Beautifully Authentic

28 07 2008

Today, I heard a raw, honest approach to God that I’ve got to believe He craves more of in the Church. Do yourself a favor and listen to at least the last half of this message - http://www.northpointministries.org/player/player.jsp?occurrenceID=3109

This is Louie Giglio finishing his 2nd half of the series “Home Free, Even Me”. He was with us a few months ago with part of the story he wrapped up today. I thought that series, “Hope: When Life Hurts Most”, was one of the best I’d heard in a long time. Both messages brought a sense of raw, still-in-process authenticity that the Church desperately needs. So many people stay away because everything in the Church world is either stories of old with no attempt to tie application to the present or a pretty little story with a bow on it at the end, and life just doesn’t look like for most people.

So, how raw and authentic? There were even some spelled out cuss words and implied “f-bombs”. Oh ya! I thought that might intrigue you! (Hint, it wasn’t done in a way to glorify the language.) Give it a listen: http://www.northpointministries.org/player/player.jsp?occurrenceID=3109


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Categories : Church Communication, Great Stories, Life Change

God’s favorite sitcom?

3 06 2008

Okay, this one’s just for fun. God created joy, laughter and all those good things, so what would you say His favorite would be?

The Office is my current favorite. Seinfeld my all-time favorite, but I imagine Everybody Loves Raymond might be the one that makes Him chuckle the most. Why? It’s all about His favorite thing - relationships (Ray & Debra, his parents, his brother, etc., a veritable cornucopia of dysfunction!)

This could be fun, but it’s not necessarily a fruitless exercise. People identify with the humor in the sitcoms they follow, so it can make for a great avenue to reach them in our communication. Anyway, what’s your vote and why?


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Categories : Church Communication

Finish the thought, “Church is…”

17 12 2007

In my blog surfing, I came across this brilliant exercise asking readers to finish this sentence in 5 words or less, “Church is… (http://stuartdelony.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/church-is/). Actually, this will be made brilliant by your response, and I’ll even give you a longer leash :-). In 2 sentences or less, share your thought on “Church is…”. Let’s get some conversation going on this one!

Hint: It might be a little painful to hear at first, but what a great question to pose to the non-Christians you know! I imagine you’ll hear all sorts of opinions that have nothing at all to do with the reality of Jesus or God, but reveal much as to how we, as stewards of His intent, have gotten off-path. Imagine the insight we could glean in our attempts to accurately convey the Truth.


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Categories : Church Communication

Our Preoccupation with Titles

11 11 2007

“Hi, Brother Smith.” “Hello, Sister Jones.” “Pastor Williams left you a note.” “Bishop Taylor will see you now.”

Yuck! Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t talk that way anywhere in life. Sure, I’ll call a doctor, a doctor or a military, police or fire officer, their hard-earned rank, but I’ve just never gotten how weird we are in the church with our insistence on titles. Other than “Lord”, which is only reserved for One, the rest of us are simply children of God.

I guess I became more acutely aware of this when I became a pastor myself. Before being called into ministry, I had already received a master’s degree while preparing in my former field. Sure, a few more years of applying myself and I could have gone on for that doctorate and a lifetime of being addressed as “Doctor”. An achievement? Okay, but I’m still Scott or Tank to those who know me best, and the best honor anyone could recognize me with verbally is calling me friend. I don’t need any more than that.

With all my conversation in church world today, I still recoil a bit whenever I get a message or email from “Pastor so-and-so” or I get called that myself. I am, but why does my title matter, especially to the outside world? Generally, one of the inherent functions of titles is to distinguish, or you might even say, exclude the title-holder from the general population. It’s always been most prevalent in fields and occupations where instantaneous clarification of one’s education and knowledge is important. If you’ve got the title, it means you’ve gotten exposure to the knowledge and advanced training.

Okay, before I rile up too many, I’m not at all suggesting that Christian education and personal study are not important for the Christian faith. I’m just arguing that the bestowing of titles for doing so simply does the job titles are intended to do: elevates and, in a way, excludes the title-holder from the general population. Don’t believe me? If it hasn’t happened to you personally, how familiar is the characterization of people “straightening up” or “acting right” when they know a pastor is in their midst. Usually, it’s an absolute conversation killer or at the very least, when the pastor leaves it’s a relief because everyone can go back to acting “normal”.

Do we need recognition this badly? Is it at all necessary or just emblematic of low self-esteem? The real question: Did Jesus throw his accolades around or just engage the general population? What can we learn from that? What’s more important, getting your title out there so people will salve your ego or just being your plain ol’ first name and meeting people in the middle of life?


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Categories : Church Communication, Observations

The “Curse of Knowledge”

9 10 2007

Just finished reading Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. One of my favorite takeaways was the “Curse of Knowledge”, defined this way - “Once we know something we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has ‘cursed’ us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.”

Hello! Of course, we’re “blessed” with our knowledge of Christ, but does that scenario ever plague the Church. They’re speaking from a marketing perspective and the difficulty of getting your message across when you have expert knowledge of the product or subject matter, and you need to explain its importance and benefit to a market of novices that are unaware. Obviously, I’m not suggesting we change truth in order to “sell” Christ, but the principles of what they describe translate so well to a recurring struggle the Church has in getting the message of Christ across.

How does this happen? Why do we, with such personal experience of God’s amazing grace and mercy, do such a poor job of explaining it in an intriguing way to the world who needs to know it? Why does the “Curse of Knowlege” strike us so sharply? Well, as a church staffer for 6 years now, I’ll just go ahead and personally admit that my world of friends and contacts are overwhelmingly Christian. It wasn’t always that way, certainly not when I was still in the corporate world, but it’s just evidence of the natural tendency for us to surround ourselves with people who either “do” something similar to us or share similar views. I’m just acknowledging that as a natural human tendency, not singling out Christians for indictment, but it does have implications that the Church has to be aware of and fight against in order to keep from coming off as just another organization full of “experts” trying to sell their product, message, viewpoint, etc. Here are some implications off the top of my head:

  1. Find some non-church staff, marketing firm, or someone outside your organization to run your external communications by.
  2. If you have some new Christians in your midst, involve them (not to mention, honor and activate them) by asking them how the message might have landed with them before they took that recent step of faith or with some of the unchurched friends they still have.
  3. Use plain language and appeal to common experiences we all share vs. “church speak”.

I’m sure there are plenty more good suggestions. What would you say?


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Categories : Church Communication