Church Unique--Finding God's Vision for Your Ministry

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	• Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement (J-B Leadership ... Will Mancini Jossey-Bass, 2008 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Church Unique--Finding God's Vision for Your Ministry

"Vision, mission, values, strategy"--terms that most church leaders are familiar with. Many churches have written statements to cover these important elements of ministry, but most of us struggle with putting them together for effective and God-honoring ministry.

Will Mancini has done the Church a great service in "Church Unique" to not only demonstrate the importance of each of these elements, but also how you can frame these pieces together to discover how God has created each church to serve in our local and global contexts. While I've read most of the popular books on church leadership and have understood the importance of these various pieces in leading a ministry, Will has helped me to bring them together into a vision framework that makes sense for us. While recognizing the value that WCA, Saddleback and others bring to the discussion, Will ably makes the case that God has a unique vision for your ministry--that may or may not look like the last big (or small) church seminar you attended.

As soon as I read this book, I bought one for each of our elders. The descriptions, process and exercises have been extremely helpful as we have been together, re-discovering God's vision for our next steps in ministry. It's given a framework that makes sense--giving us the confidence that God has a vision for us. While we have much to learn from Warren, Hybels, Stanley and others, Church Unique shows how we can create a vision frame that allows us to know what does and doesn't best fit us and God's vision for our church.

The final section of the book on advancing the vision is a practical tool, which I know we will be referring to regularly. Will gives practical insights in not only how we articulate and deliver the vision, but also what is often the missing piece--how we integrate the vision into our everyday ministry and mission.

If you are trying to get your staff and your church leaders onto the same page or are yourself wrestling with what God's unique movement is for your church and ministry, I would highly recommend "Church Unique" as tool in your journey.

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Systematic

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.

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Will Mancini's Just-Released CHURCH UNIQUE

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.

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Church Leader: Get this book. This is a no-brainer.

I have been fortunate enough as a Pastor to go through the Vision To Grow process outlined in
Church Unique in the past two churches I have served. In both, the process and results have been arguably the most significant thing I've done as a Pastor. The process outlined in Church Unique helps to articulate the UNIQUE context of your local church, not just slapping on the model heard at a conference or adopted by a mega-church.

Church Leader/Pastor Friend, this is the resource you've been searching for. You can not put a price on the clarity, focus and ensuing movement you will help facilitate through this process explained in Church Unique.

This book reads like a cross between text book visioneering, story telling narrative (i.e. Patrick Lencioni's work) and inspiring coaching.

No brainer. Get this book.

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A "Must-Have" Resource!

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.

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Written by church consultant Will Mancini?n expert on a new kind of visioning process 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. In this important book, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions and shows how church leaders can unlock their church's individual DNA and unleash their congregation's one-of-a-kind potential.

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