Granite Etching vs. Sand Writing

This is the close of a four-day look at a section of Will Mancini's "Church Unique". I'm participating in the Charlotte Vision co::Lab, and this section has been jumping all over me!

For the past three days, it's been all about Soul Fast Food - but now it's down to some "solid" stuff!

The real nourishment of your people should come from the vision of your Church Unique. Only then will the enduring purpose of the church reflected locally can replace the substitutes of place, personality, programs, and people.

In his book "Built to Last", author Jim Collins found that enduring organizations have two dominant characteristic that are complementary opposites:

• A strong conviction about core ideals that never changes

• A clear understanding that everything else must change in order to preserve the core

If people are nourished by unchanging vision, they are more agreeable when the rules change with tactics. It takes clarity and discipline to understand which things in the organization belong to which category.


But what if our people were so captivated by the granite etching that it set us free to play with sand drawings? The leader’s role is not just to communicate in both granite and sand but to show how the two components work together. The leader should help people embrace change by nurturing an emotional connection to the unchanging core vision. The leader should preserve and champion the core vision by showing people how to constantly adapt.

Our change management problems today are vision problems first and people problems second. Many leaders want their people to run a missional marathon but unknowingly feed them junk food, leaving them malnourished and unprepared for the future.

If you are leader in ChurchWorld, don't be part of "feeding" your congregation junk fast food - focus on the Bread of Life, and watch your church thrive and grow!When we fail to clarify and nurture the things written in granite, our people get too attached to the things written in sand. This is how the four P’s (place, personality, programs, and people) fit in. These are sand, not granite. As the fluid and flexible stuff of the kingdom they not only should change, but must change. In the absence of vision, the stuff of sand becomes the vision. In the absence of granite, sand is all we can grasp.