Summary: Church Unique by Will Mancini is a comprehensive book on creating a mission oriented church that clearly understands where it is going and how it is creating a unique impression that only it can offer. Mancini has crafted a process for looking deep into the nuts and bolts of mission, vision, values and communication and making that real in the church.
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In a world of cookie cutter models of church that invite us to follow the next guy, just because it’s working over there, Church Unique offers a process for church leaders that carries them through a unique path to creating God’s unique expression for each church. For this reason alone, every church pastor should pick up and read this book. It is a clarion call to discover the harder path that allow each church to resonate in a distinct way.
The book is broken up into four sections that all deal with vision: Recasting Vision, Clarifying Vision, Articulating Vision, and Advancing Vision. Each section offers a detailed understanding of Mancini’s process for creating this unique expression. My favorite section was Mancini’s concept of “Thinkholes”. This section alone was worth the price of the book (my copy was a gift by Auxano but I wanted to read it).
Mancini offers a quote that resonated with me for days and one of the central reasons for discovering the Unique DNA of each church. He says,
“The dramatic irony is that what happens at the conference is the exact opposite of what propelled the host church to be effective in the first place. Each of these leaders endured a process of self-understanding and original thinking that helped in articulating a stunningly unique model of ministry.”
That is brilliant my friends. It is essentially the trial and error process, hard work, and resolve around a unique expression imparted by God that makes churches grow. And those leaders/pastors willing to take that risk usually end up on the stage.
The rest of the book identifies Auxano’s process for helping churches discover their own Unique expression. These include: Discovering your kingdom concept, Developing your vision frame, and delivering your vision daily.
Mancini’s process is dense and would obviously benefit from Auxano’s help through the process. I have a background in marketing, communications and business in Silicon Valley and I found I had to set the book down at times to chew on what was said.
There will be those who would easily bash the book for it’s emphasis on the business structure it proposes. But I would suggest that any church needs to understand it’s own unique expression, the vision and mission it wishes to follow and how to communicate that effectively. Mancini offers a “unique” process for discovering that.
Missio Dei 