Shhh. Telling people about Christ is not as effective as showing people Christ.

After a few conversations about it I thought I’d expand on my thoughts a little.

The thought came after my son and I were talking about someone who had demonstrated their street preaching. And as we talked about it, we just wondered how in the world that could be effective. Now the problem we had with this example wasn’t just that all he was doing was telling, only using words, but also that he was trying to be sneaky (the old, ‘hey can I ask you something’ gig). But it stirred up the thought.

The church is very good at telling. Preaching has equalled telling. Pastor, you’re very good with your words. You have all the books, you fill your brain with knowledge, we are blessed because you know so much.

And that’s good.

But it’s not enough.

Honestly, if I have to tell someone I’m a christian…well, I best take a look at myself because I’m falling short, need Jesus just as much as they do and am in no place to be pointing fingers.

You know how it drives you mad when people criticize the church without any solution? It’s just like that with us pointing out people’s need for Christ without modeling what a redeemed person looks like

A bunch of religious people (that would be you and me) ask Jesus what the big things are that we have to do. And as you know He gave two things:

Love God
Love people.

And then we spend our days telling people that God loves them.

Christ didn’t ask us to [just] tell them. He asked us to show them.

What would happen if we spent most of our time showing people the things we’ve been telling them for the last 100 years?

Yep, this is a bragging post.

Ty just gave me the best father’s day gift.

Background.

My lowest point as a father was taking Tyler (that’s what we called him back then before he became an adult and now prefers Ty) to Cedar Point. He was probably 10. Which was great because he was old enough and tall enough to go on all the big, awesome rides.

And he didn’t want to go on any of them.

So I hugged him and said “son, that’s okay, just spending time together means the world to me. How about a slushy?”

No. I didn’t say that.

I got frustrated, then angry…I remember the tipping point of the day at that ride about, The Iron Dragon, eventually ending in us leaving the park everyone upset. I was a jerk. (I know, hard to imagine) I have regretted that day, my actions and the wasted memories that we could have had.

This morning, Ty gave me the greatest gift. We are leaving in :15 for a redo. We are headed to Cedar Point to fill the day with just hanging out, maybe a couple of rides that we can both enjoy, but mostly just hanging out, having some hot dogs and spending the day together.

I couldn’t be more happy. Tears running down my face even as I type this. I am so blessed to have such an amazing relationship with Ty. He is incredible and has given me the gift of reconciling that day. What’s really cool, is that I JUST wrote about my dad and my reconciliation.

Thank you God for how you work and taking such great care of us. So grateful that you put people in our lives to show that same love too. Thank you for the gift of being a dad to such an amazing son.

My oldest graduated today. So very proud of him and uber excited to see what is ahead.

It’s going to be huge.

In August he will be moving to Texas and SAGU and has been accepted into the Oaks School of Leadership. OSL is an amazing program, it’s going to be great.

But what makes it huge is what I heard 17 years ago.

Let me set the stage.

His mom and I were married, I was very involved in youth ministry and the youth pastor and I had talked in depth about me someday being the (or a) youth pastor. One day before service after we had all prayed together, I was walking around the youth chapel. Praying for the service, the youth, etc. Then I started to pray for me, asking God to grow me as a leader so that I could one day lead a youth group, etc. And His response was to tell me that even if I never became the youth pastor I expected to be, my son would be a great leader. The picture he put in my head was a Billy Graham.

Ty was not even 2. And that was not the response I wanted to hear.
I heard it and now wish desperately I would have had the guts to have written it down. But I didn’t. But I am now.

I don’t know exactly what God was trying to say, I don’t know exactly what lies ahead for my son. But I’m certain of this:

Ty will not be an average pastor. It’s not what God created in him. He’s going to make a huge impact. He may even shake some things up. And I’m proud to be his dad and grateful to God that He has seen him through these past 18 years to get him to where he is today.

Amazing how time flies. Dads, cherish your time with you kids. Spend time teaching and loving, that’s what matters the most.

VW : This won’t sell any cars (hardly even knew it was a VW) but so stickin’ cute and reminded me of something I’d do with Parker.

Bridgestone : here’s more on why I loved what they did)

Doritos : funniest ad of the night.

Chrysler : Cool to see Detroit show it’s stuff and Eminem brought the moxy to it. Though I think it was better for Detroit than Chrysler.

What were your favs?

But the more I get into it the deeper I fall in love with the art of preaching, an art that I’m afraid we’ve lost. If you’re a pastor just look at your bookshelves, they’re filled with what to say, what to talk about. How much have you been taught and focus on how you bring it?

We need words, no doubt. But we need those words to penetrate in a way that sticks and translates in people carrying it into their lives. It’s the art that movies and theater bring, it’s captivating and moving.

It’s really been stirring in me for some time to directly help pastors in regaining this art. Lately I’ve begun talking with pastors, drama coaches, storytellers, comedians as I explore how I can help recover this art of preaching. Now I’d like to hear from you. Does this resonate with you? If so how would you like to best engage in this topic?

Will you take the poll and also add your thoughts to the topic?

In it he concludes with this statement:

you determine the success of the campaign when you pick what you’re going to promote.

I didn’t choose working with the church to be a “success”, I work with the church because God got my attention, grabbed ahold of me and pointed me in that direction. (Think Eli going west in Book of Eli).

My job revolves around the “how” of church and preaching. But I believe that I’ve already won because of “what” I promote. I’ve worked in the exciting dot com world, I’ve promoted large corporations…but my greatest success came when I embraced promoting the church. There is no greater honor for me than to be a part of people and churches telling the amazing story of Christ and the incredible part that He wants to play in our lives.

We’ve had a lot of success, the campaigns we have built have been very effective. And I’m human, I’d love to take all the credit and call myself a creative genius. But that would be a lie. I believe at the heart of the success is on what we are communicating.

While the trend is to bash the church, and even other churches take part with their “we’re not like other churches” campaigns, and though there are plenty of holes we can point to in today’s church…I believe there is much hope to be found in the church.

I agree with Gabe Lyons, I don’t think the church is dying, I think the church is changing. This is a great opportunity to be a part of that change. And I’m glad to be on that team, I believe it is the winning team. And that’s true for everyone that works in/for the church; pastors, secretaries, communication directors, janitors, volunteers…you’re on the winning team.

photo: Frankly Richmond

Before After

I really liked my old picture, it was cool…but it was too cool. I’m not really that cool. When I think of cool I think of people like Promise Tangeman, Carlos Whitaker and Daly Hake…now these are people who are truly cool. It’s just who they are. They don’t have to try, it’s at their core. I would imagine they’ve always had a coolness factor.

That’s not me. Honestly, I’d like to be that cool. But I’m not. I am fortunate enough to have enough style and confidence that I can pull off cool, I can fake it but I have to try and in the end it’s just not true to who I am.

How many times do we do that with church? Say that we’re this when at our core we’re really something different?

Here’s the problem with that: it takes too much work. We end up taking up a lot of time trying to put on that face instead of being who we really are. We have to constantly take a deep breath, suck in our gut and hope people think we’re that church.

Here’s the really good news: it’s okay to be who you really are. Not every church has to be ultra-contemporary, deeply philosophical, ________. The best thing you can be is you. God didn’t pour all of your life’s experiences, all of your unique abilities so that you could become someone else.

I encourage you to take an inventory of who you are and who you put on each day. if you’re not being true to you, start making some changes. For me that was the small step of a new twitter pic. It’s not easy and I’m catching myself all the time putting on the cool me but it feels great to have given myself permission to be real. Of course I’m still not getting rid of my sunglasses which really are cool.

In the beginning God created the earth…to be the earth.
In the beginning God created you…to be you.

When you do attend a session, workshop, etc. don’t just listen….in fact don’t just take notes. As a speaker, I don’t look at my part being that of simply a dumping of information. I have two primary goals whenever I speak:

1. Give everyone at least one idea, action item, etc. that they can take back with them.
2. Begin a conversation.

Too often conferences are just a blip on the radar. A successful conference is one that has an effect that spreads. I’m not just talking about spreading the content through twitter…though a great start (and I’m still kicking myself for not kicking off my session with my twitter ID and a hashtag) but it goes beyond that.

Don’t just take notes, process them later. Look over your notes and create action items based on what you’ve learned and experience. What good is inspiration if it remains static. Of course those action items can come from things outside of sessions and keynotes too.

Stay connected. This is the area I am terrible at. I just spoke at the HOW Design Conference and met some outstanding (these people truly stand out) people. What a shame it is to wait a year to connect with them again. Keep the conversations going, continue to develop the relationship. For me that means make a list of people to stay in contact with on a continuous basis. For me I keep that list fairly short, to help make it an achievable goal but I also have a list of everyone that I met that I will try to stay in touch with as well. Again, this is the hardest area as life and busyness get in the way.

In fact can I ask you to help me? If you’ve heard me speak will you do a couple of things for me?

• Connect with me at the conference.

Remember, I don’t usually go in with a team. And as much as I’m an extrovert, I don’t like to crash your group. So please say hi, let’s go to lunch, all that good stuff.

• Reach out afterwards

Again, this doesn’t come naturally to me and honestly, I don’t know if what I said resonated. If it does please stay connected through email, twitter, you name it.

• Give me feedback

I take my position as a speaker seriously. I want to be sure to give you everything that you are expecting out of your time at the conference. That’s why I always try to leave lots of room at the end for questions. If I can do things better, and I know I can, let me know so that I can bring the best content, engage you more, and ultimately give you what you need to do your work better.

I love this! What a great way to tell the story and use billboards in a new, and even interactive way. Imagine a church putting up a billboard, next to a Hooters billboard, or better yet a Strip Joint billboard that said something like “We love you girls.” , “Come as you are.” or something along those lines?

I love this idea so much, that we will design it for free. We’ll come up with some great copy, killer creative…all free. You just have to be willing to step out and do something bold (and have some billboard space).

Anyone up for it?

easier to learn and do, and requiring less talent.

I disagree with Seth’s premise that a few hours of reading = really good design. In fact that thinking = mediocrity. I agree with chadmaag in the lab (where this topic is creating a buzz) when he says:

I think any line of thinking that would encourage any of us to “step down our game” is a risky proposition. When you view this through the lens of kingdom thinking, we should always be pushing for our very best, if not we’re running afoul of being poor stewards of our talents and the resources we have available

Seth’s thinking asks us to do just that and perpetuates this idea that as long as you have the right software and hardware that anyone can create good design. But design is about more than knowing how to use Photoshop, understand DPI and learning the proper way to kern a word…design is about creating powerful visuals to communicate a message. Some are gifted in this, some are not.

In the bible we read that Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t learn and get better and stronger…it does mean that it’s not as easy as ready a few books and turning on the computer. It does mean that not everyone is created, designed by the creator, to be a designer and to try and force it not only produced mediocre design but it keeps you from what you were designed for.

I continue to hold Seth in high regards as a marketing wizard, if you haven’t read his books…read them and share them, especially Purple Cow
& Free Prize Inside!, he just misses the mark when it comes to design. BUT, I’m glad he’s looking at it and considering the topic and his thinking is not unlike many of pastors, church boards, etc. Remember, part of our jobs as designers is to educate.

Oh, and yes…that action figure is real. I don’t have one yet and it would make a great Christmas gift because I really do think Seth Godin is quite superb.