It starts with a very interesting experiment by Adam Galinsky at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Draw the letter E on your forehead.

Really. Go ahead.

No peeking at the answer.

This won’t hurt.

Probably.

Photo credit: Adam Galinsky, Blackwell Publishing

Which does yours look like? The one on the right or the left?

Okay, now you can look at what your result means, right here. But then come back and let’s talk about them.

Welcome back.

I believe it is essential, though not easy, to think how others are perceiving us and our message. Both for the pastor and the artist.

A quote from one of the researches serves as a warning to pastors

“Across these studies, power was associated with a reduced tendency to comprehend how others see, think, and feel.”

As you step up on that platform rising above all the people, you step into that position of power. It is up to you to decide if you will look down on the people or look at the people. You have to decide if you will only look at scripture through your eyes, the eyes of someone that loves God enough to dedicate himself to the work of ministry or through the eyes of those you are bringing the scripture to. Will you take a moment to look at scripture through the eyes of someone who struggles with their faith, who are just trying to make it through the day, or who might think they have it all together?

And why should you do this, why do we need to show empathy? Pink (the author not musician) has an answer

It’s not a matter of deciding between hitting your numbers or drawing the E. It’s a matter of hitting your numbers by drawing the E.

Of course we’re not talking about numbers. We’re talking about something much more important, making it even more important to watch your perspective.

For the artist we must be sure to look at our work through their eyes. How do they perceive it? Do they even get it? It’s the reason I’m not a fan of the cross within your church logo, that cross may not mean anything to them yet. (and also the fact that if you have to wear a cross to show that your a Christian…but that’s another post entirely.) It’s also why I talk over and over about communicating with your art over shock and awe from your art. We have to do more than make the sermon slides look pretty, it has to say something to those experiencing it.

It’s important to remind ourselves that we are not called to a building or even an organization, but we are called to a people.

What do you do to help look through the eyes of others? How do you make sure you see things as they do?

There’s a story at Christianity Today asking “Should We Still Give Out Tracts?” as a group in Illinois petitioned the courts to distribute anti-Catholic leaflets at Catholic festival. They were given the green light as a Court of Appeals declared it unconstitutional to restrict them by Christians at an Arab International Festival in Dearborn.

Really? Both of these situations are ridiculous and full of hate. Do you really think Christ showed his love to you by dying on a cross so that you could rub your conviction and condemnation in someone’s face ? How does that even look good on paper? Stop it.

And let’s get it out of the way. Tracts are cheesy. All of them. Nope, they’re not clever and not cute. If you’ve found the exception please send me one.

So to recap so far. Stop hating and stop being cheesy.

Good. Moving on.

While I like Shane Claiborne’s response

“God spoke to Balaam through a donkey. So I reckon God can also use a tract.

has anyone really come to understand Christ as Lord and King by reading your tract-that-looks-like-a-50-dollar-bill? I doubt it.

I don’t doubt that you’ve caused your waitress to curse at you and your church as you leave said tract as your “generous” tip.

Your tract is a waste of ink.

Salvation isn’t easy. It’s not some magic formula that you read and apply. It’s a process and it begins with relationship. So put burn your tracts and develop some relationships. Here’s a couple old school spinoffs that you can try:

Go door to door.
Go meet your neighbor. Bring cookies over ever now and then, invite them over for coffee, pause and say hi as you walk the neighborhood. Earn the right to invite.

A better tract.
I am a fan of invite cards. Small business size cards that act as reminders of a conversation, invite, etc. with a fellow co-worker, the nice lady at the gas station and yes to your waitress after you’ve left a big tip and showed some interest in her. But that invite is an extension of a conversation, not the beginning and end of one.

What sayeth thou? Ever heard of anyone getting saved through a tract? Think there’s a place at all for them? Which does Jesus hate more tracts or Papyrus?

Facebook killer? No…it’s more than that.
Twitter killer? Not so much even in that arena.

Here are my highlights and why G+ will take a very dominant role in the online arena.

Making social, personal

I like the organization they’ve built in right from the start. It allows me to not only be sure I hear the people that really matter to me but also allows me to have unique conversations with different groups. The story I tell to pastors is different than what I tell to artists. Circles gives that unique message to each.

An even longer tail

G+ has it’s ‘like’ button (+1) but also takes a queue from Twitter with ‘share’. Not only is this something that I find missing in Facebook, but I think it will go beyond just sharing it in my stream because of this:

Google+Everything

And this is how I think Google’s play is a huge move. This isn’t about competing against Facebook or Twitter, this is bigger than social media. G+ brings your email, your documents, your photos, the blogs you read, events you’re attending and brings them all together. It blurs the line between them all, or rather knocks down the wall. Like this presentation says it’s all about the cloud.

And this really is just the start. I believe this was a huge move by Google. I’m not super active with it yet as I’m not a huge fan of in-browser software (my gmail is within mac mail, facebook and twitter through Hootsuite, etc), but this has huge potential.

If you don’t have G+ yet and need an invite just leave a message. If you’re on, what are your reactions so far?

Oh, and you can find me at gplus.to/holycow

I’m still thinking about Netflix’s flop this week. While it seems everyone’s upset about the price, the biggest fail for Netflix wasn’t the price increase but how they handled it. Or more to the point, how they didn’t handle it. They pretended this to be something we should be excited about and when people weren’t?

Crickets.
No social interaction.
No comments.
Nothing. 

They didn’t just send a message that the cost was going up, they sent the message that they didn’t care about their customers.

LESSON 1: PEOPLE WANT TO MATTER.

LESSON 2: SOCIAL MEDIA REQUIRES ENGAGEMENT

LESSON 3: COMMUNICATION MATTERS

And a 60% price increase is a big enough jump that it will cause me to downgrade my subscription. It also opens up the field. I trust Netflix to get me DVDs. Streaming? Not as many moving parts. If your library is good, pricing is good, than I’m in. Before this I’d not had considered others.

LESSON 4: KNOW WHY PEOPLE LOVE YOU

Oh and Netflix, Redbox says Thank You!

Do you agree that this was a flop? What other lessons can we learn from this?

Here’s one big highlight, in fact it highlights a big reason I started Holy Cow.

Anything and everything that connects to your organization communicates something about it.

Again, I’m only half way through it and there is a ton of great content in the 274 pages, but if pastors only grab hold of that quote and begin to look at what we’re doing differently it will be a huge win.

I started Holy Cow to help change and improve the way the church communicates. And while what we do is translated to logos, sermon branding, etc. and in the beginning that was my sole focus, what we were outputting, communication goes much deeper than that.

How you treat volunteers, the way people are greeted, how you take your offering, and yes, the car the pastor drives…all communicates.

For me, I define marketing within the church as communication. It’s not about slick sales pitches or bait and switch, that’s not the type of marketing I talk about when I talk about church marketing. The bottom line, as Vince points out, is the everything we do, how you are doing church, is marketing.

It’s not enough to hire us to create a great logo. We have to constantly be asking, how does this communicate?

There is a serious disconnect between how culture communicates and how the Church does.

It’s not enough to construct your communication efforts out of a checklist of to-do’s. We have to pay attention at HOW we are communicate just as much, and even more so, than WHAT.

How does your childcare check-in communicate?
How does the way people are greeted communicate?
What about how you take your offering?
Does your sermon title invite new people or speak members-only language?
And yes, how does using that typeface communicate?

I encourage you to take a look and buy the book…if you don’t win a copy. Vince has graciously given me one copy to give away. So tell me how you judge how you are communicating and I’ll pull one random comment out of the hat.

Here are some examples of letting your visuals be the megaphone of a great concept.

And my favorite, this really packs a punch as the visuals bring the concept to a haunting reality

While I’ve held this opinion pretty much forever, as someone who is constantly looking at how, and what, the church is communicating I’m even more aware of it.

I’ve been further cemented in this opinion as I’ve celebrated Easter this year.

It started with a tweet from my friend @mattknisely

Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.

I am deeply grateful and amazed that Christ gave his life for me, in awe that he would suffer so that I could live, it is a gift I will never forget. The gift was Christ shedding his blood for me, the cross was just the method. The cross as a symbol indeed represents our history, our old position as unredeemed.

But we are redeemed. Christ is our hope and promise of joy.

As my pastor, Joel Stocker, pointed out in service yesterday:

Satan doesn’t care if you believe that Jesus died on the cross, he wants to keep you from understanding that Jesus is alive.

Think about that. The price was at the cross, the power and promise is in the resurrection. (side note: I could be a preacher…those were all p’s) Anyone could have died on the cross, in fact many did die on crosses. The hope comes in the fact that death couldn’t hold the king.

Rob Bell says it well in a new video that reminds us that death didn’t have the last word. That even in the dark world in which we live, there is light and that light shows us hope. God has not given up on us. We matter to the King.

That is what we should be celebrating and pointing to.

Now that we’ve spent the day celebrating the resurrection, let’s hold on to that spirit of joy and promise all year. May we never forget what Christ did for us, but oh may we never let that be all about a cross and death. That was just the beginning. Let’s spend our efforts pointing people to the hope and promise that Christ gave to us within the power of resurrection.

Editors note: Yep, changed the title and the picture used. I don’t in any way want to come across as degrading of Christ’s death, the price that was paid…but I do hope spend just as much time rejoicing in the joy and promise of the resurrection

Take the newest entrant into the realm of hot cool must haves: iphone apps.

The first I saw was out of Mars Hill and now there are quick and cheap solutions that allow every church to create it’s very own iphone app. Awesome! Get out your credit cards. Right?

I don’t know.
Sure people will download it, maybe even check it out, but then what? Will they really use it? Are you filling a need or just trying to get on the bandwagon (without knowing where it’s really headed)? Now if it’s a free service, hey, knock yourself out at the most you’re just out your time. But even then, don’t skip strategy.

It’s not just iphone apps it’s also church online, your website and even Sunday morning. Getting people to download, show up, etc. can’t be the primary measure of success. Sure you’ll measure that, but the real indicator of a successful ministry effort is if people are using it and are changed because of it. If no one is using it, it’s not going to change lives. At best it gives you bragging rights. You hit 1000 people showing up to church. Good start, but that’s not a success beyond a bit of exposure unless those people do something with it.

Instead of jumping on board at the first sign of a new ______, ask yourself how you are going to use it. Ask yourself the question I asked earlier, “are you filling a need?” Only when you you focus on the need can you create the right solution. Otherwise you’re just throwing things at the wall hoping they will stick.

If you’re going to build an app, don’t just repackage everything that’s already out there (unless everything is everywhere and you create a central point of communication), give them something they can use, want to use and will use. LifeChurch gives a great example of this with YouVersion, they didn’t just give you the bible on your iPhone though that alone would have been nice, they’ve built layers of tools that people can use to connect with each other and scripture.

Same goes for online. Why stop at offering audio online? What if you also make available the overheads and notes to follow along with. Or create a discussion area for Sunday’s sermon. I’ll leave online church for another day.

On Sunday morning look beyond raised hands and an altar call and ask, “how will this translate into daily living. Did I give them something they can grab hold of and live out during the week?”

So yes, build the apps, have Sunday morning services but don’t stop there. Once you get them through the door you have an obligation to make it stick because it’s not about you, it’s about them connecting with their Creator.

What a fitting stop on his tour, Idea Camp’s theme this year: Compassion.

What better time for us as the Church and as churches to show compassion. Sure they’ll be people talking about going to India, traveling the globe, you name it…but you can and should be showing compassion right where you live. I turn on the news and I can’t help but to see a HUGE opportunity for us to show the love of Christ today. People are hurting and desperate for hope.

So please, consider heading to DC, filling up your tank and prepare yourself to pour out compassion on your city. You might even take the chance to help Mark fill up his tank so that he can make it the rest of the way.

Oh and did I mention it’s free?