I’ve been juggling both writing for this blog and church marketing sucks for a bit now. That juggling increased now that my position of Director at CFCC is official. Often that means having to decide where a post will go, what to write for one and what to write for the other. In doing so neither has a very unique voice, sure it’s both me but why come here and there.

While one option would be to ditch Holy Cow a Blog for Church Marketing Sucks (which definitely has more readership), I don’t think I’m ready to do that.

But what about a change?

What if I wrote more about Holy Cow here? While that may still mean that I’ll talk about church communications here it would mean it would tie more directly to what we’re doing here. Maybe it would mean showing our process of a logo, talk about serving the church as a business who wants to be a partner, the ups and downs of owning a studio…that sort of thing. The writing at Church Marketing Sucks would be more general in nature, this would be more specific to Holy Cow.

What do you think?

What do you want to read?

I want to hear from you…I’ll throw out a carrot by picking one reply, at random, and send him or her a slinky. I know, not very flashy…but I think everyone should own a slinky, because they’re fun, I think they spark creativity and they show how sometimes the spectacular ideas just happen.

Andy Stanley hits some great chunks of truth in this podcast entry Become a Student. It’s all about paying attention to those on the fringe, they are the ones that are discovering what’s next. It will be uncomfortable, you may not understand it, but they are discovering the next great thing. Please check it out and join my at NRB and we’ll talk more about this and other ways to escape Planet Mundane!

While it means in a large part for us at Holy Cow Creative that we want to help change the way the church communicates…it goes deeper than that too. I believe too often when I say church, you think Sunday, but shouldn’t that only be a part of the picture?

Does church require preaching?

What would happen if tomorrow morning you got up and told your people that there would be no worship, no preaching…instead you were all going out to serve your community for that same time slot.

What if Sunday wasn’t the end of your week, what if it was the beginning and church on Sunday was all about equipping you to be the church on Monday and Tuesday…a bit of a pick me up on Wednesday…you get the idea. What would happen? Is that church?

Your turn.

Here’s a video that should remind all of us – creatives, pastors, designers, technicians, communicators – that i innovation is most always preceded by a bit of craziness. Aim for the impossible and be bold enough to go against everything that we call normal.

Craig Groeschel has announced that LifeChurch will no longer have “church members”. What I love is that they are killing it because

the reason is because for years and years we’ve done it, and we just did it because other people did it and in my mind, it always kind of bothered me some because I thought, ‘Well, if you are a believer, you’re already a member of the family of God, but you still join a church because that’s what you do,’

How many other things do we do in the name of doing church that simply get in the way? Is church the way it is because that’s how God wants it or because that’s how everyone else is doing it? If we got rid of some of these things, like membership, would we create something more authentic with less of us and more of Him?

Does the special music during offering bring people closer to God?
Do you have to have a bulletin?
What would happen if there wasn’t preaching every Sunday?
Could we survive without the clever signs? (that’s a rhetorical question)

One of the churches we work with, a college ministry, just moved their service from Wednesday to Thursday. Is it weird to have church on Thursday? Yep, but for this group of college students it works since they don’t have classes the next days and also allows them to spend time hanging out afterwards.

Don’t get rid of things just for the sake of slimming down, and certainly not for the attention it might get. I’m just suggesting that you look at your ministry and things that surround it and make sure that everything has purpose…if not slim down.

Thank you Terrace for pointing this out, I hope it shakes us up enough to get us thinking about how we can change the way we do church.

Question: Who are these outlets reaching?

In marketing we often talk about knowing your audience. If you know who you are talking to you can tailor your delivery of the message in a way they can relate to. In creating things like a Christian television program or amusement park, who are you talking to? What’s the purpose?

I’ve been in the meetings and have heard the fund raisers…we are told they are reaching the lost. I think we might be fooling ourselves, I think we would be wise to take a look at who our audience really is. It might be time for a change.

The people that are really listening/watching/attending are not the unbeliever. Christians listen to Christian radio, Christians visit the Christian amusement park. A recent statistic shows that 1% of Christian TV are unbelievers. I would guess the same number is true for all the others as well.

I’ll be the first to say that if we can really reach that 1%, that the stated vision and goal is to reach that 1…that’s certainly a biblically sound vision. But that’s not the vision. The stated vision is to reach unbelievers. Here’s a clip from one of these:

But above all, beyond the fun and excitement, we hope that you will see God and His Word exalted and that you will be encouraged in your search for enduring truth and the ultimate meaning of life.

Folks, if only 1% of your real audience are unbelievers that means that 99% have already found the ultimate meaning of life. If you really want to reach the lost you need to start with admitting you’re missing the mark a bit. If your goal is to reach the lost with these channels, it’s time for some change, you need to step outside of your world and see things the way those that don’t understand it see it because right now you are preaching to the choir. If you want to reach unbelievers much has to change, and we’ll talk about that in another post today I want to consider another option.

What if you just start to look at who your real audience is and speak to them. That might look something like this:

Christian TV and Radio: Equip the saints, teach them how to reach their world, talk to business leaders who have brought faith to the workplace, have practical conversations about living life as a believer. (side note: if you are in TV and need outside help do yourself a favor and call Mark or Joe)

Christian Schools: Drop your entire high school curriculum, and focus on taking the years of elementary through Jr. High to equip Christian teens to bring their faith to the public school system. Prepare them to step outside (remember we are told to be IN the world) and have their faith tested and proven.

Christian Amusement Parks: Stay away from unbelievers, they just don’t get it and are simply pushed away by the ‘weird church Disney world’, instead focus on strengthening the saints through experience and community.

Please, if you are in any of these markets know that I say all these things in absolute love and know that I simply want to speak excellence into your ministry. This whole post came after a visit with Chad Varga, who reminded me to not take my eyes off the lost which got me thinking about how we are trying to reach them and the need to be equipped to be the light in our dark world. Be encouraged and continue to press on…and share your thoughts, I’d really love to hear everyones feedback on this topic.

Changing these opinions is not a matter of taking the blue pill vs. the red pill. There isn’t a way to explain it that will make the clouds part and the light of understanding shine upon them. People don’t have to be stuck, but it’s a process and it takes time. It is important to understand why some drag their heels. Here are 3 reasons I’ve seen.

1. They are happy where they’re at.

This is the most difficult situation. Truth is they aren’t going to move until they see, and experience, a better way. They need to be spoon fed new ideas, creative approaches to outreach. Ask them if you can try one thing, you’ll take all the responsibility, you’ll do all the work.

I worked with a pastor who just didn’t see the need for sermon branding, he had heard from God as to what to preach and the preaching of the word was all that was needed. I reminded him that God gives us WHAT to say but He also gives us HOW to say it. (john 12:49). Now that he has seen sermon branding in action and how it didn’t shadow the preaching but brought a new dimension to it, he now calls me and gets involved in the process.

2. Great ideas are rare in an atmosphere of fear.

The pastor that I spoke with that considered powerpoint heresy was speaking out of fear. Maybe it was fear of losing tradition, maybe fear of the reaction of others, quite possible it was simply fear of something new. It’s important to find out where the fear is coming from. One size does not fit all. What we do for one church with great success may bomb in another church. Celebrate the fact that each church has its own flavor and instead instead of trying to change the flavor, find ways to add some spice to it.

Realize that change is difficult. If you’re frustrated that someone doesn’t get the power of church marketing realize that you most likely have that sown in your identity. You’re most likely an early adopter, you probably get bored with the same thing day in and day out, you’re different than they are. Find a bridge, find ways to connect the two and not only will you both be happier but the end result will be much stronger.

3. They are not stuck, they are cemented.

This group is either so happy, so afraid or possibly unable to see outside of themselves that they are simply bound in cement. They aren’t going to change. You may very well be in the wrong place. Sometimes this person has some issues that they should work through, but that’s their issue, don’t make it yours. Others can just be called to a different way of ministry than you…and that’s ok.

What walls are you running into? How have you managed those that aren’t on the same boat as you?

• Focus Audience: who are we trying to reach?
• Forum: where can we reach all of them at once?
• Issue: why are we talking to them?
• Accelerators: what helps?
• Barriers: what hurts?
• Hook: how do we ignite their passion?

Notice that she doesn’t start with what it looks like or what style is used. Those are needed things, if it isn’t beautiful people will ignore it. We should be communicating with amazing visuals and those visuals should rest on the foundation of a clear and moving message.

And I’ll add a seventh:

• Proof: what is the story of change?

I add the seventh because often we stop just short of truly effective ministry. It’s not enough to move people emotionally. It’s one thing to move people on a Sunday morning, they may even make the trip to the altar. But as hard as they may have thought it was to walk to that altar, the real challenge is carrying it out in our daily lives. We need to craft our messages and our responses to be those of change. Please continue to bring people to the altar, but don’t forget to send them into the world.