Will Mancini packed so many nuggets into Church Unique that my highlighter ran out of ink. Here are some of my discoveries (thanks to Will for allowing me to publish these – and apologies for not including the page numbers.)

“Every week I am confronted with brute force that local churches are unmistakably unique and incomparably different. God doesn’t mass-produce His church.”

“The starting point for vision—for thinking about our church’s future—is not deciding where we want to go or exploring what is working for other churches but understanding how we are unique.”

“The increasing pace of change in the cultural whirlpool leaves leaders with two temptations that distract them from thinking clearly about their church’s identity. The first is BuzzChurch. This means to define the DNA around innovation itself.  These leaders enjoy the adrenaline rush of having to do continuous cultural exegesis for ministry.  The resulting vision is the need to be constantly cutting-edge. In the race to be relevant, it’s all too possible to miss the deeper essence that God wants to nurture. The irony is that this cultural whirlpool is actually an addiction to new thinking.”

“If you have no vision but only formal plans, then every unpredicted change in the environment makes you feel like the sky is falling.”  –Henry Mintzberg

“Strategic planning is no longer the preferred tool for leading the church into the future. For many pastors and well-meaning lay leaders, it’s time to put down the shovel.”

“Take your pick: from the boomer power pastors of suburbia to the preaching punks of “emergia” and the collared intellectuals of “liturgia,” everyone wants to be Missional. But what does it mean? Essentially it is a way of thinking that challenges the church to re-form and reforge its self-understanding (theologically, spiritually and socially) so that it can relearn how to live and proclaim the gospel in the world.  Perhaps the best motto of the reorientation is the imperative to ‘be the church.’ Church is not something you do or a place you go to, but what you are.”

Embracing change

“The leader should help people embrace change by nurturing an emotional connection to the unchanging core vision. The leader should then preserve and champion the core vision by showing people how to constantly adapt.  Isn’t this what we are all longing for? Should pastoral transition stop the mission in its tracks? Or should the church look for a new visionary on the basis of the unique movement already under way? Can we change or stop a program like Awana on Wednesday night without leaving two dozen volunteers hopelessly disheartened? Or can we experiment with a new children’s ministry idea with excitement and enthusiasm because of a deeper shared vision?”

“Our change management problems today are vision problems first and people problems second.”

“My life testifies to what I call ‘working the funnel.’ Many people ask how I came to be to be a consultant. The most difficult part was leaving really good opportunities all along the way. With each step, it felt like a huge risk. For me, these included leaving a budding career as a chemical engineer, then exiting my executive experience in a marketing and advertising firm, and ultimately stepping out of an incredible opportunity I had as a pastor. My clarity funnel journey led me to realize that what I wanted to do most—expository preaching—was not my gift. A mentor finally told me I was a better leader than I was a teacher, and the trajectory of my calling began to turn. It took me at least three years to grapple with the death of my vision to grab hold of God’s. Today I see my 'must do' for God as bringing clarity to the leaders I serve.”

“What’s special about God’s vision is how it becomes ours and lives as ours. We can never forget God as the source of vision; but we also cannot strip it of personal, visceral, and concrete reality in the leader’s life. We live in real places that intricately nuance the story of restoration—the good and the bad, for the infinitely beautiful is mirrored by distortions infinitely horrific. We live in it.”

“Unique expressions of sin, pain and brokenness ripple through our specific stories and locales. At some point, a defining moment occurs; a particular call from God collides with a concrete need in our little corner of the world.  The result is an atomic energy release, filling the leader’s heart with compassion and the leader’s conscience with conviction. A new vision is forged.  

“Frederick Buechner describes it as the place ‘where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.’  In this intersection, the vision is both God’s and ours, for the work of the Spirit moves us so completely that the distinction of ownership blurs in our intimacy with Jesus.”