McCain
Know who you are you…and be that person.

While it seems that people are trying to cover their butts by pointing fingers there is one main reason McCain lost this election: identity. He didn’t know who he was. He started with “experience” but then moved to “change”. Bad move. You have to know who you are and what your story is before you can ever expect anyone else to. He tried out “maverick” in the end and while that might have worked awhile ago…it just wasn’t believable.

When a hip new church rolls into town down the street, resist the urge to adjust. That is not the time to try and cater to the hip crowd. Steady as she goes. If you’re hip, be hip. If you’re more yourself in jeans wear jeans…if you feel better in a suit, wear a suit. Not only do you need to be who you are because that’s who you are…it also produces stability within the church atmosphere.

Obama
Set an expectation that you know you can meet, or exceed.

Obama’s biggest challenge is filling the shoes he made for himself. The nation, and even world, is excited to see the change that he held onto so tightly…if he comes to the table with same old politics it’s going to be a big fail. If on the other hand he reaches across the aisle, looks out for the people and meets those expectations big win.

You can do the same by creating consistency in your communications. Don’t call us up and want to a great mailing campaign and then meet those people who respond with a mediocre guest packet, bulletin, etc. You only get one chance for that first impression. Be consistent and start from the ground up. Prepare for greatness and then tell people how great the experience is. Here’s another one that to me seems obvious but I see it to often. Don’t put pictures showing diversity if your church isn’t diverse. Putting a picture of a black man on your brochure does not make you diverse. What it does do is disappoint that family that shows up thinking you’re the church they’ve been looking for.

Okay…you’re turn what other lessons can we apply to the church from this campaign?

Do whatever it takes…just get em through the doors, God will do the rest.

I have found myself recently talking about setting and meeting expectations because while the quote, which I’ve heard plenty of times before, sounds good…it simply isn’t how it works.

We see it in children…they raise the level of expectations.
We see it in movies…they flop when they don’t match the hype.
We see it in the church…when we fail to deliver.

Setting expectations that you can deliver on is important. Just ask Todd Davis.

The first way we fail to deliver is in how we are marketing the church. If we promote your church as the trendy and hip church and you deliver traditional worship, it’s not going to matter how many people we get through the doors, you’ve let them down by failing to setup an accurate expectation. Be honest, if you’re traditional…don’t pretend to be something else, you won’t fool anyone.

The other way we fail to deliver is how we set people up. “Every day with you Lord is sweeter than the day before.” Really? Tell that to the guy who just lost his job, or the parent who just lost his child. Stop telling people that the sun will start shining as soon as they call Christ lord…because that expectation is going to fail. Yes, eventually even our dark days will be okay because we know God is there, we know He is watching over us.

We also fail to deliver in how we position salvation. “If you want to except Christ raise your hand and say this prayer. Amen.” Maybe my bible is missing pages but I don’t remember that being the way it works. Are you looking for results or change? Are you looking for a way to measure the success of your sermon, play, etc. or are you using it as a first step to something much bigger than a one time action?

Before you send out a postcard, create a new logo or preach a new sermon think about the expectation you are setting up and make sure you can fill it. If you don’t, not only will it be ineffective, but you lose permission to ask again.