have with God for spiritual momentum in our churches.

Vision is the source and fuel of momentum, and faith activates God’s hand toward momentum.

While you exercise faith and wait upon God’s timing, keep steady at your vision and strategy.

Part of this process is the art of aiming for the small wins. Go for the “little mo” while waiting for the “big mo.” This is not busyness or lack of focus; it’s more like kindling upon the fire.

There are many ideas you can implement, from short-term community compassion and outreach projects, to a 30-day fund-raiser for a special purchase that would add wind to the sails of your congregation.

There is no guarantee for momentum, but there is the promise that God is with you, and it’s His church. He cares, and He wants it to flourish.

Talk with an Auxano Navigator about regaining momentum in your church.

> Read more from Dan.

Tags: Dan Reiland, Momentum, Regaining Momentum

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Ten Time Management Ideas for Leaders

by: Eric Geiger

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Several months ago we ran a blog survey seeking to understand those who read the blog on a regular basis and what would be helpful to them in future posts. Many people asked about managing schedules and getting the most out of time. It is wise to ask the question because desiring to steward time well is an act of wisdom. For example, Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts” (Psalm 90:12). Likewise, the apostle Paul challenged us to walk wisely and make the most of the time (Ephesians 5:15-16). While we are incapable of creating more time, we can get more out of the limited time we have. Here are ten ways I work to get the most out of my time:

1. View time as a precious resource.

Some abhor the thought of wasting money yet squander immense amounts of time. Wise people recognize the brevity of this life and steward their time well.

2. Wake up early.

If you want to have more time in your day, you really only have two options: stay up later or wake up earlier. The wisdom writer scolded: “How long will you stay in bed, you slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?” (Proverbs 6:9).

3. Exercise

When you are busy, exercise can feel counterintuitive. After all, you are not doing something else that needs to be done so you can exercise. But exercise makes you more productive by helping you sleep better, fight stress, and fuel mental energy.

4. Find a repeatable rhythm in your schedule.

As quickly as you can, discover when the best time is to execute important tasks. And repeat over and over. Some have asked how I prepare sermons while serving as a vice president of LifeWay. The bulk of my sermon prep is every Monday night from 7pm-1am. Which brings me to the next point…

5. Choose a work night.

Kaye and I choose a “work night” each week (sometimes twice a week) where each of us knocks out work. Because we are both working during the evening, neither feels neglected. I use that night for message preparation, reading, or writing.

6. Keep a “stop doing” list.

Peter Drucker said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” At key pause times in a year, reflect on your leadership and life and create a “stop doing” list. Steal energy and thinking from the things that are not as important and give energy and thinking to what is most important.

7. Develop and trust others.

One way to squander your time is to micromanage. When you have capable men and women of character around you, trust them. While developing others requires time, when people are developed, your time is multiplied.

8. Schedule meetings back to back.

If you have a meeting that ends at 9am and another one starts at 9:30, typically those 30 minutes in between are not very productive. Much better is to stack meetings back to back and create larger blocks of time not in meetings.

9. Block off large sections of time.

To engage in deep preparation, planning, creative work, or strategic thinking, large blocks of time really work best. Schedule and guard those well.

10. Don’t let email own you.

Don’t let email own you, especially when in those large blocks of creative or planning time. If emails in your inbox drive you mad, you can move non-urgent emails to a follow-up folder and deal with them in a time you regularly set aside for emails.

> Read more from Eric.

Tags: Eric Geiger, Time Management, Time Management Tips

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How 12 Templates for Church Vision Will Transform Your Leadership

by: Will Mancini

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The 12 Templates for Church Vision as a resource made the subtitle of God Dreams. God Dreams is toolbox for installing a visionary planning model in your church. The master tool of the book is called the Horizon Storyline and it fits inside of the Vision Frame–more on that to come.

At this year’s Exponential Conference in Orlando April 24-27, members of the Auxano team and I will be leading multiple breakout sessions – all based on the resources provided in God Dreams. Find out more information here.

SO WHAT ARE THE 12 TEMPLATES?

The Horizon Storyline will engage your thinking on church vision 5-20 years into the future depending on the age and life stage of your ministry. When it comes to thinking this far away, I have found that it is very difficult getting people on the same page. Vision that distance into the future can seem fuzzy or unnecessary to think about.  The 12 templates were designed as an on-ramp to vibrant imagination and dialogue as a leadership team.

Think of the 12 templates as a vision typology. When believers sit together and dream about the impact they want to have in the world, I believe any dream can be ultimately defined by one of the templates. It’s church vision made that simple.

In fact, that’s how the templates emerged in my mind. About 4 years ago I had crossed the 10,000 hour mark of facilitating with church teams. I began to see the patterns crystallize in my mind. We have been using these tools for about 4 years at Auxano, and a year ago, I decided that we needed to put it in a book. The visuals and definitions of the 12 templates are available on the free download below.

HOW WILL THEY TRANSFORM YOUR LEADERSHIP?

Most teams select and relate the top two templates for their church. For example, New Break in San Diego uses the “leadership multiplication leading to targeted transformation” as their picture idea. From there you build out a vivid description of your long-range vision horizon. (God Dreams walks through this process). In the end, the transformative nature of having a long-range vision comes from the brand new ability to:

• Increase your confidence as a leader
• Shape the destiny of the whole congregation
• Create deeper meaning for individuals
• Cultivate heroic sacrifice among people
• Focus the resource base of the church 
• Guide the development of long-term strategy

The state of church vision is so anorexic with regard to this kind of long-range thinking that it’s hard to recognize it any more. We are trafficking in such general ideas, we no longer recognize the lack of meaning of anything beyond sermon series planning or the next annual budget. Where does that leave our people? They are not emotionally connected to anything that our church represents or the impact we can have, beyond the next weekend service or small group.

Let me ask you: What kind of dramatic gospel impact will your church have in your community, in your lifetime? 

Download the 12 Templates Overview

Templates that ADVANCE (arrow)

• Geographic (Gospel) Saturation
• Targeted Transformation
• People-group Penetration

Templates that RESCUE (cross)

• Institutional Renovation
• Need Adoption
• Crisis Mobilization

Templates that BECOME (circle)

• Spiritual Formation
• Presence Manifestation
• Obedient Anticipation

Templates that OVERFLOW (wave)

• Leadership Multiplication
• Cultural Replication
• Anointing Amplification

> Read more from Will.

Would you like to know more about the 12 Vision Templates or the Horizon Storyline? Connect with an Auxano Navigator and start a conversation with our team.

Tags: 12 Vision Templates, God Dreams, Horizon Storyline, Will Mancini

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Discover the Genius of Generosity

by: VRcurator

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How can you connect with high-capacity givers in your church who are not yet giving without appearing greedy?

It’s right there in the Acts 2 account of the early church. As disciples are made, giving is a natural overflow. Generosity development in your church is really people development. Leaders need to look at the matter of generosity through the eyes of the giver instead of the staff, finance committee, or other leadership group. When you look through giver’s eyes, you will begin to see how you are actually discipling them by helping them grow their generosity and develop their giving.

Solution – Discover the genius of generosity

THE QUICK SUMMARY – The Genius of Generosity, by Chip Ingram

The “secrets” to being financially savvy are all around us. Go to your local bookstore or look online to read all the books written on how to manage your finances. Turn on the television to hear wise tips from financial experts. Surf the Internet to skim the “Seven Habits of Highly Successful Money Managers.”

The truth is most people want to be financially savvy. And some say to be smart, you must spend carefully. Others say to be wise, you must save regularly. But as the title of this book reads, to be genius, you must give generously.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

You can’t stop generosity. It is natural, normal, and wired into the existence of every human being. So why are we so nervous about it at church? Give these thoughts some significant time to brew and see if they do not inspire, affirm, and empower a new direction.

Generosity is meant to be joyful and fulfilling. It isn’t rooted in guilt, self- righteousness, or a martyr complex. It’s rooted in joy. And, in fact, it’s genius.

It’s the smartest way to live.

Generosity – a life overflowing with care and concern for others – is a brilliant way to live. It isn’t supposed to be a high, noble, sacrificial calling for a few super-spiritual people. Spending and saving carefully are wise, but giving generously is genius. Both practically and spiritually, it’s one of the smartest, most intellectually sound and emotionally satisfying decisions you will ever make for your life now and forever.

Here are four simple reasons why generosity is really the most intelligent way to live.

1. Generosity is genius because it changes our lives. People who give generously feel great about it and find themselves blessed in ways they never expected. Great things happen in them, and great things happen to those around them. It’s the ultimate win-win situation.

2. Generosity connects us with others. When people are generous and gracious, they exude love and happiness. Generous people create positive feelings in their relationships.

3. Generosity helps us invest in what matters. Spiritually, generosity protects us from shortsighted, bad investments of our time, our talent, and our treasure and creates long-term wealth. In a sense, everything you do is an investment. You are always pouring your time, talent, and treasure into something. And whatever you’re pouring into, that’s where your heart is.

4. Generosity frees our hearts. Money is the mirror of our heart before God. Notice where your money is going. That will tell you what you’re devoted to. And not only does the direction of your resources reflect where your heart is, it helps determine where your heart goes. Your heart will always follow your investments.

Chip Ingram, The Genius of Generosity

A NEXT STEP

Pastors desire a generous culture for their churches, but very few know what it really is and are willing to do the work to experience it. They tend to default toward doing nothing (except complaining) or executing yet another quick fix, short-term remedy.

True generosity is absolutely possible if you pursue these three ingredients at the same time and do not quit.

1. Possess such a powerfully clear vision that you know what not to do as confidently as you know what to do.Vision is not a generic mantra on your wall, but a clear path plainly seen by all. It should naturally propel you forward, hold you accountable, and engage the masses.
2. Align your strategy to be very simple, yet radically focused on this vision. This means your resources will be invested more than they are expended. Doing a few things very well in a repeatable process has seriously positive ramifications.
3. Chase discipleship and not money.Generosity is the fruit of a growing Christ-follower. Money can come fast enough with a well-articulated appeal or when a powerful fear is exposed. However, it stops when the circumstance changes. Generosity never stops.

How well are you doing with these three ingredients? What is one step you can take today in one of these three areas?

Generosity is possible for your church, but you have to want it – really want it – enough to invest your entire staff. Enough to be willing to reframe your vision, realign your strategy, and develop a solid discipleship path beyond just getting more people in groups. There is so much freedom and possibility on the other side of generosity.

Congregations that practice effective generosity keep first things first: they focus some of their best creativity, leadership, and energies on advancing their vision.

Congregations with solid practices of generosity have a better chance of doing effective mission. The one advances the other.

When your church focuses on generosity, you are serving people. Understanding and developing generosity helps people develop their capacity and gift for giving. In order to help accomplish this, lead your congregation by discovering the genius of generosity.

Taken from SUMS Remix 33-1, published February 2016

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

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Tags: Chip Ingram, Generosity, Genius of Generosity, SUMS Remix

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