THINK DIFFERENTLY

Advertising is Dead.

I was watching a commercial for some “gold-into-cash” website the other day. They used adjectives like, “the best”, “better”, “faster” and “we pay top dollar” (technically not an adjective, but who’s counting?) to describe their service.

My instant thought was: “How do you know?”

How do you know that your service is the best? Better or faster than the competition? How do I know you pay top dollar for my gold? Are you going to give me my gold back so I can send it to another company for the sake of comparison?

And here’s one for burger joints, how do I know you have the world’s best burgers? Or that your particular brand of burger is world famous? Really? You sure people in Bangladesh are going to know what I’m talking about when I say “Burgerland”?

Doubtful.

As a matter of fact, advertising seems to be having an adverse effect, with people simply tuning the “ad chatter” off. (Case-in-point: While listening to the radio, I heard a spot where they gave the phone number for the company three times in a row. I heard the announcer take a breath for the fourth round and promptly turned the radio off.)

Dave Winer shares my sentiment:

Assuming the economy comes back from the recession-depression thing that it’s in now, when it does, we will have completely moved on from advertising.

The web will still be used for commercial purposes, people will still buy things from Amazon and Amazon-like sites, but they will find information for products as they do now, by searching for it, and finding out what other people think, not by clicking on ads and buying things on the pages they link to.

No one needs advertising, and there are much better ways to sell products.

Where am I going with all of this? Simple. This little observation has massive implications for the church. For the way we “market” the church, if you will. (Although, Tony Morgan will argue that the church should give up marketing altogether.)

No longer can we depend on “Sunday Night Casual Service” or “Wednesday Night Potluck” to bring people into the pews. For the most part, a watching world has no idea what a church service looks like, let alone a casual one, at that. People will be drawn to your church - the Church - once they see life change flowing from it. And not before.

Amazon has a feature that suggests products to you based on what you’ve looked at or bought in the past. It also has customer reviews that tell the Average Joe/Josephine everything they need to know about the product and whether or not it delivers on its promises. A business may not always be honest about the benefits and drawbacks of its product, but a consumer always will be.

Could it be that the massive decline in American churches is because people are tired of a “product” that doesn’t deliver what it promises?

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Amazon.com, Church Marketing

The Simple Church.

Is your church simple? I don’t mean simple as in, “Hey you Simpleton, take that dunce cap off your head and figure it out!” But simple as in, “I know what we’re doing. I know why we’re doing it. And, most importantly, I know how we are going to get it done.” Here’s a taste of simple:

• Google has one image, a few links, and a search box on its main page, yet it is responsible for 75% of the searches conducted on the Internet.
• Apple’s iPod is one of the best selling pieces of technology of all time, yet it essentially has one big button (scroll wheel plus a select button in the middle) that controls the whole device. There are other devices that have more robust features, but none have managed the simplicity of navigation that Apple has. (This, of course, is to say nothing of the iPod Touch which has no “physical” buttons at all!)
• Fast food restaurants like Chick-Fil-A have literally one item on the menu: Chicken. They also have about a bazillion ways in which they prepare said chicken (I know, I counted once), but the point is clear: We do chicken and chicken alone. In a word, simplicity.
• I recently came across John Maeda’s website, The Law of Simplicity, and my life feels less cluttered already. Maeda is a world-class designer who focuses on one of the most overlooked yet essential elements of design, simplicity.

In a world as cluttered as ours is, wouldn’t it be refreshing for the church to be an oasis for the messy masses? I realize I’m painting with big, broad, idealistic strokes here, but how can we be more intentional about “cutting the fat” in our churches?

Figuring out what God has called us in our specific context to do and jettisoning the rest? That may mean prayerfully discerning what beloved programs and classes need to get “Old Yeller’d” - tied up to the tree in the backyard and shot dead! If a program has gone “Old Yeller”, it’s become a danger to you and the people you’re shepherding. It won’t be long before that rabid program gets out of hand and bites someone!

Has anyone out there figured out ways to “beat the bloat” of so many churches today? What’s worked? What hasn’t?

Mad props to the authors of “Simple Church” for the base of this post. Go out and by it!

Technorati Tags: Chick-Fil-A, Google, iPod, John Maeda, Old Yeller, Simple Church

Megachurch v. Mini-church

I have so many thoughts about the webinar I attended today, put on by Digital.Leadnet.org, but I’ll save those for another post. There’s a good recap and discussion going on over at Barker Banter and a gem of a recap at Digital. Suffice to say, the mind was officially blown.

I read a newsletter recently from 2002 written by Greg Johnson of the Center for Christian Study. I then promptly sent it out to my leadership team and the leadership team of my church. The whole piece was full of prophetic insight, but my favorite passage discusses what the church has looked like, currently looks like, and will need to look like in order to be effective. Greg Johnson:

1. The church without small groups, which worked fine for congregations of thirty in pre-modern contexts where everyone lived in close proximity, such that shared community life was easier. If small enough, the church essentially was a small group.

2. The church with small groups, where small groups exist as optional extracurricular activities within the church. This is by far the dominant model today.

3. The church as small groups, a more radical community- driven model. Membership is not gained by taking a class or by attending a service, but by maintaining a healthy commitment to a small group of the church. If you’re part of a small group, you’re part of the church and take its vows. If not, then not. No long-term pew warmers as members. The group provides the mutual pastoral care and shepherding in the church, and the Session oversees the groups. Corporate worship is understood as the joining together of the groups of the church into the whole assembly. I’m drawn toward this model precisely because the community relationship, not the individual, is the basic unit of the church. I think American churches would do well to consider this direction as a viable option.

If it’s one thing I learned from the webinar, it’s that Internet campuses are allowing churches to exist as small groups like never before. What, if any, thoughts do you have on that? Let’s hear some flavor.

Update: The full, recorded webinar I keep talking about can be found here. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Center for Christian Study, Digital Life, Digital Pastor, Digital.Leadnet.org, DJ Chuang, Greg Johnson, Internet Campus, Webinar

The Digital Pastor Pt. 2

A little while ago, I wrote on the future role of the digital world in the life of a pastor. It got some attention, appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, and generated even more ideas for me personally.

Since then I’ve done a little more digging, a little more connecting (with very cool people like Rhett Smith, Anne Jackson, and Tony Steward) and realized, as I put it to my senior pastor, “We don’t even know how deep this rabbit hole goes.” With a dozen or so churches with Internet campuses (and many more contemplating the move to the web), the Church is looking at the Internet as a viable option for true Christian community.

The Denver Post wrote a fascinating article on the role of technology in the church. Among the gems in the piece, this one surfaced as particularly poignant:

“Church is not the Internet or a building — it’s people.” If the notion that a virtual community can be as real as a physical one seems crazy, you may be showing your age.

Thanks to online shopping, online dating, online social networking and online darn-near-everything-else, many young Americans don’t distinguish between their friends from school and those from Facebook.

These youngsters just see them all as friends, said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, a consulting firm that conducts survey research for churches and other religious groups.

In fact, Kinnaman’s firm predicts that by 2010, 10 percent of Americans will rely exclusively on the Internet for their religious experience.

10 percent. 10 percent! Clearly the Church is facing a change that it must adapt to or face extinction in its current form. American Christians need only look to Europe to see where the U.S. will be in 15-20 years on the coasts; 20-25 years in Middle America. Will the American megachurches of today become the stoic shells of the now abandoned tourist-attraction cathedrals of Europe? They will if the U.S. church does not begin to speak the language of the culture surrounding it. That language, undeniably, becomes more digital by the day.

Rhett Smith points out that the “front door” of churches is no longer a “physical” one:

Do we even realize that the physical building isn’t the front door anymore, but that the online world is the front door? If you don’t have a strong [online] presence, or aren’t telling a good story online, which is the front door–will you be able to bring people from the online world, to the physical front door of the church?

The line between “offline” and “online” is beginning to blur, if not fade altogether. People under 20 don’t view life in “off-” or “online” categories, it simply is “life.” If you (and your church) don’t begin to understand and learn to speak the language of this younger generation, no amount of catch-up and “digital cramming” will help in as little as five years.

Are you seeing these patterns in your church? Do you believe the virtual church can replace the physical church? Or, does technology need to be a means to an end and not the end itself?

I’m attending a free webinar tomorrow where Lifechurch.tv’s Brian Donaldson and Flamingo Road’s Brian Vasil will be taking a closer look at Internet campuses. These are guys who work at churches that are pioneering Christianity’s move to the digital world. It’s a “no-miss” and I’d encourage you, if you have any interest in this at all, to attend as well. Your church will thank you for it (eventually).

Additional Resources:

Rise of the Social Media Pastor on Digital.Leadnet.org

Social Media Pastor Or Pastor with Social Media on Levite Chronicles

Technorati Tags: Anne Jackson, Digital Life, Digital Pastor, Rhett Smith, Social Media, Tony Steward

Luther Representin’.

H(at)T(ip) to Collide Magazine for this gem from Catalyst 08:

“[Seth] Godin defines a heretic as ’someone whose faith is so strong they’re willing to take heat from the status quo.’ The example he gave that resonated with the Catalyst crowd? Martin Luther. He was excommunicated (and nearly killed) for his commitment to his convictions. I couldn’t help but wish the Church found itself infested with more ‘heretics’ these days—people willing to take heat for challenging our narcissism, greed, and laziness (among other things).”

I love this. A “religiously unaffiliated” marketing genius challenging a roomful of passionate, engaged Christians to live the life that God intends for them. That is beauty. That is God.

What about you? How are you being “heretical” in your context? What “whisper from God” are you hearing that would make everyone else around you shriek in disgust? In the words of Nike: “Just do it.”

Technorati Tags: Catalyst 08, Collide Magazine, Seth Godin

The Digital Pastor

God is seriously blowing my mind.

I’ve recently come across the term, “Digital Pastor” and I really like it. I really like it.

There was an event that happened earlier today, something called #churchtechcamp. Basically the conversation consisted of asking the question, “What does God want to do through the new digital media?” Things like Twitter, Facebook, Mogulus, Second Life, the iPhone, and more.

Rhett Smith points out that the times are a-changin’ for those who call themselves pastors:

“I love ministry…I was and am a pastor, so I love pastoring. But I also think that technology is allowing us to do things differently in a very easy way…communicate, organize, etc, etc. And hopefully the congregation can do this without having to go through all the traditional, hierarchical church structures that have for too long consolidated “power” in the hands of a pastor, exec. team, elder board, etc.

Instead, I think it will put the “power” back in the hands of the congregation…and the pastor will act more as a facilitator, shepherd for the community. But I think that is a great thing.

And maybe we need to rethink the whole role of pastoral leadership in this country anyways.”

Amen, bro. Amen.

Technology is allowing us to approach life in an entirely new way, the church included. Luther had the printing press. We, as the 21st century church, have the Internet. The question becomes will we allow God to breathe through these new mediums and bring his life-changing reality to people in new and creative ways?

#churchtechcamp made the Twitter blog today (and for the record, that’s a big deal.)

Chris Brogan, a faith blogger (amongst other things), is listed in the Top 100 blogs on Technorati.

LifeShare, a recent web ministry event co-opted by Lifechurch.tv and Carlos Whitaker, blew everyone’s expectations away by linking countless numbers of believers over the internet in an effort to “become the church” online.

If you’re in ministry, are you prepared to engage a culture in a completely new way? Are you prepared (or willing to be prepared and/or prepare others) to translate the message of Christ using a fully digital language? If “digital” is not your native tongue, will your accent betray you to a generation that is desperate to know that God is real?

In the meantime, hit me up on Twitter and we can talk about it. In 140 characters or less, of course.

Technorati Tags: #churchtechcamp, Digital Pastor, Facebook, LifeChurch.tv, LifeShare, Twitter

Over-Functioning, Under-Delivering.

“I see too many pastors over-functioning for their people. They make way too many decisions for them.” I haven’t been able to stop thinking about these words that a professor of mine spoke over two months ago.

Add that to the following passage from Mark Batterson’s latest, Wild Goose Chase:

“I’m afraid we’ve turned church into a spectator sport. Too many of us are content with letting a spiritual leader seek God for us. Like the Israelites, we want Moses to climb the mountain for us. After all, it is much easier to let someone else pray for us or study for us. So the church unintentionally fosters a subtle form of spiritual codependency.”

Wow. How refreshing that some of the leaders in the church are willing to come out and name the elephant in the room. People in the church, myself included, depend entirely too much on their leaders to spoon feed them morsels of spiritual truth. The office of the pastor and preacher, to my conviction, is much less “spoon-feeder” and much more “spoon-teacher” - as in, “teach you how to hold the spoon!”

I try to always stress to my leaders that I am “no better and no different” than they are. I happen to be in a place of leadership, yes, but they have an equal part to play in what God is doing through our ministry. I do not want to be exalted as a “spiritual guru,” nor do I think it would be good for my spiritual health. (Trust me, I am that weak!)

I wonder if the problem we’re seeing with leaders in the church is the same problem we’re seeing in the schools? Parents depending on teachers to not only teach them but to also raise them, teaching them everything from morals to mathematics. I wonder if it’s the same problem we’re seeing in our homes, depending on our televisions to watch our children as a more convenient (and less expensive) babysitter.

Are you seeing any of this? If you’re a church-goer, do you feel like your congregation depends too much on your leaders?

Technorati Tags: Church Leadership, Dan Jass, Mark Batterson

Tips For Young Pastors.

I’ve been on a Craig Groeschel kick lately.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that we have similar backgrounds (out-of-control frat guys, partying our brains out any chance we got who were radically changed by the Spirit of Christ). Or maybe it’s the fact that he has a knack for saying semi-inappropriate things that most people think pastors should not be saying (besides incredibly profound insight in his book, “It”, he’s also generous with “poo” and “pee” stories from his children). Either way, I think Craig has some really good stuff to say.

Below is a list he compiled for Outreach Magazine, a list of advice containing bits of wisdom he wishes someone would have given him 20 years ago (he’s now 40). Here are a few of my favorites from “Advice For Young Pastors”:

Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Ministry is a marathon, not a sprint.

Jesus cares more about the church than you do.

You can’t please everyone…so why try?

People will criticize you. Quit whining. Get used to it.

You can’t do it all. Stop trying.

If you blame yourself for the bad results in ministry, you’ll likely also take credit for the good results.

Become close friends with other pastors in your town (as many as you can).

Your kids will be grown before you know it. Don’t sacrifice them on the altar of ministry.

Your ministry isn’t your god. God is your God.

You know how to give and how to minister to others. If you don’t learn how to receive, you’ll burn out and/or die.

Believe in people that others overlook.

Your integrity matters more than you can imagine.

Take care of yourself. Eat right. Rest. Exercise. Take time off. No one else can do that for you.

If you don’t take much time off, it’s because you’re proud, and you think you’re more necessary than you really are.

Talk about Jesus every time you preach.

Love your wife more than you love the church. The church is Jesus’ bride, not yours.

Compliment, encourage, and build up your staff and volunteers.

Hand write thank you notes.

Any older pastors out there have anything to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Craig Groeschel, It, Outreach Magazine, Pastors

Pastoral Tips On Ending Boring Meetings.

The following comes from LifeChurch.tv’s Craig Groeschel:

“For some reason, when someone schedules an appointment with a pastor, they generally assume it will be a one hour appointment. Most one hour appointments could be handled in much less time. Years ago, I shortened my appointments to 45 minutes. We’d explain ahead of time that I have 45 minutes allotted for the meeting. No one complained. We got to the important stuff a lot faster. After some time, I shortened most meetings to 30 minutes and some to 10 or 15. It is amazing how much important ground you can cover when both parties understand how much time you have to work with and you get right to the important issues.”

Can anyone relate? Seems as though those of us in ministry (and even those not in ministry: Anyone ever had a corporate staff meeting that went forever? Yeah, you feel my pain.) like to have meetings about meetings, meetings to schedule meetings, and meetings to meet about when we last met about meeting! Can I get an “Amen”?

Point being, very few things any more require more than 30-45 minutes of my time. I am really not that important.

What about you? What strategies do you have for cutting down your “non-productive” time? One tip I’ve implemented lately is the “Always-On Away Message”. I keep my away message on and tell people when I’m answering emails that day. For instance:

That way, people know when they are going to get a reply from me. And not a second sooner. (And if I get an incessant emailer, for every one email they send me, they get one back!) What about you? Let’s hear it in the comments.

Technorati Tags: Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.tv