Customer Reviews

Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's rare to visit a church, read its mission statement and then conclude, "What a great match!" For that to happen, the church's vision must be clear, appealing, and most important, truly reflective of the unique culture demonstrated by the church.

Back in 1992, when churches were just beginning to think about vision statements, George Barna wrote a highly popular book called Power of Vision. In it he defined vision as "a clear mental image of a preferable future imparted by God."

I predict Will Mancini's Church Unique (2008, 271 pages) will succeed Barna's classic as the go-to book for church leadership discussions because it does even more than help you articulate a vision for your church. It goes further. It helps you "cast vision, capture culture, and create movement," as the subtitle forecasts. The book affirms that your church is "stunningly unique," and then helps you turn your church's one-of-a-kind potential into a model of ministry that leads to a redemptive movement. It understand that each church models a culture reflective of its particular values, thoughts, attitudes and actions. Using numerous specific-church examples, it walks you through the process of vision focus and alignment within the context of your church's unique culture.

Mancini, a former pastor and now church consultant, also explores pitfalls that often trap churches, such as adopting the latest conference technique or following a Band-aid approach to addressing deep-set issues.

CHURCH UNIQUE will benefit any type of church leader, whether megachurch or church plant, mainline or non-denominational.

The book is release #25 in Leadership Network's series with Jossey-Bass. It references in several places another excellent Leadership Network book -- Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out (J-B Leadership Network Series)by Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro with Warren Bird (Jossey-Bass, 2005).

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 19 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.

I was excited to start reading "Church Unique" because it echoed so many thoughts and feelings that I have had over the last 10 years - that is finding out what your church does best and being at home with that instead of another frustrated wannabe. Mancini also promises clarity and simplicity - which is always a good thing for me. I'm thinking as I'm reading, "Four sides of a picture frame: Great, I can handle this and I think I can communicate it" - and he had me for the first half of the book. Then, suddenly, I see clarity and simplicity waving goodbye from the platform as I was taken deeper and deeper into the piney woods of circles, arrows, steps, triangles, charts, bullet points and, of course, the obligatory mission/vision/values/goals/strategy explanations. Still, there are so many nuggets in the book I had to give it three stars.

If you are trying to lead your church to effectiveness and impact, Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement (J-B Leadership Network Series) by Will Mancini is a "must-have" resource! Like very few books of its kind, this one is not only packed with ideas, it is presented in a clear and purposeful manner with implementation in mind.

Based on Mancini's work with Auxano, Church Unique provides a carefully executed, step-by-step walk through the concepts and practices that build a "vision frame." Discovering and articulating a compelling vision is at the heart, but developing the missional mandate (mission), motives (values), map (strategy) and marks (measures) are what provide the frame. Each step in the process is presented in a way that begs to be implemented.

If you long for clarity and a laser focus, this is a book you will devour, mark up, and wear out. I'm frequently asked what's the best thing I'm reading. Church Unique is a book I'll be talking about for a long time.

There are a lot of books around on formulating mission, vision and strategy, so it is rare to find one which has something new to say on the subject. Will Mancini's book succeeds in bringing a fresh and very useful perspective to the subject. He says that churches commonly neglect what makes them unique, instead gravitating towards adopting programs and mindsets that work elsewhere. A church can become truly effective only once it discovers its own uniqueness.

In my view the author's critiques of other people's strategic planning models (such as Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church model) are a little overdone, but the book comes into its own when it starts talking about clarifying the vision. The process starts with discovering your Kingdom Concept, which is found at the intersection between your Local Predicament (the unique needs and opportunities of the location in which God has placed you), your Collective Potential (the unique resources and capabilities found in your congregation), and your Apostolic Esprit (the particular focus which most energises your leadership).

One of the imperatives of clarifying the church's vision is "framing" it. The Vision Proper is framed by the church's Mission (statement of purpose), Values (shared convictions that guide the actions of the church), Strategy (process which the church uses to accomplish its mission) and Measures (things which are measured to determine how well the church is achieving its mission). While none of these individual components is new, the manner in which the book suggests working through them is both innovative and very helpful. I highly recommend this book for church leaders.

Will Mancini, Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008)

Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw

In the complexities of a fast-paced world, with overall church attendance declining, where "successful" churches are overbusy with programs, and when churches tend to borrow not just sermons but whole vision programs from model megachurches, the need for locally developed and clearly expressed vision in our churches is critical.

Some churches are tired of vision processes every few years that go nowhere, while others are concerned their pastor is not interested in their involvement. Some vision statements end up in files but are never breathed passionately into the life of the church nor used as a clear framework for collaborative effort.

Church Unique details a proven process for cultivating, communicating and implementing vision. Instead of adding programs for any pressing needs or strategic planning that assumes we know what the next five years will bring, Mancini offers a process for :

1. Recasting a unique vision and avoiding "unoriginal sin"

2. Clarifying vision through a "Kingdom Concept", a simple, clear "big idea" that defines a unique approach to making disciples. Kingdom Concept lies at the intersection of a church's local predicament (e.g., What arena of our community is the furthest from the utopia God wants to restore?), collective potential (e.g., What would our community miss if we were gone?) and apostolic esprit that most animates our leadership (e.g., What bothers you most about the world?).

3. Articulating vision with a concise and compelling "Vision Frame" including a missional mandate, motive, map of making disciples and life marks of when we are successful. It presents vision from the Mountaintop (e.g., We are a place where no one stands alone. Who is your 2a.m. friend?) and with measurable Milestones (We will have 10 small groups, 70% with apprentice leaders and 60% of the church involved).

4. Advancing vision by aligning groups. Mancini exhorts leaders to focus vision on one or just a few things, say no to others and redirect efforts of groups that do not fit the map.

Church Unique is an excellent resource for pastors, consultants and leaders who are serious about discovering what is unique about a church and focusing its ministries into a collaborative, unified direction towards "a new picture of God's better intermediate future".

This is one of the better church growth, missional books I have read recently. This book seems to blend the ideas of positive church growth concepts with the missional focus of the church. The book has some great ideas for congregational direction and mission. One concept was "too many goals threatens to make anyone one goal unclear." This seems to be the case in too many congregations. In years past, the idea for church growth was to added program onto program, and some churches followed this method. The problem was that the churches that were promoting this were already large churches. A two hundred size congregation does not have the resources or the manpower to accomplish this model for ministry. Instead of having bunch of goals, focus on one. The book talks about this need for excellence in one area.

Another wonderful section was concerning the history of church growth to missional. This was clear and highly helpful. I could go on about all the wisdom in this text, but really there is too much. On my Kindle I take notes, and so far this book has the most notes. There are great illustrations, clear information, and deep quotes. This book is definitely worth your time in improving and moving your congregation ahead on the mission of God. Here is one great quote, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up men to gather wood, divide the word, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." This book teaches how to do this.

Will Mancini asks the question, "If you copy someone else's vision, who will accomplish yours?". He challenges the reader to go after the vision God has given and shares practical steps to accomplishing this.

As a business school graduate in 1980, then as a seminary graduate in 1983, I have a solid grounding and understanding of strategic planning and the visioning process. Serving three churches for over 23 years, I practiced many of the principles I learned, and was successful at it.

That was then; Church Unique is now! Will Mancini will challenge you, stretch your leadership, and ultimately instill in your heart and mind a hunger for a clearer path for effective ministry - and he delivers.

I got the book as soon as it was released in 2008, and am now on my third reading and application as I consult with churches across the country. I highly recommend Church Unique for any pastor or church leader who is seeking a navigator on the uncharted waters of ministry direction.

I have read my fair share of books on vision and direction and I have to say this one stands out from them all. It's a book that doesn't just talk about the importance of vision and direction, but actually gives very practical steps on how to go helping you and your leadership team to discover and communicate it. As a pastor, I used it recently with my leadership team and it was awesome. Excellent book, highly recommend it.

Very well done, great insights, author has a minimal amount of church experience but brings a wealth of wisdom and practical, applicable steps for creating clarity. Worth the price.