Month: July 2009

Review of “Church Unique” by Will Mancini

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Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement (J-B Leadership Network Series) Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement by Will Mancini

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of the best books I’ve read on church leadership this decade. It has a great combination of theory and practice. Every church leader should read this book and consider whether or not his or her church has truly discovered its vision. I’m going to read this book again, at least one more time.

The basic concept of the book is that too many churches simply copy what either Rick Warren, Andy Stanley, or Bill Hybels have as their vision of what their church is about and try to apply their vision to their own church. The problem is that each person has a unique blend of giftedness and passions that will drive how they lead the church. What are stated as aspired values and vision may not be the church’s actual vision and values.

Do yourself a favor and read this book. It will shape your understanding of how to establish clear vision for church leadership.

View all my reviews.

Some things are too complicated

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One of the fringe benefits of visiting Brea’s family in Stillwater is that her dad is handy at almost everything. He built his house from the ground up, has restored at least one car and Cushman scooter, and probably a lot of other things that I’ve never heard of. He has a shop that makes working on cars easier. That’s the theory at least.

While I was here I decided to tackle a “minor” fix on Brea’s 2006 Hyundai Sonata. The brake light in her rear window needed to be replaced. This turned out to be a ridiculously hard task when you consider that it was just one stinking, tiny, little light bulb that needed to be replaced.

In order to get to the compartment that held the light, we had to remove the back access area, which required us removing the sides of the back seat, the side panels above the seat, the plastic panel frame, and the top cover (I’m making up names for all these parts). It took a total of about 90 minutes to get to the little light bulb.

We got it all put back together and in working order, but the job reminded me that sometimes in church life we do the same thing. We make what should a simple task, following Christ, in to an extremely complex and complicated thing.

Jesus, thankfully, tells us what it takes to follow him: Love God with all that we are and all that we have and to love people (Matthew 22:34-40). That’s it. Unfortunately we like to make things more complicated than this. No wonder so many people who are new to the church give up on it.

Lord, help me to never forget that following you is simply a matter of growing in relationships.