Much of Will Mancini’s Church Unique reads like an intervention.  His goal is to show cookie cutter Churches the kingdom potential they can have with a vision unique to their own church.

Unique politely deconstructs the popular business models that churches picked up at conferences in the 90s, and proposes a method for articulating a church’s individual call.  Much of the book is dedicated to the idea of vision, what it is, and why it is important.  Mancini doesn’t try to present anything new, borrowing from Jim Collins and others, but he does make a case for the destructive power that a lack of vision can have on a church.

There are no silver bullets in this book.  Just a process for nailing down some necessary elements — mission, strategy, values and measures — which allow one to articulate a vision proper.  The beauty of method is that it applies to any church or organization, no matter the size, denomination or theological bent.  Whether old fashion or emergent, calvinist or arminian, house or mega, your church would be better off having defined these elements.

What I found most exciting, and disappointing, was the last section of the book, which touches on how this might be implemented in the Church.  Exciting to imagine the broad affect it could have, and disappointed there wasn’t more.  It seems to me that Mancini has material for a second book, chronicling the transition to a Church Unique.

I hope he writes it soon, because we need it.