Awhile back, I was asked to write an article for Christian Computing Magazine on the “church and its communications strategies” (or lack thereof). The overall point to the article is that if Christ is the greatest communicator of all time, why aren’t we following His example? The first two paragraphs of the article are as follows:
I often wonder why Christian organizations don’t take branding and marketing seriously. I hear responses that range from, “We don’t have the time to waste on branding or marketing”; to “We don’t really see a need for it.” My response: Really?
Throughout the course of each week, I have the opportunity to visit Christian websites, and occasionally get pleas in the mail to provide financial support to various organizations. Don’t get me wrong – some ministries are doing a good job, but 9 times out of 10, I’m appalled by the level of professionalism that I see in each communications effort. Why is that? In a world where many times you only get one chance to share your message with an individual, why do churches and ministries fail to communicate properly beyond the pulpit?
Since I graduated from college I have taken part in many logo design projects, which is fine by me, because it is one of my favorite things to do. After all of these years and different logo designs I have to say one thing seems almost universally true for every logo project I have worked on and that is the following: Nearly all clients like to take a little of this and a little of that from the various concepts present to them and create their own monster logo.
Now before you slap some neck bolts on your next logo and scream “Its aaalive!” please read the article Logos, Flags, and Escutcheons by Paul Rand. I read that article in a book back in college and nothing has influenced me more than those few paragraphs.
I know being presented with a number of design options is exciting. To be truthful, it is quite flattering when a client likes a number of solutions. However, it is also quite frustrating when those carefully planned designs are picked apart and reconfigured. A lot of times a certain font doesn’t work well with a certain mark, or those two colors don’t go well together, or all three of those concepts are not making sense when put together. Mr. Rand said it best when he said “A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.”
So next time you’re working on a logo project with an agency (preferably us) consider Paul’s words of wisdom. Igor may be disappointed, but your logo will be better off for it.
I’m on vacation this week. So, as this post gets activated on the blog and read by you all, I’ll be sitting on a Caribbean beach enjoying a sunny holiday. This is a double-blessing, because not only will I be in a warm and beautiful place, but I also won’t have to deal with the fall-out from today’s post. :)
I say that in jest, however, in truth today’s post is a tough one to write. But I write it in the hope that the context of all the other posts on this blog will qualify this and convey that our heart is never to offend but to build up the Church. It’s for that very reason that I felt compelled to write this post.
In short, this post is about paying your bills. Let me clarify one thing before I explain that further. Many of you may not be aware that both Electricurrent and AdvancedMinistry belong to a corporate entity, Gateseven Media Group. Gateseven, or G7 as we call it around here, is comprised of Bark Communications and Electricurrent. Bark is a communications agency and works exclusively with for-profit companies and organizations. Electricurrent on the other hand offers the same communications services as Bark but focuses on the Ministry and not-for-profit world (AdvancedMinistry falls under the umbrella of Electricurrent’s responsibility).
Having laid down that groundwork, let me get to the heart of the matter. In the 5 years that I have been employed here working with both corporate and not-for-profit (ministry) organizations, we have seen a consistent pattern of ministries not paying their bills. Given, in some instances it was for valid reasons like an invoice that went missing, but the truth is that we consistently see a much higher rate of unpaid bills on our ministry side than we do on our corporate side and our experience is that it’s frequently a result of sloppy book-keeping or an attitude of entitlement (“I’m a ministry and you guys are Christians so you should give us a break”).
Now again, let me clarify that I’m not writing this post in the hopes of making sure that we rake in more cash here – that truly is not the intent. I also fully realize that there are distinct challenges to ministry budgets. However, my aim is less to criticise than it is to challenge you all to be better, not for our sake, but for the sake of our witness. I can only imagine that if ministries are having trouble paying a $35/month invoice to us, that they will be struggling with paying bills to the non-believing organizations they deal with. Are we asking ourselves what the impression is that we leave with those people?
The Bible calls us to be honourable with our finances – to be good stewards. Part of that stewardship comes in the paying of our debts on time.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:10-14, ESV)
Download the latest (free) Xpiritmental wallpaper here entitled, “The One”.
The questions I left you with yesterday are: Why are so many people signing up and contributing to the community around the Stuff Christians Like blog (especially considering that it’s not even a year old)? AND What is Jon Acuff (the primary author of SCL) doing right?
Here’s a list of my thoughts on those questions:
Purpose - Stuff Christians Like has a clearly defined purpose. Pretty much, the name says it all and that’s key. Successful blogs grow by providing compelling content. That’s not to say that successful blogs are always massive, but within their niche, the bigger the better because that’s typically an indicator of the quality of the content as a draw for individuals to join up.
Delivery - SCL is nearly always really, really funny. If you don’t believe me, here’s a sample. Whether or not he intended it to be this way, Jon and the clan have found a way to call the church out on some of our quirks that might be off-putting to a newcomer, but does it in a light-hearted way that approachable and extremely witty. That’s not to say that your blog has to be funny to grow. But it is to say that you need to speak to your audience in a way that they will find attractive.
Context – Not only does Jon run the SCL blog, but he also has another blog called The Prodigal Jon. The Prodigal Jon gives some context to the author in that the posts on it are more contemplative and tells us that this sharp-witted, pointer of fingers at the church is also a thoughtful, caring believer.
Limitations - Knowing what you’re good at, and what you aren’t – Questioner: “What happened to the interview you did with DC Talk’s Kevin Max?” Jon: “I learned an important lesson by doing that interview, I suck at doing interviews”.
Relational - A successful blog is not a Public Relations tool in the old school way of thinking about it. Successful blogs are as much about the readers as they are about the primary author. They are communities of people who are passionate about the topic(s) of the blog. SCL succeeds in this area because it’s pointing a light-hearted finger at our quirks in church and all of us know we do it so it resonates – the blog merely rallies a group of people with a common interest. Referring to the 3rd place ranking on the top 60 Christian blogs, Jon said on SCL:
“Stuff Christians Like was ranked 3rd. That this site even made that list was pretty surprising. That it was 3rd is what the French call “ridiculous.” But in looking at the list I realized something. That ranking isn’t just about me and what I write. It’s also about you. The stats that were used to build the list measure reader activity. Readers subscribing. Readers visiting. Readers linking. That's you, not me. So what that means is not that I'm the third most influential Church blogger online, it means you are the third most influential group of Christian readers online. So wow, you guys are awesome. I hope we can all enjoy our bronze medal.”
Engagement – SCL enjoys a VERY healthy amount of comments and as I’ve indicated in past Xpiritmental posts, this is another key measurement of a successful blog. As you read through the posts and related comments, you come to appreciate that there are many, many other people out there who are raring to provide great content for the SCL blog – so Jon invites them to contribute. This is a key in the world of social networking – you don’t own the information or the rights to be the only one coming up with it. So rather than compete with others to split the pot of your audience, invite the other person/group in to contribute and together make the best blog you possibly can. Unity in diversity...where have I heard that concept before?
So those are the list of revelations that hit me as I read through the SCL blog yesterday. It’s a great case study from a successful blog that we can all learn from.
As the dust has settled for me from the post-Christmas catch-up period, I finally had opportunity over the past few days to also play catch-up on my blog reading – something I woefully neglected over the holidays and the past few weeks. But I’m actually quite thankful for it because even though playing catch up on 25+ blogs is a time-consuming process, it’s actually led to a really interesting revelation.
Before I get to my revelation, let me clarify one thing. Blogging is a wonderful medium, but it presents some challenges. Not the least of which is that on a daily basis, we are posting incomplete thoughts – parts of the whole. Of course, the daily-digest format of blogging is perfect for our sound bite/information-heavy culture, and so our hope is that as you read the Xpiritmental blog, you will take any given post in the context of all the other posts we’ve written.
But as I’ve played catch-up today on one blog in particular, I was struck by some things that I think I would have missed had I kept up with it on a day-to-day basis.
The blog I’m referring to is the Stuff Christians Like (SCL) blog. If you don’t know it, let me start off by putting out a really clear endorsement for it. Stuff Christians Like is one of, if not the best blog that I read. The idea behind the blog is to poke fun at the Christian sub-culture and the quirky little habits and phrases we do and say.
Recently, the Stuff Christians Like blog was ranked third in a list of 60 of the “world’s most popular church blogs written by many of today’s most influential church leaders, theologians, and Christ followers.” That ranking has much to do with the traffic and engagement of people with the blog which is a really valid measurement system. But the things that hit me today were the answers to the questions: Why are so many people signing up and contributing to the community around this blog (especially considering that it’s not even a year old)? AND What is Jon Acuff (the primary author of SCL) doing right?
So with that tidbit of blogging truth in paragraph two and the endorsement of SCL directly above, I’m going to stop here for today and let you digest those questions for yourself. Have a read of the SCL blog and do some thinking about why you feel it’s succeeding in what has quickly becoming a cluttered and busy space (Christian blogs).
I’ll be back tomorrow with my thoughts and responses to any comments you all have to this post.
Electricurrent's site was highlighted in a gallery of CSS templates that Web Designer Wall ranked as some of the best of 2008. Click here to find us in the gallery (about halfway down).
I’ve been struggling for a while with a great way to comment on our experience with organizations that think they have communicated a given message really well, but in fact have done a poor job. A common element of that failure has to do with a lack of repetition.
I learned about, and became fascinated with, the Toyota Production System (TPS) while I was in University.
One of the main goals of the TPS is to eliminate waste, which come in forms that typically would not immediately come to mind. It has been said that the savings from waste reduction are much greater than reducing the number of employees, which is the typical, default strategy of many organizations and corporations.
Rather than increasing unemployment, let’s look at the following forms of waste.
Over-production – Is your church or ministry wastefully over-producing anything without thinking through whether it is needed? Are you printing thousands of bulletin shells for that week, only to see 80% of them left in the seats once the service is over?
Motion (of operator or machine) – Do you have anyone traveling unnecessarily?
Waiting – Are there any staff members who sit idly by while waiting for things? Could the process/system be re-written to eliminate any waiting? Are people forced to sit around while their dial-up internet loads the page, and you don’t want to do a cost-benefit analysis to see if that time wasted would pay for the high speed?
Conveyance - Are documents being printed and hand delivered between departments rather than just emailed?
Processing itself – Are the ways that things are being processed just flat out inefficient and/or redundant? An extreme example would be for bookkeeping still being done on paper, rather than electronically.
Inventory – Did you pay to have a billion bulletin shells printed in 1989, only to have them changed about 10 times since then…and they are still sitting around? Are you keeping old equipment, which takes up storage space, and then finding yourself undergoing an expansion project for more room?
Correction (rework and scrap) – Do you have a terrible Quality management system, which causes the reproduction of another million of something that had a small spelling error?
Financial stewardship in Christianity is the belief that God is the true owner of our possessions. As such, we will be held accountable to God for the way in which we manage those possessions (resources) that have been given to us. I encourage your church or ministry to look at ways waste elimination efforts can be improved.
Whether or not you agree with all of what Penn (of Penn and Teller) concludes here, there's at least one point that I want to highlight.
The gentleman that approached him was authentic. I've said it before on this blog and it's something we believe firmly around here in the office so you're likely to hear it again, but good communications, good marketing and even good evangelism are all based in authenticity.
You need to be authentic in representing your cause or beliefs. A big part of the battle in getting there often comes down to asking if you're honest enough with yourself to know where you aren't being authentic.
But no matter the reasoning, if you aren’t being real, then all you serve to do is discredit the very thing that you represent. And trust me, your audience is savvy enough to figure out if you’re not being authentic.
The complete answer to the question “Is Blogging for You?” would likely constitute a book. There’s a lot to be said about the topic and many fine individuals and organizations have tackled the issue on blogs and in books – although many of them pertain to businesses and corporate entities. So I’m undoubtedly going to leave some blanks unfilled as I broach the topic. Nevertheless, here are a few things to consider when answering this question for your ministry or non-profit:
1. Who is your audience?
Are they online? If not, will they be moving online in the next few years? Or, do you want to reach out to a new market segment that does live online?
2. What do you have to say?
Do you have something unique to bring to the table? Blogging for the sake of blogging is a bad idea. As outlined in the video I shared a couple days ago, information is coming at us at an unbelievable rate of speed and we can become immobilized with taking it all in. We should neither succumb nor contribute to that overstimulation. Nevertheless, if you have an audience who will listen, you always have at least one unique element to your blog, your culture and your audience.
3. Does your organization have the commitment to keep a blog up?
You need to be really honest with yourself in asking the question of whether you can keep a blog going. Do you have a team of people that truly understand the value of blogging and will stick with it? I want to be clear on this point, it is worse to start a blog and then abandon it, than to have never started it at all. A neglected or abandoned blog, just like a neglected, abandoned or outdated website, says a lot about your organization - and it’s not flattering.
Parting thought: Blogging is not an instant reward marketing tool and it is difficult to directly tie the impact of a blog to your bottom line. But at the end of the day anyone you talk to will acknowledge that word of mouth is the best form of marketing an organization could have and that’s what a blog, if done well, creates. It builds a community of advocates – a group of people that are your ongoing, committed audience. But it’s not only about you. Blogging (and social media tools in general), are tools that create an environment where a customer/target can help a company/organization do what they do better which in turn helps the customer. Essentially, you invite your audience in to help you serve them. It’s a win-win and other than the investment of your time, it’s free!
And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” (Luke 12:22-31, ESV)
As we press forward in 2009, let us not forget who has the power and authority over all things. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
For those of you that like to change your desktop wallpaper often, we have created a new Xpiritmental background – “Consider the Wild Flowers”. To download it, visit www.xpiritmental.com and click on Wallpaper to select your desktop size. (All of our backgrounds are free.) God bless!
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the fastest growing church in Canada – The Meeting House. Some of you may know the teaching pastor there. He’s a guy by the name of Bruxy Cavey (wrote a book called The End of Religion)
Brux said something in that service that stuck with me: “...knowledge is coming at us at a vicious rate of speed and we’re welcoming it because there’s much of it that’s good, absolutely. But to some extent we may be people who are jam packing our lives with new knowledge, new experiences, and yet shrinking in our ability to have insight – to have wisdom.”
As we kick off this year, I want to encourage you to consider the video above and then do some thinking about what it is that this means for your ministry or non-profit in 2009 and beyond.
So it’s the New Year and many of us are back at our desks refreshed and restored after downtime with family and friends. Undoubtedly, others of us had a busy or difficult holiday this year and you enter 2009 wondering what’s in store for the year to come. I for one would probably fall in the latter category.
But regardless of how we enter 2009, for those of us that are Christians, “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
And so we take heart in the knowledge that there is a divine plan and order to our circumstances – easy or hard – and it’s simply our job to get on with the business of living for Christ.
On the basis of that confidence, I’m choosing to embrace 2009 as yet another year full of grace and opportunity to be sharpened and grow in my service of God. The side-effect of that attitude is the peace and strength that comes in seeing purpose in the coming year.
And as that pertains to this blog, this all translates into taking the things that I know now about the state of the world, marketing and technology and challenging myself, and those of you who follow along with Xpiritmental, to constantly define and act on knowing who we need to serve and how we need to serve them.
2009 could be a big year. Let’s do our part to make sure it lives up to its potential!
Xpiritmental is a resource. It's a place to learn and to share thoughts on marketing, ministry, design, service, the Web, culture and more. We'll start the conversation, but we're looking forward to hearing what you've got to say.
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“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
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