Montgomery, Elizabeth

English

Asbury Theological Seminary

Great Commission Research Journal Volume 5 Issue 2 Article 10 1-1-2014 Book Review: Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement by Will Mancini Elizabeth Montgomery Breach Restorers Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/gcrj  Part of the Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Montgomery, E. (2014). Book Review: Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement by Will Mancini. Great Commission Research Journal, 5(2), 275-277. Retrieved from https://place.asburyseminary.edu/gcrj/vol5/iss2/10 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Commission Research Journal by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. Mancini, Will. Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, andCreate Movement. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2008. 271 pp. $16.96.Reviewed by Elizabeth Montgomery. Elizabeth, BBA from University of North Texas andMBA from Southern Methodist University, is the founder of Breach Restorers in Greensboro,North Carolina. Breach Restorers is an organization that supplies congregations withstrategic planning and team building resources. Church consultant Will Mancini introduces a new way of defining andproceeding through the visioning process in Church Unique. He redefines what itmeans to implement the strategic planning process. This book is a valuable tool forchurches and their leadership seeking to discover their potential as the body ofChrist by discovering their unique God-given attributes and parlaying that into amissional mandate that taps into God’s creative genius. Mancini takes the readerthrough the process of creating a Vision Pathway for the church that can bepracticed daily and be made manifest through the people who are the church insideand outside the walls of the church. Mancini provides sound biblical doctrine tosupport his central thesis that churches must move away from a static visionprocess to one that is organic and preemptive in its ability to capture opportunitiesto take the church to the places of God’s blessing literally and figuratively. Mancinibluntly states, “The church in America has no vision. It has programs andinstitutions and property and ministers and politically correct hymnals, but novision” (167). He calls the church to a higher standard for realizing God’s visionfor each uniquely gifted church.Mancini spends some time helping churches and church leadership tounderstand their unique, God-given path, building on the church’s current culture,gifts, heritage, experiences, and tradition to lay the groundwork for a new missionalreality and identity. He starts by explaining why traditional strategic planning andworking with a static vision does not work. He identifies the fallacies thatundermine strategic planning, resulting in incongruent programming,overwhelmed congregation members who have no clear path to follow, andchurches that can only look to a future that is an extrapolation of the past. While giving an appreciative nod to Donald McGavran as founder of theChurch Growth Movement, he claims that these ideas for church growth may nolonger be relevant as metrics for church health in today’s non-Christian, secularenvironment. He calls on churches to be the church rather than to do church—onbeing missional and incarnational rather than attractional. Thus, living and275great commission research journalGCR_5-2 text:GCR Winter2014  3/5/14  11:04 AM  Page 2751Montgomery: Book Review: Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, CaPublished by ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange, 2014sharing the gospel is a natural part of everyday life, and what the church does isdefined by the church’s Kingdom Concept. He emphasizes the importance ofchurches changing from the “inside-out,” of their being rather than their doing. Mancini describes the Vision Pathway as the route that the church takes as itmoves from discovering its Kingdom Concept, to developing a frame for the visionproper, and finally to delivering the vision daily. He advocates a process ofdiscernment and then simplification, as churches dig for the nugget of imperativetruth for their congregations. The complete process is not one that a church cantake in a matter of months, but rather entails an intentional and thoughtfulprocess, whereby stories are gathered, new culture is cultivated, and synergisticopportunities are seized. The church becomes as one on a mission to fulfill itsGod-given mandate every day through the focused lens of its Kingdom Concept.As Mancini describes it, “It takes you to the heart of God’s divine design of yourchurch. It equips you with a ‘community intelligence’ to meet the real needsaround you” (106).While strategy is seen as an important component of the Vision Frame, it isnot the end in itself. Other components include the church’s mission, measures, andvalues (mission motives) that enable a church to advance the Vision Proper. Thestrategy becomes a missional map that guides and directs in a highly simplistic andfocused fashion that all congregation members can easily grasp. Mancini providesexamples of these maps and the effective ways they can be communicated to serveas vision navigation tools for the congregation. Mancini also spends some timeexploring the concept of discipleship as the ultimate measure of a church’s health.He encourages churches to look at what kind of Christian they are trying toproduce (153) and to define ways of measuring progress against this defined ideal. Mancini takes great pains to explain the importance of clarity, passion, andimmediacy when communicating the church’s vision, using multiplecommunication avenues and venues, with the ultimate goal that the congregationcan articulate and live out the vision daily. He cautions against defining vision as along-term dream, and instead describes the vision as “God’s better intermediatefuture.” He seeks to move the church from tired, unmemorable statements tocatalysts for forward movement using dynamic vocabulary. He further looks atvision-casting opportunities, and the ways to overcome those obstacles that seek toundermine the process, as well as the ways to obtain vision alignment in thechurch.Mancini concludes his book with a beautiful prayer that churches might be“unleashed” to realize their God-given destiny. While the book can be overlycomplicated, with multiple steps and even subsets and characteristics of each of276BOOK REVIEWSGCR_5-2 text:GCR Winter2014  3/5/14  11:04 AM  Page 2762Great Commission Research Journal, Vol. 5, Iss. 2 [2014], Art. 10https://place.asburyseminary.edu/gcrj/vol5/iss2/10those, it provides a valuable tool for churches courageous enough to embark onthis process of discovering their own “Church Unique.” His honesty in looking atthe state of the current church and the call for change to reach the least, the last,and the lost is refreshing and inspiring if  not a bit daunting. I would not advise any church to rely solely on the contents of this book to effect the wholesalechange it calls for without the careful assistance of a trained consultant. Just thetime investment alone might be enough to sway many churches from theperseverance and objectivity needed to complete the process. The book is alsovaluable in that it advances ideas designed to alter our perspective on the way welook at church. The value, though, is not in the ideas but in the rallying cry to acton and to follow what he proposes, as we all seek to live out God’s vision for ourlives daily.Vernon, R.A. Size Does Matter: Moving Your Ministry from Micro to Mega. Cleveland, OH:Victory Media & Publishing, 2011.A review by Jeremy Upton, pastor of City of Refuge Church in Miami, Florida. He is agraduate of Morehouse College and Dallas Theological Seminary (Master of Theology). Hehas completed postgraduate study in preaching at Oxford University in England.Among the many criticisms leveled at churches in North America in general,and the megachurches in particular, are charges that the churches are too focusedon money, are too personality-driven, and are not doing enough to help people inneed. Vernon seeks to challenge the current crop of pastors and church planters toaddress these issues in creative and community-oriented ways. His missionalapproach grows out of his theological construct, which was informed by thehistory of the African-American church and influenced by the liberation theologyof James Cone. Being forced into church planting, in 2000 Vernon founded The Word Churchin Cleveland, Ohio. Since that time, The Word Church has seen over 30,000 peopleeither come to Christ or join the church. The church has grown to five worshiplocations and over nine weekend worship services. He has built The Word Churchon a strong commitment to outreach and impact for Christ in the community. Inthirteen years, Vernon has balanced a fast-growing church with an expandingfamily, and he has completed three degrees, culminating in his D.Min. fromAshland Theological Seminary. His commitment to contextualized and creativelyrelevant ministry is evident in the impact that The Word Church has had on thegreater Cleveland area.277great commission research journalGCR_5-2 text:GCR Winter2014  3/5/14  11:04 AM  Page 2773Montgomery: Book Review: Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, CaPublished by ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange, 2014

Book Review: Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement by Will Mancini

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Book Review: Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement by Will Mancini

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