I use the term to "fully fulfill the Great Commission" because it seems like so much church communication today is focused primarily on just getting people into church on Sunday morning. That is a good and worthy goal, but to simply get people to attend a church service does not equate with making disciples.
"Go into all the world and make disciples (Matt. 28:19)."
That is our charge from Jesus. To fully fulfill the Great Commission means to make disciples and it is only with that goal in mind that our church communications work becomes effective. To do this with our church communications is not a quick, easy, or simple task. To define it carefully and to enable you to do it is the purpose of my ministry and one I attempt to pass on in this blogs, seminars, and my website: http://www.effectivechurchcom.com/.
My overall process for creating effective church communications is outlined in my Five Steps of Effective Church Communications and Marketing. To read the overview article on it, click here.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Effective Church Com: why is it based on the Great Commission?
Because the Christian gospel, the story of Jesus, which is the basis of the Great Commission is the only worthwhile and practically possible foundation upon which to do church communications.
Church communications is difficult and often thankless, underpaid, and under-resourced work. It is demanding, stressful, and repetitive. It has to be done for an audience that often doesn't want to hear what you have to say and if they do, they often don't like how you say it.
A love of technology, a desire to be recognized as a great graphic design artist, a brilliant and successful strategic communicator, or church marketing genius are not foundations that will hold you up working in church communications. Though earthly goals and skills can be useful in the tasks of church communications, if you do not have a foundation that reaches into eternity, it won't hold.
The Great Commission foundation is the rock-bottom belief that Jesus is God in the flesh, that he came to earth, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and that only by trusting in him, can people have their sins forgiven and spend forever with him. To share that message in its fullness, to move people from outside the church to become committed disciples is what it means to fully fulfill the Great Commission. To fully fulfill the Great Commission is what defines and motivates effective church communication.
If that is not your foundation, as the apostle Paul said, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men (I Cor. 15:19)."
To help you see how the Great Commission motivates effective church communication and to equip and enable you to do it is the purpose of this ministry. There are many great folks out there, both in the secular and Christian world who teach and focus on many aspects of technology and communication, and may the Lord bless them all as they contribute to equipping church communicators, but my focus and my way of evaluating church communications has at its core always this one thing: is it moving people closer to come to know Jesus and to grow up to maturity in Him? That may have some debatable results, which is the topic of another blog.
Church communications is difficult and often thankless, underpaid, and under-resourced work. It is demanding, stressful, and repetitive. It has to be done for an audience that often doesn't want to hear what you have to say and if they do, they often don't like how you say it.
A love of technology, a desire to be recognized as a great graphic design artist, a brilliant and successful strategic communicator, or church marketing genius are not foundations that will hold you up working in church communications. Though earthly goals and skills can be useful in the tasks of church communications, if you do not have a foundation that reaches into eternity, it won't hold.
The Great Commission foundation is the rock-bottom belief that Jesus is God in the flesh, that he came to earth, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and that only by trusting in him, can people have their sins forgiven and spend forever with him. To share that message in its fullness, to move people from outside the church to become committed disciples is what it means to fully fulfill the Great Commission. To fully fulfill the Great Commission is what defines and motivates effective church communication.
If that is not your foundation, as the apostle Paul said, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men (I Cor. 15:19)."
To help you see how the Great Commission motivates effective church communication and to equip and enable you to do it is the purpose of this ministry. There are many great folks out there, both in the secular and Christian world who teach and focus on many aspects of technology and communication, and may the Lord bless them all as they contribute to equipping church communicators, but my focus and my way of evaluating church communications has at its core always this one thing: is it moving people closer to come to know Jesus and to grow up to maturity in Him? That may have some debatable results, which is the topic of another blog.
What is effective church communication? An intro.
I define effective church communication as communication that fully fulfills the Great Commission. These are the last words of Jesus to his followers:
Matt: 28: 18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The way I summarize the Great Commission and apply it to church communications is to define effective church communications as communication that accomplishes two purposes:
1. To help people come to know Jesus as Savior.
2. To help people become mature disciples of Jesus.
Another way to say it is that our communication is effective if;
1. It is enabling people to get closer to Jesus.
2. It is enabling people to become like Jesus.
This series of blogs will define my ministry and what perhaps makes it unique in the midst of the many useful resources available today to equip and encourage church communicators. The very first and most important distinction to me in church communications is this foundation on the Great Commission.
Matt: 28: 18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The way I summarize the Great Commission and apply it to church communications is to define effective church communications as communication that accomplishes two purposes:
1. To help people come to know Jesus as Savior.
2. To help people become mature disciples of Jesus.
Another way to say it is that our communication is effective if;
1. It is enabling people to get closer to Jesus.
2. It is enabling people to become like Jesus.
This series of blogs will define my ministry and what perhaps makes it unique in the midst of the many useful resources available today to equip and encourage church communicators. The very first and most important distinction to me in church communications is this foundation on the Great Commission.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
LA TIMES, June 1, 2008: of Kennedy and Keats and Salmon Rusdie
“When hope lived” is the title of a book review of three books about Robert F. Kennedy by David L. Ulin.
The review ends this way: “Hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed Kennedy spoke in an inner-city Indianapolis neighborhood. . . . . He told the largely black audience they were right to be enraged. Then he talked about compassion: ‘Let us dedicate ourselves,’ he said, ‘to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.’ Unlike other major cities, Indianapolis did not explode. Was Kennedy responsible? Who can say? But it suggests something fundamental that, even in a moment of extreme crisis, he chose to speak to our hopes and not our fears.”
Commentary: “To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.” What a daunting challenge. I find it so easy to express anger (righteous of course) and to find fault; to write or speak words that will make people “shape up.”
Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:29). Perhaps to “make gentle” my words would be to make them more like Jesus. What a wonderful challenge to think that one’s words could calm a city; ours might not do that, but if we calm a hurting heart; if we challenge someone to express peace and not anger in our teaching or writing, we will have helped to make gentle the life of our world.
From a book review by Nicholas Delbanco, quoting Stanly Plumly’s biography of Keats
“He feared he had failed, his body brought down by disease, his poems belittled by Tory critics. But he also knew something: Trust the writing.”
Commentary: Trust the writing. For good or ill, what we write survives and shows who we are in ways we can’t imagine. Which is one reason, I suppose why it matters so much who we are ultimately writing for.
I’ve been working on a piece for quite awhile, working title: Beware the Seinfeld Syndrome: the challenge of reverence in an irreverent culture. It’s one of the most difficult things I’m working on because I don’t want to sound like an old shrew in it. But I’m writing it because I believe we serve a holy God and some of the flippant approaches to church communications I see today seems to be directed to the same audience that idolized Jerry Seinfeld rather than a divine one. I’m not quite certain the two audiences coexist kindly.
Quotes from three reviews: the first about the recent book by Salmon Rushie, the second a book on literary criticism by Adam Thirwell, the third on a novella by Gary Amdahl. The reviewers name follows each quote:
“No style should be a substitute for a story.”Amy Wilentz
“The finest literary criticism, the stuff that lasts, prompts thought-provoking questions, hitherto unimagined points of view and context. It should never (we were always taught, ahem) overshadow its subject in histrionics, iconoclastic or otherwise . . . . . style, like real life cannot be too precious, controlled or confining. ‘Real life is stylized,’ he says, ‘but it is messy as well. It is an accurate portrait of minute feelings.’” Susan Salter Reynolds
“Walter works for a media conglomerate that publishes a ‘series of books, light written, heavily produced.’” Ellen Slezak
Commentary: Today we can inexpensively and easily “heavily produce” anything; we can pile it on with images, flash, graphics and colors. But with all that is possible, we need to be constantly watchful that our style, no matter what tools technology makes available, never obscure the Christian story. Whether it is the story of the life of our Lord or our own, it is often messy.
A messy life, mine is certainly that often—which may be one of the reasons why I become almost physically nauseous at the pictures of smiling happy families gracing the covers of mass-produced church bulletins and industry churned-out web templates.
Where do they find those people? Nobody at my church looks like that and I live in Southern California. Many folks I know go to church because their lives are messy and Jesus gives hope; not to join a country club of picture-perfect people who smile all the time. To me that is to exchange style for story and in so doing, often make the story false.
Which brings me back to the challenge to make life, to make our writing, our church communications gentle—not perfect, stylish or flashy—gentle.
The review ends this way: “Hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed Kennedy spoke in an inner-city Indianapolis neighborhood. . . . . He told the largely black audience they were right to be enraged. Then he talked about compassion: ‘Let us dedicate ourselves,’ he said, ‘to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.’ Unlike other major cities, Indianapolis did not explode. Was Kennedy responsible? Who can say? But it suggests something fundamental that, even in a moment of extreme crisis, he chose to speak to our hopes and not our fears.”
Commentary: “To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.” What a daunting challenge. I find it so easy to express anger (righteous of course) and to find fault; to write or speak words that will make people “shape up.”
Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:29). Perhaps to “make gentle” my words would be to make them more like Jesus. What a wonderful challenge to think that one’s words could calm a city; ours might not do that, but if we calm a hurting heart; if we challenge someone to express peace and not anger in our teaching or writing, we will have helped to make gentle the life of our world.
From a book review by Nicholas Delbanco, quoting Stanly Plumly’s biography of Keats
“He feared he had failed, his body brought down by disease, his poems belittled by Tory critics. But he also knew something: Trust the writing.”
Commentary: Trust the writing. For good or ill, what we write survives and shows who we are in ways we can’t imagine. Which is one reason, I suppose why it matters so much who we are ultimately writing for.
I’ve been working on a piece for quite awhile, working title: Beware the Seinfeld Syndrome: the challenge of reverence in an irreverent culture. It’s one of the most difficult things I’m working on because I don’t want to sound like an old shrew in it. But I’m writing it because I believe we serve a holy God and some of the flippant approaches to church communications I see today seems to be directed to the same audience that idolized Jerry Seinfeld rather than a divine one. I’m not quite certain the two audiences coexist kindly.
Quotes from three reviews: the first about the recent book by Salmon Rushie, the second a book on literary criticism by Adam Thirwell, the third on a novella by Gary Amdahl. The reviewers name follows each quote:
“No style should be a substitute for a story.”Amy Wilentz
“The finest literary criticism, the stuff that lasts, prompts thought-provoking questions, hitherto unimagined points of view and context. It should never (we were always taught, ahem) overshadow its subject in histrionics, iconoclastic or otherwise . . . . . style, like real life cannot be too precious, controlled or confining. ‘Real life is stylized,’ he says, ‘but it is messy as well. It is an accurate portrait of minute feelings.’” Susan Salter Reynolds
“Walter works for a media conglomerate that publishes a ‘series of books, light written, heavily produced.’” Ellen Slezak
Commentary: Today we can inexpensively and easily “heavily produce” anything; we can pile it on with images, flash, graphics and colors. But with all that is possible, we need to be constantly watchful that our style, no matter what tools technology makes available, never obscure the Christian story. Whether it is the story of the life of our Lord or our own, it is often messy.
A messy life, mine is certainly that often—which may be one of the reasons why I become almost physically nauseous at the pictures of smiling happy families gracing the covers of mass-produced church bulletins and industry churned-out web templates.
Where do they find those people? Nobody at my church looks like that and I live in Southern California. Many folks I know go to church because their lives are messy and Jesus gives hope; not to join a country club of picture-perfect people who smile all the time. To me that is to exchange style for story and in so doing, often make the story false.
Which brings me back to the challenge to make life, to make our writing, our church communications gentle—not perfect, stylish or flashy—gentle.
LA TIMES COMMENTARY, a new section and why
For many of you working in church communication, much of your work is tedious. Though you know (as I remind you often in my seminars and various publications) that the most seemingly mundane publications you create can alter the eternal direction of a life, it is still often tedious to create the weekly bulletin, to update the website, to do up one more small group schedule.
But I also know that working with words can be captivating and sometimes for the sake of ministry or whimsy, dreams of glory or authority, you come up to me and ask about “writing.” It’s that kind of writing that this series of blog entries is about. Writing that isn’t tedious, writing that you do because you have a message or a dream to share. To inspire that sort of writing, I find it helpful to read writers who don’t necessarily write for church communications. Writers whose topics I would probably never write about, whose worlds I will never inhabit. This is not to say their worlds are evil or vile or anything I would not read on the patio at church between services, but many of the reviewers and authors would probably not be joining me in the church service.
One of my favorite sources for these writers is the LA TIMES, Sunday edition of their editorial section and book reviews. The designer in me loves the form. It is a tabloid tucked into the paper. A pullout section that opened one way says OPINION, turned upside down and opened from the back side, it says BOOK REVIEW. I savor reading it on Sunday afternoon; marking quotes will yellow markers and filing them under “Useful quotes” in my writing files.
It’s the quotes I love and the thoughts they prompt. I realized in my recent project of organizing materials for some books in process that lots of quotes don’t necessarily fit books about church bulletins and designing church websites. Yet they are quotes that the people who create church bulletins and websites might find useful because it seems to me that if every task you undertake in communication is infused with a bit of the glory of what it means to be a communicator, what it means to take words and use them to make people stop, think, ponder, or pray, perhaps the quotes that stir my heart, might stir yours also.
So I’ll be sharing. Here is the pattern: These blogs will be titled LA TIMES, the date, and then perhaps a key topic or two. From there I will pull out quotes and then add a few comments. The label will be clear, and the wonderful self-cataloging nature of this blog will make it easy for those reading the blog who consider the LA TIMES evil and any discussion of it a waste or for those who might also enjoy this sort of mental ramble, for both to either find or avoid whatever suits their particular provisions needed as a writer.
But I also know that working with words can be captivating and sometimes for the sake of ministry or whimsy, dreams of glory or authority, you come up to me and ask about “writing.” It’s that kind of writing that this series of blog entries is about. Writing that isn’t tedious, writing that you do because you have a message or a dream to share. To inspire that sort of writing, I find it helpful to read writers who don’t necessarily write for church communications. Writers whose topics I would probably never write about, whose worlds I will never inhabit. This is not to say their worlds are evil or vile or anything I would not read on the patio at church between services, but many of the reviewers and authors would probably not be joining me in the church service.
One of my favorite sources for these writers is the LA TIMES, Sunday edition of their editorial section and book reviews. The designer in me loves the form. It is a tabloid tucked into the paper. A pullout section that opened one way says OPINION, turned upside down and opened from the back side, it says BOOK REVIEW. I savor reading it on Sunday afternoon; marking quotes will yellow markers and filing them under “Useful quotes” in my writing files.
It’s the quotes I love and the thoughts they prompt. I realized in my recent project of organizing materials for some books in process that lots of quotes don’t necessarily fit books about church bulletins and designing church websites. Yet they are quotes that the people who create church bulletins and websites might find useful because it seems to me that if every task you undertake in communication is infused with a bit of the glory of what it means to be a communicator, what it means to take words and use them to make people stop, think, ponder, or pray, perhaps the quotes that stir my heart, might stir yours also.
So I’ll be sharing. Here is the pattern: These blogs will be titled LA TIMES, the date, and then perhaps a key topic or two. From there I will pull out quotes and then add a few comments. The label will be clear, and the wonderful self-cataloging nature of this blog will make it easy for those reading the blog who consider the LA TIMES evil and any discussion of it a waste or for those who might also enjoy this sort of mental ramble, for both to either find or avoid whatever suits their particular provisions needed as a writer.
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