Church Unique
On my flight down to Miami, I wrapped up the book Church Unique by Will Mancini. Will is a new friend of mine. We share a similar passion to help churches embrace their unique potential.
Among other things the book outlines a process for helping churches identify their unique mission, values, strategy and measures that contribute to a unique vision. Here are some of Will’s thoughts that grabbed my attention:
- Congregations have been “gravitating toward adopting programs and mind-sets that work elsewhere. Leaders today have not clearly discerned the uniqueness of their church.”
- The “ministry treadmill” is “set in motion when the busyness of ministry creates a progressively irreversible hurriedness in the leader’s life.”
- “It is not uncommon that the most accomplished people in the room are the least receptive to new learning”
- “When I walk into a church, it usually takes five minutes to identify the last conference the staff attended.”
- “The assumption is that more information will produce clearer direction, but just the opposite is true.”
- “Too many goals threaten to make any one goal unclear.”
- Larry Osborne of North Coach Church: “People like it small, but leaders like it big.”
- On Max Lucado and Chuck Swindoll, “Both of these men have not only worked hard to keep vision central; they have sacrificed easy attendance by removing their face from the church brand.”
- “If people are emotionally attached to the method, they will resist change. If they are emotionally connected to the core value, however, they will not only embrace change but might insist on it.”
- “In the battle of souls, the intellect will go only so far; the heart must be captivated by a love beyond reason.”
- Jesus “leaves us with a picture that egotism and arrogance are blemishes on the face of a kingdom leader.”
- “The greater the mission, the more simply it can be stated.”
- “Unfortunately, many churches think that being more effective is simply a matter of trying harder, being more obedient, or praying more.”
- “Programs don’t attract people; people attract people.”
- “If your church is more than four hundred people, I would caution against hiring a person without the demonstrated spiritual gift of leadership.”
- “If we propose to advance the gospel in and through the culture, we can’t afford to see the cultural use of communication as an enemy but as an ally.”
- “The church gathered is actually a time of preparation for ‘being the church’ outside of its walls.”
Will is a former pastor and the founder of Auxano, a consulting group that works with churches and ministries.
I have been putting off reading this book over others for a while…thx for the impetus to go get it off the shelf. This is great stuff.
http://www.twitter.com/atibadesouza
Looking forward to reading his book! Thanks for the review, Tony.
my copy should be arriving this week – i’m excited to read it!
Auxano helped our church revision last year. It included a name change and a directional change. It was an incredible process.
After the seven month process was over, I bought the book to make sure I had a good grasp of everything we covered. The book is an almost EXACT replication of the entire Auxano process. Read the book, follow his insights. It’s good stuff.
I read this book about a year ago and thought it was great. Many of these same quotes jumped out at me. Thanks for reminding me of them.
Dang….add it to the list of books I should read. It is getting too long…
So much to think about here I don’t know where to start. I guess buying the book would work..
Thanks, Tony, for once again turning me on to something that will impact the kingdom in our community.
The “ministry treadmill” is “set in motion when the busyness of ministry creates a progressively irreversible hurriedness in the leader’s life.”
I always say that being a busy pastor, just makes me a busy pastor, it doesn’t make me stronger.
Thanks for that summary. The one idea that really makes me think is the comparison between preferred methods and core values. Will get a copy of the book.