This post is the first in a series of nine, chronicling my reflections on “The Nines.”  For more info on others in the series, see this post.

My experience with The Nines was kicked off by Dino Rizzo., Lead Pastor of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, LA.  The first point of his talk, “Know Christ,”  set the tone for me for the rest of the day’s experience.  For it struck me how easy it is for us as church leaders to forget this foundational point in the midst of all the wisdom, tips, examples, and information that is available to us.  Not that listening and learning from others is a bad thing.  In fact, more often than not this is a very wise thing to do.

But it can also be VERY BAD!  How?  When we allow the flow of information to crowd out God’s still small voice in our lives.  Which find us looking first at what others are doing and saying, rather than looking to Christ for our guidance and inspiration.

Because when we do this, we make idols out of our experiences, or the experiences of others.  Which skews our perspective, causing us to lose sight of the very one we profess to follow.

This point was reiterated by Nancy Beach, Teaching Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church.  She shared how she was grieved by the observations many have shared with her as they become close to senior leaders of churches.  While noting that there are exceptions, she lamented the fact that so many see less and less of Jesus, the closer they get to these leaders.

Ironic isn’t it?  That folks whose mission it is to introduce people to Christ would become distant from him themselves.  But why is this so?

Maybe it’s a failure of vision.  Maybe it’s harder to follow a Lord and Savior we can’t physically see, than to follow a path that’s well worn by tradition, validated by best practices, or fueled by the cult of the buzzworthy.

Or maybe we’re like Peter.  We get out of the boat ok, and are amazed to find ourselves walking on water.  But then our experience kicks in, telling us it’s actually impossible for us to walk on water.  And our eyes turn away from Christ, becoming fixed on the wind and the waves, causing us to sink.

So we look for ways to keep ourselves afloat, hoping that a new strategy, technique or insight may turn us into better wave walkers.  But we only sink further into frustration and despair.  For if we can’t keep our own head above water, how can we hope to rescue others who are drowning?

So what’s a church leader to do?  Flail harder?  Hide the fact that we can’t walk on water?  Retreat to the shore?  Or look back to the one who can lead us out of the depths, trusting him to help us become and do more than we ever dreamed possible?

I realize this may sound trite and simplistic.  And it is, on one level.  Look to Christ.  That’s it.

But practically consider again who this Christ is… he is Creator and Redeemer; Lord and Savior; Lion and Lamb; Divine and Human; Ruler and Servant; Exalted and Humble; the one true Prophet, Priest, and King; the Good Shepherd; the Prince of Peace; the embodiment of God’s self-sacrificing love, and THE Living Word, who makes all other words meaningful.

I love how my former professor, Yandall Woodfin, puts it, describing Christ as the “clue to reality,” or the connecting principle that makes reality itself meaningful and intelligible.

This Christ then, who has the power to unmake everything in existence, humbled himself out of love to become one of us.  To save us.  To remove the stain of sin and death that separated us from the love of God.  To restore us.  To redeem us.  And to call us to follow him, not as slaves, but as sons.  So now we’re beloved family members privileged to participate in our Father’s mission, carrying this message of redemption and reconciliation to others.

We must never lose sight of that.  We CAN walk on water — do what seems impossible and nonsensical — when our eyes are fixed on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.  The trick is to learn from the lives and experiences of others without idolizing them or allowing them to divert our attention from the unique calling and path God has placed before us.

The last speaker I was able to catch, Jon Tyson (Lead Pastor, Trinity Grace Church, New York, NY), made a point that sums this up well.  Namely, that an echo rarely has power.  This begs the question then, are we seeking God’s face to see and follow his unique direction for our lives, or we merely echoing what we hear from others? Are we fueled by Christ’s water walking inspiration, or our own experience driven expectations?

What are your thoughts?  How do you keep your vision clear and focused on Christ?  What sort of things compete for your attention?  How can you learn from others and their experiences without turning them into idols?

Back on 09/09/09, Leadership Network and Catalyst sponsored an event known as “The Nines.”  Beginning at 9:09 am CST, this online event featured dozens of nine minute streaming video messages presented by Christian thinkers and ministry leaders from around the world.  Each message was essentially a response to the question:  “If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of church leaders, what is the one thing that you would tell them?”

I had a two hour window in which to participate, and saw about twelve of the day’s speakers.  In that span, I took over six pages of notes (and I write small), and noted via twitter that while I was loving the experience, the rapid-fire pace of it all made it feel like I was drinking from a fire hose!

The event created quite a stir as well.  For three hours on 9/9, the conference was the top trending topic on twitter, with over 6,000 tweets containing #thenines hashtag.

While I was tempted to regurgitate my notes and create a couple of quick posts to capitalize on the buzz, I decided instead to slow down, step back, and take time to really reflect on what I had heard.

So in keeping with the nines theme, I’m creating a series of nine posts called Nine Words from “The Nines,” where I’ll be reflecting upon the following key words that emerged from my notes:

1. Christ
2. Context
3. Scarcity
4. Paradoxy
5. Measures
6. Mission
7. Team
8. Innovation
9. Heart

Look for the first installment in the near future.  In the meantime, I’m interested to hear your thoughts.  Did you catch any of The Nines?  Do you have any insights or observations you’d like to share?

I was curious to see what other events may have occurred on this day in history, and apart from the 14th amendment being adopted in 1868, I was surprised to find a list of rather unfortunate events:

1914:  Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia (start of World War I)

1945:  Plane crashes into Empire State Building

1948:  Movie studios observe 3 minutes of silence in honor of D. W. Griffith’s funeral

1965:  Johnson announces more troops to Vietnam

1973:  Bonnie & Clyde’s V-8 sold at auction

1976:  Worst modern earthquake

Not exactly a banner day, huh?  That is until 1990, the day of our wedding.  The day that turned the tide for this date in history.  Don’t believe me?  Consider this:

1991:  Dennis Martinez pitches a perfect game.

Exactly one year after our wedding.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.

One other bright spot on the historical timeline occurred in 1814 - when Percy Bysshe Shelley, the English poet, and Mary Shelley, of Frankenstein fame, eloped to France.  And just as I was inspired to write a poem for my bride, so was Mr. Shelley, author of the famed “Love’s Philosophy,” which reads:

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In another’s being mingle–
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;–
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

Well said Percy, well said.

Happy anniversary to my precious bride.  I’m a blessed and lucky man.

My interest in lice started about a month ago, when my bride and I discovered that a whole colony of head lice had taken up residence in my youngest daughter’s hair.  Which was pretty good for the lice, since my daughter’s long, thick hair is apparently the louse equivalent of a 5-star hotel.

So what’s a louse to do?  Settle down, and start laying eggs, or “nits” - hundreds of them (maybe even thousands - we lost count).  The nits are then conveniently glued (and I mean glued) to individual hair shafts in close proximity to the scalp.  This ensures that newly hatched baby lice or “nymphs” won’t have far to go for their first blood infused meal.  Being well fed then helps the nymphs to grow up, have relations, and then churn out more nits.  It’s the circle of parasitic life! Neat, huh?

Except that my daughter didn’t appreciate the life sustaining beauty of blood sucking and reproducing that was occurring on her head.  Neither did her school.  So we were charged with the task of ridding our daughter of said lice infestation.  Which is much easier said than done, mind you.  Especially if you’re not open to poisoning your child, burning all her bedding/toys,  or cutting off all of her hair…

Short of this, your treatment options include vacuuming and bagging up everything cloth-like that you can’t wash, applying various concoctions to the head to kill the live bugs, and then removing the incredibly small nits by hand.  As in picking them out one by one (aka “nit-picking“).  And literally going over your child’s head with a fine-toothed comb (think unbelievably time consuming).

Fun stuff.  Especially when you spend $150 or so on various commercial neurotoxins (like Rid and Nix) that don’t actually kill the lice, but only tick them off.  Causes you to ponder at times why God allows such creatures to exist.  Seriously.

And then it dawned on me that I had never really experienced or understood how “lousy” being lousy really was.  As in imagining bugs are crawling all over you & biting you all the time lousy.  As in my daughter’s hair is ruined, we’ll never get rid of all these nits, and she’ll never be able to go back to school again lousy.  As in I’m sorry we had to bag up all your stuff, including what you just got for your birthday lousy.  As in “boy I’m glad that’s over,” only to discover they’ve come back and sent an expedition over to your other daughter’s head as well.  Kinda tests the limits of your belief in verses like James 1:2 (Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds…).

But then isn’t that the point of such trials?  To test the limits of our faith, and move us out of the realm of theory into reality.  So I began to see this as an opportunity to experience the power of vision clarity in a new way…seeing how:

• A clear mission (all lice must die!) keeps us focused as a team
• Clear values (preserving our health, hair, and sense of humor) guide our efforts and decision making
• A clear strategy (attack >  assess >  adapt, & repeat) keeps us moving in the right direction
• Clear measures (any nits/lice left alive?) help us track our progress
• A clear vision (lice free living!) compels us to press on and persevere

I know, I’m a freak, but I really do think this way…

Have you had a lousy experience?  What lessons have you learned from lice, or other lousy circumstances?

Truth be told, however, it was Will’s unique vision on vision that compelled me to become part of Auxano in the first place.  Seriously.  In fact, I was contemplating starting my own firm to do what I’m doing now when I first came across the Auxano website a couple of years ago.

Will’s own stunningly unique vision for Auxano literally “had me at hello” (to steal a line from the movie Jerry Maguire).  Why?  Because his articulation of the vision God had given him resonated with me at a deep level - and matched in an eerie and unmistakable way with the calling God was giving me.

The importance of “clarity first,” along with these three unique values especially caught my attention:

• Egoless clarity
• Carnivorous learning
• Contagious passion for the bride of Christ

That rocks, doesn’t it?!!  Well - it did for me anyway…

I have to admit though, my first thought was “dang it - somebody’s beaten me to the punch!”  This was quickly replaced, however, with a sense that I was not in fact insane, and that perhaps God was calling me to unite with other like minded visionaries, rather than seeking to blaze a trail on my own.

So why do I tell this story?  To illustrate a point, namely that a unique articulated vision is a powerfully attractive force.

The converse of this is true as well: an unarticulated vision is simply wishful thinking. If your vision is ever to have wings, it has to be articulated!

What are your thoughts?  Have you ever had an experience like I’ve described above?  Do you have a unique vision you feel compelled to tell the world about?  Is it simply a dream, or is it becoming reality?

[Editor's note:  BIG announcement from my firm, Auxano, ahead...so please keep reading...]

So who’s birthday is it? A book’s, namely Will Mancini’s Church Unique, first published this time last year.

Why is this significant?  Because this book does not present simply another model or treatise on the right way to do church.  Rather, it outlines a process that challenges leaders to discover their own God-given, stunningly unique vision.

As Max Lucado says in the foreword:

This book steers us away from the latest conference fads toward innate congregational strengths.  If you are looking for a one-size fits all approach to a healthy church, try another book.  If you are ready to roll up your sleeves and seek the uniqueness of God’s presence in your fellowship, this is your tool.

Max and hundreds of other church leaders have walked the Vision Pathway with the aid of an Auxano navigator like myself.  To celebrate the book’s birthday, we’ve designed a new way for leaders of smaller churches or church plants to realize the benefits of onsite consulting at a fraction of the cost.

We call it the Church Unique Vision co::Lab.  More specifically, it’s a continuous laboratory for your team packed with focused learning and collaborative coaching.  The cool part is that we’re rolling this out to eight cities this Spring (including Atlanta), and eight more in the Fall.

Interested?  For more info, visit the Church Unique website here.  Or, if you’re in or around Atlanta, feel free to contact me directly via email at me[at]visionnavigator.com (replacing the [at] with the @ sign of course).  Or you can always tweet me on twitter.

Have a favorite quote from Church Unique, or something unique about you or your church you’d like to share?  Leave a comment - I’d love to hear it!  Or if you’re a twitter fiend, add the #churchunique hashtag to your tweet to join the conversation.

I heard a great quote yesterday from a friend and mentor:

Man’s disappointment is God’s appointment.

With today being St. Patrick’s Day, it struck me that this quote was borne out in the life of St. Patrick himself.

For although St. Patrick’s name has become synonymous with all things Irish, he was not a native Irishman.  In fact, he was born in Wales, where he grew up on a farm.  At the age of sixteen, he was captured by raiders, who took him back to Ireland as a slave.  For six years he lived there in relative solitude - separated from family and friends, living the rather lonely life of a shepherd.

During this time, however, he began to pray, and hear from God.  Eventually he heard a voice that told him he would soon be going home.  Later he heard that a ship was being made ready for him.  This prompted him to flee his master and travel to a port 200 miles away, where he found eventual passage back to his home.

A few years after his return, Patrick had a vision.  In it, a man coming from Ireland brought him a letter representing the “Voice of the Irish.”  Patrick also imagined that he heard the voices of Irish natives calling out to him to come and walk among them.  Patrick saw this vision as a call from God to return to Ireland to serve as a missionary.

Note the significance here?  God was calling Patrick to leave the safety and comfort of home to return to the land of his enslavement.  And not only return there, but adopt it, and embrace it as part of his own calling and identity.

And Patrick did return - allowing this vision from God to transform his own view of Ireland - from a place of slavery and personal disappointment, to a place of calling and divine appointment.

During his ministry in Ireland, Patrick took on a second name, becoming known as Patricius Daorbae.  This second name, Daorbae, was a Gaelic word, meaning “he was enslaved.”

Rather than denying or becoming bitter about his bad luck then, Patrick embraced it as part of God’s unique vision for him.  His work as a missionary led to his eventual recognition a few centuries later as the Patron Saint of Ireland.  Ironic isn’t it, how God could transform a seemingly insignificant foreign slave into a revered Saint and native son?

What’s your story?  How do you view the disappointments of your past?  Do your own failures or weaknesses disqualify, or uniquely qualify you to serve God?

After a crazy week of migrating, tweaking, waiting for outages to clear, retweaking stuff messed up from outages, “finding my patience and using it” (as my bride likes to say), etc., I’m pleased to report that the new Vision Navigator blog LIVES!!!

Still have a lot a crazy tweaks and other ideas that I’ll be rolling out, but thought it might be good to actually create a blog post to remind myself what “blogging” is all about

If not, and I somehow manage to blow the whole thing up, well, you can always see what I’m up to on twitter

[Adding this text on the WordPress post for test purposes]

On the heels of this post on validation, and our need to be seen and recognized for who we are, I was reminded of an incredible quote by a new friend on twitter, Jason Mitchener:

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” - Michelangelo

This is a powerful metaphor for God’s redemptive work, isn’t it? Seeing beyond the exterior, and peering deep into the very heart of our being to see who we were created to be. And then chipping away at the barrier that encases and enslaves us - the time hardened exterior we erect that separates us from our Father/Creator and the life we were meant to live.

The only catch is that carving isn’t very pleasant. And neither is being exposed to the light, when you’ve been safely tucked away in the dark for some time. So do we allow ourselves to be carved? Do we expose ourselves to the light to be reshaped in the image of God?

To do so takes trust. Trust not only in the artist’s skill and ability, but also in his heart and vision for us.

Do you have that kind of trust? Do you find yourself moving towards the light, or maintaining your barriers?