On Being Intentional

I had lunch with Chris, a coworker in my office, yesterday and had a great discussion about the role of communications in ministry. That conversation allowed me to crystallize a thought I’ve been having about what needs to be an intentionality to everything we do.

Intentional is the singular word that keeps bubbling to the surface in my mind regarding the work we do. It transcends just the role of communications in ministry, it should be the force that drives global ministry in general.

Being intentional about our efforts means far more than being strategic. Strategy can easily tend to be forced, contrived, manipulative, inflexible, and ultimately empty. Intentionality, by contrast, provides an undercurrent of mission and purpose to all of our dreaming, planning, execution, measurement, and unified vision.

Agree or disagree?

Wired Churches :: Regional Workshops

Missed the Innovate ‘08 Conference at Granger Community Church (GCC) in Granger, Indiana last month? Bummer. We didn’t. It was an awesome two days of inspiration, motivation, worship, and practical takeaways. See my review post.

But there’s good news! Wired Churches is coming to the Dallas area this Thursday, October 23. These workshops are for pastors, staff, ministry leaders, and volunteers at all levels.

Springcreek Community Church in Garland is hosting three intensely focused simultaneous workshops. Kind of like bringing the best information, trends, insights and ministry strategies from the Innovate Conference to you. Three of GCC’s finest are coming to deliver three power-packed workshops.

Tim Stevens, author of Pop Goes the Church, will teach “Simply Strategic Volunteers;” Mark Waltz, author of First Impressions, will teach a workshop by the same title; and Kem Meyer, soon-to-be-published author of Less Clutter. Less Noise., will teach on Communications.

It isn’t too late to REGISTER yourself as an individual or as a group. I’ll be there and I can’t wait.

How Twitter Changed My Life

If you happen to be unfamiliar with the newest social networking craze, having lived under a rock or something similar, Twitter is a micro-blogging site where followers can stay in touch with what you’re doing in any given moment in 140 characters or less.

OK … Maybe Twitter hasn’t completely changed my life, but it has certainly helped me in one very practical, unexpected way I want to tell you about.

I didn’t go totally kicking and screaming into the Twitterverse, but I have to admit I didn’t get it at first. I couldn’t understand who or why anyone would want to know the up-to-the-minute details of my hum-drum daily life.

After a co-worker (@divpix) explained the value from his perspective, I decided to try it. I’ve only been Twittering about a month now, but I’ve already laughed out loud, been encouraged, and been inspired by the various like-minded people I follow. I also learned how to ‘push’ my Twitter updates to automatically update my Facebook account, too. Very cool.

But I’m surprised to experience a benefit with a pretty cool practical application.

I love quotes, but I am not a natural note taker. Sitting in church last Sunday morning, I realized that I was listening to the message in a new way I’d never really done before. I was consciously listening for brief soundbites that would make good Tweets. My mind was actively listening with a new level of focus and intentionality. I was calculating in real-time how to quote the pastor in 140 characters or less.

After church, the above Tweet from my BlackBerry (while waiting for our table at a restaurant) is a direct result of my newfound love of Twitter. Maybe one reason it works that way is because notes are only for me and require reviewing them at a later time. Yeah, right. Like that’s ever gonna happen. Tweets, on the other hand, are for my followers, as well as myself. It’s an incredibly easy way to share little golden nuggets.

Anyone else have a Twitter success story they’d like to share?

Advertising Doesn’t Work

I spent four years, my “tour of duty,” in Christian Radio here in Dallas before answering the call into church communications and ministry marketing. One thing that’s true about media in general is that it’s all about money. Big money. The station making money, and advertisers making money, so that advertisers will spend even more money with the station.

Before you get sucked into some grandiose promises from your Account Executive and spend a lot of money on your advertising – even if you’re convinced you have an awesome campaign idea – please read the rest of this post.

Here’s the truth: Advertising doesn’t work. That’s what we told all of our potential advertisers to our station. And it doesn’t matter which medium(s) you choose – radio, television, newspaper, banner ads, billboards, direct mail – it just doesn’t matter.

Here’s the whole truth: It’s not the advertising itself that’s working. It’s the offer you make that’s either working or not working.

Before you even consider advertising, the starting place for your marketing goal is to determine the offer you’re making to your audience. By the way, “awareness” is not a marketing goal. Awareness campaigns, unless you’re a brand new church plant or have just relocated, are for lazy thinkers. For more on that subject, see my earlier post.

Begin with one offer – one truthful promise you can deliver – and build your strategy from there. Keep your offer simple, tangible, and real.

How do you do that? Good question. Here’s something to ask yourself: What are you best at? But not four or five things. That one thing. Just one. Focus on one campaign at a time. Refer to your singular driving vision and purpose. Look to your greatest strength rather than a hodge-podge mix of mediocre strengths and potential weaknesses.

• Do you offer a welcoming, loving community?
• Do you offer the chance to impact your local community? The world?
• Does every Sunday message inspire, challenge, motivate, and mobilize a force for effective change?
• Do you have an effective homeless ministry?
• Do you have an incredible Small Groups emphasis for growth, fellowship and discipleship?
• Is your worship music out-of-the-park awesome?
• Is your children’s ministry the best in the city?
• Does your student ministry help kids grow into passionate disciples?
• Is a partnership with a local crisis pregnancy center making a positive difference?
• Do you have a counseling center that is helping save marriages from the brink of divorce and restore a Christ-centered relationship?
• Can your church report more people coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ and the greatest measurement of life transformation than any other church around?

Today’s consumers are bombarded, jaded, cynical, skeptical, protective, and defensive. Yes, even other Christians. You’ve gotta make it a simple, compelling offer. I’m convinced that it would be incredibly poor stewardship to throw money at something that won’t provide a good return on investment (ROI). I’ll even go so far as to say that if you can’t identify one singular offer, don’t advertise.

I’d love to know your thoughts.

Turning a Corner

Maybe you can relate. There are seasons of experience that are like either moving straight ahead slowly, moving straight ahead quickly, turning to the left or right, standing completely still, sliding backwards, or sliding into a ditch and getting stuck.

If I’m driving along and need to pause and wait at a light, or get stalled in rush hour, I’m usually anxious to get moving again. Sometimes I don’t even care if I need to turn and go miles out of my way just so that I can feel like I’m going somewhere.

Our Communications Ministry, like riding bus with some really awesome people, is about to turn another corner. I can’t tell you any details right now, but some more turns are coming that have me really excited and energized.

Riding this Communications bus is much like riding from one end of town to another. Meetings, conversations, and impromptu brainstorming sessions are generating a lot of momentum right now. We’re picking up speed and about to turn toward the intersection of High Impact Blvd and Effectiveness Lane.

I really love what Steven Furtick said over on his blog, “I’m worrying less about impressing people with my messages, and obsessing more about making an impact.”

Naturally, what this means is needing to navigate the complexities of change. Some areas of change will be well recieved and others may not. Please join me in praying for smooth roads along our journey.

I’ll be posting periodic mile markers. Be on the lookout for my traffic reports and progress updates.

HPPC All Church Day 2008

more about “HPPC All Church Day 2008“, posted with vodpod

Church of the Biggest Loser

There are only a handful of reality TV shows that I really dig watching on a regular basis. If you’ve never seen The Biggest Loser, it’s where a bunch of overweight people compete over 13 weeks to lose the most weight, win $250,000, and get the honor of being named … the biggest loser.

There are also quite a few interesting parallels between The Biggest Loser and a good church.

Here are my top five observations:

1. Inspirational. Week after week, you get to see people work extremely hard, as individuals and teams, to accomplish some amazing things. Some of these people, besides being overweight, are struggling with sever emotional and psychological issues … and overcoming them. I once let it slip out loud that I was more inspired each week from watching The Biggest Loser than going to church … Oops.
2. Community. Only one person can ultimately win the grand prize, but there’s a genuine sense of community among the contestants. They encourage each other, cheer for each other, celebrate others successes, and console their setbacks.
3. Educational. In addition to learning an exercise routine that works, they’re learning about the role of food in their lives and how to make it work for them, rather than against them. It’s very practical and relevant to their daily lives.
4. Interactive. Viewers of the program are encouraged to go online to learn more for themselves the tips and strategies that the contestants are learning. Anyone can get involved from wherever they are.
5. Transformational. There’s a line from a voiceover at the end of each show that really grips me: “…The Biggest Loser Club. It’s changing lives.” What a direct rip off of what every church should be able to say!

Just please don’t ask me how in-shape I’ve gotten … I’d be ashamed to tell you.

Jesus Is a Hard Sell

I’ve recently really begun grappling with what we’re really doing, and defining what we do, as church communications professionals. I mean, what’s our primary goal? What marketing and advertising philosophies drive our creative direction? What strategies define and shape our activities? What could possibly make working for a church worth the hassle?

Marketing and branding in general, thankfully, have shifted from a one-sided broadcast message to a dynamic relational consumer experience. Smart companies have moved beyond just getting your money to developing a relationship with you.

Lots of churches get that. Lots don’t. Here’s what makes Jesus a hard sell:

• Jesus isn’t free – He very well may cost you everything. Even your life.
• Jesus doesn’t make your life easier – He may actually make it harder here on Earth.
• Jesus doesn’t save you money – it’s not yours to begin with. It’s His.
• Jesus doesn’t help make anything move faster – He asks you to be still and know that He is God.

None of the old-school marketing promises (ploys) work. Yet I see plenty of clever and funny attempts to make the church attractive to the general public that are nothing more than turning the church into a commodity. It breaks my heart.

As I see it, we as church communications specialists are here to:

• Present the church less as a commodity and more of a community.
• Stop giving people information, give them a reason to care. “…compel them to come in…” Luke 14:23.
• Highlight opportunities, through various media outlets, to shine a light of love, hope, peace, comfort, help, faith, joy, tolerance, endurance, and more love.
• Help them see less of the church (small c) and more of the Church (capital C) in action.
• Stop merely telling people what they should believe and more how to live in Christ.
• Mobilize people into action.
• Challenge people to grow in ways they’ve never imagined.

Care to add to the list? How do you see it?

Innovate 08

There’s so much to report. There’s so much to implement. Here are some highlights from the Innovate 08 Conference.

Awesome worship team primarily volunteer fueled

Granger’s Senior Pastor Mark Beeson launched with a call to action. “We are in a culture that wants something to happen.” “The church can talk too much and do too little because we’ve disengaged from a world in desperate need.”

Seacoast Church’s Experiences Pastor Shawn Wood, author of 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One, said, “Be careful. Managing your brand, perfecting your brand, pursuing excellence, making better art, better “stuff” can tend to compromise your authenticity.” “We may be excellent, but could be ineffective.”

Granger’s Rob Wegner brought a compelling session called Missional Moves that challenged us to move from “flashlight to laser focus.” When we just talk, talk, talk, “some are confusing the Great Commission with the great commotion.” Narrowing focus dramatically increases impact.

Roland (L); Kem (R)

I even had Kem Meyer, Granger’s Communications maven stop me to get a picture … uhm … OK, well … I stopped her. I’m pretty sure she has absolutely no idea who I was.

Other awesome speakers were an encouragement and inspiration. I’m definately adding Steven Furtick of Elevation Church to my blogroll.

We closed out the two-day conference with a close-up guided tour of the behind-the-scenes workings of the Granger campus … a surprisingly small space for such a large attendance for multiple weekend experiences.

I’m really diggin’ the idea of returning to Granger next year for Innovate 09 already scheduled for September.

The Road To Innovation Is Paved With Dogs and Crap

My very first Coney Island dog

So my HPPC Communications homies – Jon, Chris, Zack, and me – spent the better part of the day today travelling to the Innovate 08 Conference at Granger Community Church.

We flew out of DFW this morning into Ft. Wayne, IN. Once we got there, we stopped through downtown Ft. Wayne (Jon’s hometown) and landed in Famous Ft. Wayne Coney Island.

Note the Coca Cola in a bottle. Nice touch.

Could not resist this "crappy" caption in Stoner's window

After lunch, we strolled across the street to Stoner’s – an incredibly unexpected treasure of novelty items, costumes, and magic tricks.

I’m not sure how they got their name, but if their clientel is any indication …

One two-hour car ride later, we arrived to check-in to our hotel … only to discover we didn’t have reservations there. Doh! The issues did get resolved, though. We’re across the street tonight and back at the original place tomorrow and Friday.

Anyway, we’re all really looking forward to an awesome conference and connecting with old and new friends. I’ll be posting some session notes and pics here. I know all two of you are anxiously awaiting …