Monthly Archives: September 2006

The Many Shades of Closeness

One of the speakers at the MinistryCOM Conference, Scott Evans of Outreach Inc., focused on outreach communications. He talked about “proximity,” saying that people are more likely to come to your church if they are “close” to you. But he described three different types of closeness, or proximity.

  • Geographic proximity. This is what we normally think of. People within a five-mile radius of your church are most likely to come for a visit.
  • Demographic proximity. What is the make-up of your church? Lots of seniors? Lots of singles? Lots of kids? Young families? Whatever you have a lot of, you’re more likely to attract more of. A young family that visits a church with lots of other young families is more likely to conclude, “This is the church for us,” than a single who visits that church and doesn’t see other people his/her age arriving or sitting alone (and, therefore, probably single).
  • Spiritual proximity. This one intrigued me. Most churches are probably populated mainly by active and inactive believers, and that’s the type of person most churches attract–people who want to get involved, or people who want to merely attend and inhabit a pew. But is your church welcoming to nonbelievers? Do your pews contain unbelievers who are either neutral to the Gospel, or who are seeking? My own church has a number of nonChristians who seem to enjoy hanging out with us saints. That’s a pretty cool thing.

The speaker stopped with those types of proximity. I’m playing with a couple of additional ones, both of which pertain only to Christians looking for a church.

  • Theological proximity. Before settling on a new church, I would check out the church’s doctrinal beliefs. Seems like a no-brainer.
  • Style proximity. This has to do with preferences regarding how the church does worship or church in general. For instance, if I were looking for a new church, I wouldn’t pick a liturgical church, nor a church still using just a piano and organ. I want a band. A band that rocks. Other persons, though, may look for something liturgical in style.

Evans also said something that we should all think about. He said only 1% of people are believers looking for a new church. And yet, that’s who we seem to target in our promotional materials. We talk about the programs we offer, our beliefs, where we fit in the theological spectrum (“conservative evangelical,” “charismatic,” etc.), our style of worship, etc. But none of this will necessarily attract nonbelievers. To do that, we need to climb out of our boxes and get creative.

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The Obnoxious Cellphone Guy

Last Saturday the hotel sent me a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call so I could get to the Phoenix rental car terminal, return my rental car, take the shuttle to the airport, check my bag, wade through security, and make my 8:00 flight. Which turned out to be way more than enough time. A 5:00 wake-up call would have done it.

On the flight from Phoenix to Chicago, a guy was talking on his cell phone as our plane taxied onto the runway. A passenger a few rows up turned around and told him to turn it off–“It’s dangerous,” he said. He hung up and said he was turning off the phone. But as the plane began rising from the runwway, become airborne, I looked back (he was just behind me, across the aisle), and he was leaning down in his seat talking on the phone again. He thought if people couldn’t see him, they wouldn’t hear him. Wrong.

“Hey, turn it off!” I instructed sternly. Another passenger told him the same thing. He kept talking. “Don’t mess around!” I said, sternlier. “The other passenger said the exact same thing. And the guy finally hung up. Jerk.

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Happy Birthday, Cha Ching

Here’s something of extreme cosmic importance which I just learned and feel an urgent need to record on my blog to alert the world’s English speaking population and Trivial Pursuit players everywhere. It concerns the “Happy Birthday” song. Seems someone holds the copyright on it and makes $2 million a year in royalties. Whenever it’s sung on TV (like the Tonight Show) or in a movie or some other public venue, they get some money. Which is why, in restaurants, when waiters and waitresses (annoyingly) sing to people with birthdays, they use some other song. The song was written by two sisters in the 1860s, was first published in a songbook in 1893, and was finally copyrighted in 1934. Are you not excrutiatingly grateful to Yours Truly for telling you about this?

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A Friend from Way Back

Gilbertsons

Steve and Donna Gilbertson book-ending their three kids.

Last Thursday, while in Phoenix, I stopped in to see my old friend Steve Gilbertson. He’s planting a church called Sanctuary in Cave Creek, a very interesting outlying community in Phoenix–a touch cowboy, a touch bohemian, several touches of other things. After the conference ended for the day, I drove out to the new house they are ready to move into.

Steve goes back farther than any other friend I have–back to junior high youth group days in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. His dad and my dad were good friends at the United Brethren church there. Steve and I quizzed together on some championship quiz teams. He went into the ministry, and in 1989 followed my dad as pastor of the UB church in Fountain Hills, Ariz., also part of the Phoenix metro area. He left there a couple of years ago, and is now doing what he’s always had a passion for doing: planting a new church.

Steve and Donna asked me where I wanted to eat. I said, “Something local. Anything but a chain.” Donna said, “We don’t have any chains here.” Which is fascinating. There’s a Dairy Queen, but that’s it. Cave Creek doesn’t allow street lights, so the place is kind of dark at night; that, too, is fascinating. They suggested a variety of places, and we settled on a steakhouse called The Satisfied Frog. The hysterical part is that The Satisfied Frog is just down the road from a restaurant called The Horny Toad.

We talked and talked and talked, which is what Steve and I always do when we get together. He’s a truly independent, unconventional thinker, and I like to fancy myself that way. This is a friendship I greatly cherish, and which has endured strong for 30 years.

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The Heebie Jeebies

On my flight from Chicago to Phoenix last Wednesday, I sat next to an early-twentysomething couple who spoke to each other in a language which I tentatively guessed was Italian. Which turned out to be right (I asked the guy at the end of the flight). The guy was an American from Chicago, but he and his wife now live outside of Milan, and she’s Italian. She read an English magazine during the flight, and he helped her with some words.

At one point she stopped reading, turned to him, held up the magazine while pointing to a paragraph of text, and asked, “What does ‘the heebee-jeebies’ mean?” He had an immediate response in Italian. I couldn’t come up with a response in English. The willies? Something that freaks you out?

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Beyond Cool

Kem Meyer was my favorite speaker at the MinistryCOM conference. She is on staff at Granger Community Church, just a couple hours west of me near South Bend, Ind. That’s a fascinating, innovative church of 5500, and Kem is a remarkably engaging, competent person. I took gobs of notes from her keynote session and from a seminar.

In the keynote, she said that whenever someone comes to you wanting to do a brochure or website, you need to ask three questions.

1. Is it a tool, or is it just cool?
2. What problem is this solving?
3. What will happen, or won’t happen, if we don’t do it?

All of this addresses the matter of purpose. Over the years, as we’ve created new ministry groups at the denominational level, they (very predictably) tend to want to create whatever communication tool is in vogue at that time. In earlier years, they always wanted a brochure and a newsletter. They didn’t necessarily know what they wanted to do with them, but just thought they should have them. So I would design a brochure and a newsletter.

Now, they’re more likely to want a website and an email list. A few years ago, the Youth Task Force asked me to develop a website for them, so I did. But they never gave me anything–I mean, not one thing–to put on it. They thought they should have a website, but more because it seemed “cutting edge” than because it accomplished a purpose for them.

Currently, to be really cutting edge, you need a blog. It’s the cool thing. A blog is a huge, huge commitment which people don’t realize until they start one. I’ve created three blogs for the denomination. One I never implemented, because I didn’t feel the group would be committed to making it succeed. One I discontinued because it wasn’t living up to its original purpose, and I combined it into the third blog, which was struggling, but is doing fine now that we’ve expanded it. A fourth blog request I simply said no to.

We really need more intentionality about our communications pieces, making sure they accomplish our purposes. Since I’m the communications guy, I guess I shouldn’t throw stones.

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Snootiness and Church Size

Though I loved the MinistryCOM conference, my first impression was a groan.

When I registered, I was directed to choose one of four colored badge holders based on my church’s size. Blue for churches of under 1000, green for 1000-3000, yellow for 3000-5000, and red (I think it was) for churches above 5000. I, of course, took the blue one. Reluctantly. I hate pecking orders, and that’s what this sounded like.

Throughout the 1980s, I attended the Evangelical Press Association’s annual convention, a really big deal which brought together editors and staffs from several hundred evangelical publications, incuding all the biggies (like the Christianity Today family, Moody Monthly, Decision, Focus on the Family, etc.). I then edited a denominational magazine with less than 5000 subscribers. Denominational magazines were at the bottom of the pecking order, and 5000 subscribers was peanuts. Now, I had invitations to move to large, status publications, but I always felt God wanted me to remain with the United Brethren church. So I just sucked up the general disdain from the snooties.

But after a decade, I grew tired of being looked down on. The final straw came when I talked over lunch with an editor from The Banner, a prominent, award-winning denominational magazine for one of the Reformed denominations. The lady asked me who I worked for, and I told her. What’s your circulation? Five thousand. How large is your staff? It’s just me. Then she said, “Well, it must be very rewarding work.” While what I read between her words was, “Loser.” She then seemed bored talking with me, and turned her attention to others.

In reality, I knew I could write circles around her. I had three EPA writing awards to my name. I’d sold freelance articles to over 40 Christian publications. But because of size issues–denomination, circulation, staff–she considered herself a cut above me.

The editors from the big publications hung around each other, they ate together, they formed circles during break. Meanwhile, we little guys scattered around the edges, drinking coffee by ourselves, waiting for the next session to start. At meals, we filled in at tables with an extra chair.

I went to one more convention and stopped. I’d had enough with the status positioning, the snobbishness of the Big Boys (and Girls).

So, when I picked up my MinistryCOM name-badge holder, those old feelings came back. I represent a small church in a small denomination. I wouldn’t be considered a person with much to offer, just a peon coming to learn from the Biggies.

I asked one lady what church she was from, and her instincts immediately went to size. Her response was a chagrinned, “We’re not a large church.” Amused by her seeming sense of inferiority, I told her, “My church has 120 people. We’re a land-locked church plant.” She perked up and said, “Oh, we have a thousand people.” She paused, then said with a smile which humbly recognized the silliness of our dance, “I guess you win.”

So, I probably had the distinction of representing the conference’s smallest church (though I actually came representing my denomination, which was as big as two Christ’s Church of the Valleys).

But joy of joys, I experienced none of the snootiness I experienced in the Evangelical Press Association. Nobody paid attention to the color of your badge. We were all communications professionals serving the Lord. And I found that so extremely refreshing.

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Sunday Morning Kiddie Songs

Today was “Back to School Sunday” at Anchor. The worship team did nothing but children’s songs–“Give Me Oil in My Lamp,” “The B-I-B-L-E,” “The Lord’s Army,” “Zacchaeus,” and “Father Abraham.” What a blast watching the adults do the motions!

Tim preached sitting on the platform with kids around him. He used a tree as the metaphor, and his message concluded with everyone going outside to plant a tree between the church and the youth center building. He let the kids plant the trees. Then the kids went to the door of the youth center (which is just a house we bought) for a bag of school supplies.

We did that in each service. It was fun and different. But I’ll be ready to do some rocking next week.

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The MinistryCOM Conference

Last Thursday and Friday I attended the MinistryCOM conference in Phoenix, Ariz. I hadn’t heard about this organization until I received an email about it. It’s designed for church communications professionals, which is my gig in life. This was their second annual convention. I’ll plan to attend every year.

Most of the attendees came from large, large churches which actually need someone to work fulltime in communications. Some had entire communications departments. This takes in a bunch of areas: marketing, graphics, the internet, public relations, information technology. The focus was more strategy than techie.

The level of competence, creativity, and commitment (three C’s! I should write sermons!) was extraordinary. I gained something from every keynote session and every seminar (most conferences throw in at least a few losers).

We met at Christ’s Church of the Valley, a 10,000-person church in Peoria, on the northwest side of the Phoenix metro area. My goodness, what a sprawling campus! The property at CCV, as it’s known, featured many buildings; this being Arizona, you don’t need hallways and enclosed walkways. The church holds four services each weekend–two on Saturday, two on Sunday. They promote them as “identical services.” Off of the sanctuary was a bookstore, a nice coffeehouse (with wireless access), and a scramble-system food court. Scores of tables sat outside, most under umbrellas or open-sided enclosures. Southwestern architecture is my favorite, and this church uses it beautifully.

When MinistryCOM attendees identified themselves, they usually gave the size of their church, not in a pecking order kind of way, but for context. I concluded that churches below 2000 round off to the nearest 100 (nobody said, “We have 1750 people”), churches above 2000 round off to the nearest 500 (so there’s no 5300, just 5500), and somewhere around 7000 or so, they begin rounding off to the nearest 1000. My size of church rounds off to the nearest 5 (do I say we have 120 people, or 125?). I didn’t meet anyone in a church with less than 1000 people, but my experience, in our denomination, is that they round off to the nearest 50.

I learned a lot, and I’ll inflict it upon my blog in the days ahead.

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Adventures in Flying

I’m sitting in Chicago’s O’Hare airport, waiting for my 50-minute flight back to Fort Wayne. I’ve been in Phoenix attending the MinistryCOM conference, a really wonderful event. I haven’t flown since November 2002, just after the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) took over all airport security. My, a lot has changed in that time. Here are some of my observations and experiences from this trip.

  • I used etickets for the first time. Booked everything through Orbitz by myself. Very nice. Orbitz sent voicemail to my cellphone with each leg of the flight. For instance, after arriving in Chicago, an Orbitz voicemail informed me that the Fort Wayne flight was on schedule, and told me the gate number and time of departure. I never had to produce tickets anywhere. Nice.
  • I loved the self-checkin stations. Swipe a credit card, and the machine identifies you. Put in your flight number, and it calls up your itinerary. Indicate how many bags need to be checked, and then the machine prints out your boarding passes for each leg of your trip.
  • In Fort Wayne, I set off the alarm several times, and the TSA guy waved me over to a section for wanding and frisking. At that point I was in my socks, cargo shorts, and polo shirt. No watch. No cell phone. Nothing metal in my pockets. The guy asked me if I had a prosthetic implant, like a fake knee. I said no. A few seconds later, he asked again, “Are you sure you haven’t had a surgical implant of some kind?” I think I might remember something like that. Anyways, a guy came and explained exactly what he would do, and said that when he frisked me, he would only use the back of his hand. Which, of course, made it perfectly okay for a guy to run his hands over my body. The problem turned out to be the multiple snaps in my cargo shorts. Fortunately, I didn’t need to remove my shorts.
  • The TSA employees were very professional and friendly. In Phoenix, the guy in front of me handed his boarding pass and a photo ID to the TSA guy at the head of the line. It wasn’t a good photo. The TSA guy asked if he could provide his driver’s license. The man pulled it from his wallet and said, “The photo doesn’t look anything like me.” The TSA official looked at the driver’s license, looked at the man, and then said, “Now I know why you gave me the other photo.” We all chuckled.
  • The boarding passes have a group number on them. Instead of boarding by aisles, as they once did–“Now boarding aisles 23 through 35”–we board by groups. Group one is always frirst class, and they board first, the snooty elites. On the last flight, I was group two, and we were the rows in the back. So they don’t go in order, from front to back of the plane.
  • On the flight to Phoenix from Chicago, a three-hour flight, all of the flight attendants were guys. One, if he colored his hair entirely gray (it was already partially gray), would have looked like Taylor Hicks from Americdan Idol. And I would have asked him to show us a dance move.
  • I had no trouble finding bin space for my carry-on laptop bag. In the past, people lugged aboard massive garment bags and anything else they could carry. I would get aboard early, lest all bin space be taken. But now that they’ve clamped down on carry-ons, I can board last and still have no trouble.
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