Jesus Hates Papyrus » marriage

Bravo Kirk Cameron

Michael Buckingham — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:52:44 +0000

Ok, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Left Behind movies…they just weren’t the quality I think we should be pushing out. BUT…the upcoming Fireproof, from the creators of Facing the Giants, looks like it could be a winner. I’m also impressed that Kirk Cameron has committed to only kiss his wife…even on screen. I never understood (or I guess believed) that just because there are people with lights and cameras around that kissing the beautiful leading lady is nothing but ‘work’. Right.

So Bravo Kirk Cameron, set the bar high…I hope everyone’s done the same with the movie and will deliver something that is top shelf.

Your turn.

Would you kiss someone other than your wife on screen?
Are you planning on seeing the movie?
Do you think the movie’s title graphic is a bit cheesy or ultra clever?

30 Days of Sex! Praise the Lord!

Michael Buckingham — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:02:36 +0000

Now here’s a challenge I can get my hands around! Relevant Church in Tampa, Florida has issued a 30 Days of Sex (or not if you’re not married) challenge. There are so many cool things about this.

First it is getting a ton of coverage and it’s all positive. Unlike many of the shock campaigns this one was presented in a positive light and has received coverage in the USA Today, CBS News, and many many other outlets all over the world.

They’ve also done more than found an exciting idea and flashy graphic, they carried it all the way out including a blog and a 30 Day guide.

What’s also great is that this isn’t a huge megachurch, proving that you don’t have to be big to make a big impact. Sure it took money and effort…but more importantly it took creativity and vision. Way to go!

Happily After All

Michael Buckingham — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:09:59 +0000

Seth Godin has a great post about changing the game. For those of us involved in church marketing it is essential that we change things up in order to be effective and heard.

One of the churches we work with approached us to develop the marketing for their 2007 marriage conference. The brief from them was that they wanted to call it ‘Seasons’ and picture happy couples who had found the joy of marriage. Same old thing. Boring. The same people would have showed up and experience the same thing they experienced last year. But how do change something like a marriage conference? How can we possibly find a new way to talk about marriage.

We started with the format. Instead of 2 days of listening to speakers talk about the wide theme of marriage, we introduced workshops. We’ll have general sessions on both days, but then we will break out into content specific sessions in a much more hands on setting. Then we decided that on the first night instead of preaching to everyone we’d start with a short session and then break out into groups for fellowship and games…all under the new theme.

Yes we ditched “Season” but not the idea of joy within marriage. After talking with them about what they wanted people to take home with them, that though marriage can be very difficult you can find joy in it, we came up with a twist on the fairy tale marriage and titled it “Happily After All”.

We then developed a whole storybook theme, even the brochure looks like a storybook, and the wheels started turning. It was fun to watch this take off. With this fresh perspective people really started to dig in. A breakfast will be served by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, now instead of “How to communicate with your spouse” we have “A House of Bricks“.

By changing the game a bit you’ll not only attract more people, but you will energize all those involved. What do you do year after year that needs a change? What are some ways you’ve mixed it up?