The Conversation.
Maybe it is the point after all.
C. Michael Johnson
Do you want to increase attendance or deep and meaningful conversations... or both?
Question from a church planter: "We're considering a large mailing and we've heard differences of opinions on the best approach. Some suggest doing a one-time major blitz, others go with repeated, but smaller mailings. From your experience, which has been more effective: the larger blitz, or smaller, repeated mailings? If smaller and repeated, how many follow-ups?"
This question is similar to many asked of me in context of projects in which I've served as a coach-strategist. Often they relate to promotional strategies and tactics--"what works, what doesn't, how much of this, how much of that?" Good questions if grounded in an integrated vision and plan, but herein lies the key: vision needs to see the whole field and really understand what it sees. There are dozens of popular books that touch on church marketing in the context of church growth, evangelism, and mission, and many contain a lot of good ideas and based on time-honored principles. But most leave us with the impression that marketing is a somewhat recent discipline ushered in with the communications technologies of the 20th Century which the church needs to master so we can attract a crowd to some 'place', the place we do the real ministry. But is marketing more than that?
In search of a better perspective I'd like to propose this question: Does our preoccupation with tactics and techniques distract us from seeing what is really going on and a potentially greater work? Is asking how many times we need to 'talk' to the people we are trying to reach be like a boy asking how many times does he need to talk to a girl before she'll wear his letter jacket? (I think just dated myself) The issue here goes deeper than the fact that he's getting the cart before the horse (more power to him if he can work that fast, right?), but the real issue here is that he is missing the point entirely. In matters of love, the conversation isn't a means to an end... it is the end... it is the point? (I can hear my wife-- "He's finally getting it!").
In Cluetrain, Christopher Locke made famous the line, 'markets are conversations.' If corporations that hawk products and services are coming (albeit kicking and screaming) to that realization, shouldn't we? If we are ever going to effectively reach our communities and be transformational leaders in more than name only, we will need a holistic, right-thinking plan (based on incarnational ways to mine rich veins of spiritual intelligence). Otherwise we're simply rearranging the deck chairs to compete in the traditional church-goer market (a rapidly shrinking market I might add) with little real transformation in peoples lives or the community at large.
All ministry starts with a conversation. A communicator with a great, relentless vision in his heart, for reasons of both quality and quantity, will seize the power of media to begin the conversation, frame the discussion, provoke interest and credibility and of course, generate authentic 'wow'. He will also use all the media tools available to him to nurture the relationship and the dreams of God in those relationships. He will help people find their personal voice and draw out the creative expression of their God-dreams in a way that empowers them to be transformational and influential themselves in the realm of their own calling. To a transformational leader there are no walls between marketing and ministry, communication and community, media and relationship.... especially not in the networked, media-driven world of today.
A proper sequence could go like this:
conversations > friendship > dreams > incubation & equipping > team & support
A challenging question: how many of these activities could happen before a person attends a Sunday-morning service? (the wide-funnel idea) ... think Internet, bridge events,
With the idea that we get what we plan for, here is a goal-setting worksheet with another angle on this approach:
The A7 Goal-Planning Chart for a Relationship-Managed Church:
To summarize:
1. Marketing is no longer about selling, it's about fulfilling people's dreams (and maybe fulfilling your servant role in the process)
2. Those dreams (although clouded with mixture) are embedded with specific God-given dreams and based on a universal and deeply-held need for meaning.
3. Marketing is also about creating conversations.
4. Authentic conversations need to begin with honor, honesty, and permission.
5. The best conversations are transformational, and the path to transformation goes through dreams.
6. Conversations can begin anywhere, but media affords an opportunity to spawn many conversations while you frame them right.
7. Media has the ability to generate conversations on a scale all but impossible by personal contact alone.
8. Meaningful conversations (in media and in the flesh) are both the means and the end of ministry (shared purpose in Christ).
So is there a market for conversations? Yes, if they are meaningful. There's a world waiting for them... just ask Starbucks. And even though they deliver more coffee than meaningful conversations, they know the power of marketing them. Just think what might happen if someone delivered?
"Didn't we feel on fire, as he conversed with us on the road?" (Luke 24:32)
"It is in the tacit information that emerges from conversation that the gold is found. It is in conversation, in the context of a legitimate relationship, that learning? and the best value occurs. Knowledge is more than facts; it is about understanding and participation. This is what is behind the marketing revolution. This is what is behind the impending revolution in education and health. Conversation is also the force behind the generation of a new community." -- Robert Paterson
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A snapshot of the Five Components:
Synergy 1 Spiritual and Community Intelligence
Synergy 2 Withreach Media Strategies
Synergy 3 Community Connections
Synergy 4 Coaching Communities
Synergy 5 Dream Incubators
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