The story of a stubborn general in the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, illustrates the critical importance of not ignoring the seemingly little things in church communication.
The story
Naaman, in 2 Kings 5 was commander of the armies of Aram. He expected significant results from extraordinary efforts. But when he got leprosy, he found an enemy he couldn’t conquer. On the advice of a captive servant girl in his household, he went to the prophet Elisha in Israel to be cured.
As befitting his status, Naaman expected the prophet to appear and with thundering words and grand gestures, heal him of his leprosy. That didn’t happen. “Go wash in the Jordan seven times,” was the message delivered by Elisha’s servant to the general. Naaman was not pleased. In anger, he vented his opinion and prepared to return home, until his servants convinced him to try the little thing suggested by the prophet.
Naaman dipped himself into the Jordan seven times and the seventh time, “his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy (2 Kings 5: 14).”
Applications to church communications
Often as I talk to pastors, church leaders and church communicators in my seminars, I find they know something isn’t working well in their church communications program. It may not be a leprosy, life or death of the church situation, but it is serious. Most often the key symptoms are in following categories:
- Lack of church growth: not enough people coming into the church.
- Lack of member spiritual growth: not enough people attending the events outside Sunday morning that will help them grow to Christian maturity.
Right answer, wrong approach
Correctly improved communications are often seen as the answer. But just as often, I see the communication efforts take a wrong turn. The wrong turn is that like Naaman, a church will often look for the grand and glorious; the latest and greatest as THE solution to their communication problems. Often the result today is: “Let’s hire a company that can create an incredible web site.” Or “Let’s do a really professional (translated, expensive) direct mail outreach and we’ll get a huge turnout.”
A church in one of my recent seminars tied the web solution. They hired a national company to create an incredible website for them. They spent thousands of dollars. It took months to create. Their communications director attended my seminar and asked me to look at the website and their communications because with all the money and time spent, little had improved in terms of people response.
After looking at the website and the revised bulletin I could see why. Both had beautiful graphics, lots of color, pictures, action, etc. The problem wasn’t in the big things, but in absence of the seemingly little details that were essential for people to actually connect with the church events. Lots of graphics, few meaningful links to information that actually informed you of specific events.
The church bulletin was worse. In it, possibly because someone thought they needed “white space” there was a beautiful graphic design and lots of open area, but in the section of ministries going on in the church outside Sunday morning there was a list. That’s it—just a list. No information whatsoever on when they were meeting, how to attend, who to call, nada.
The same week I saw the previously described bulletin, I saw another one from another church who was using exactly the same bulletin shell from the same marketing company. Again it looked great, but inside, though it listed under its three core values that small groups were a key to church growth, the content on small groups was:
Adults: Small Groups, various days and times…Various Locations
That was it. There was not one iota of information on what groups they have, when they meet, how to get involved in one, or even how to find out that information if you wanted to. It doesn’t matter how much money was spent on the fancy, pre-printed shell, functionall-- it said nothing.
Do the simple things seven times
Interesting graphics do not guarantee people connections—the simple repetition of connecting details does. In your church communications you’ve got to tell people what the event is about, (not just “Becomers: meeting this week), who it’s for, when things start, when they end, how to get there, who to contact, how much it costs and if child care is provided. You need to repeat these details through the various channels of communication: print, web, email, projected media, postcards, whatever you can—seven times, seven ways for effective communication.
These little details are the links that connect people to the church events that will result in church growth and in personal spiritual maturity for your people. Why, why are these things routinely left out and money spent on the big and extravagant? is a question I agonize over.
Maybe I wonder, is it because our human tendency is to want to do the big, the quick, the extraordinary to get results and get them now? Is it an unconscious carry-over from the world of business that assumes that throwing money on a problem is a way to solve it?
Is it a lack of faith that if we only do the little things, like print boring details week after week, that if we put our money and time into training the staff we have that we might have to trust God for results we won’t see immediately? Is it because we are impatient and forget that the often used analogies in the Bible, about farmers, shepherds, about growing and tending plants all saw results only in small, incremental ways? Are we a bit blinded by the media that reports and idolizes the big and spectacular when Jesus described the Kingdom grows as yeast permeating, a small seed germinating.
Our churches need healing and I wonder what would happen if we’d stop looking for the spectacular solution and humbly focus on the little things, the communication tiny tasks that connect people. Like Naaman, after his seven trips into the water, after weeks of focus on the little things, we might be surprised at the new life and healing they produce.
