Perspective

I can rarely hear the word perspective without hearing it in Anton Ego's voice (from Ratatouille):

Server: Do you know what you'd like this evening, sir?  

Anton Ego: Yes, I think I do. After reading a lot of overheated puffery about your new cook, you know what I'm craving? A little perspective. That's it. I'd like some fresh, clear, well seasoned perspective...

Server: With what, sir?  

Anton Ego: Perspective. Fresh out, I take it?  

Server: I am, uh...  

Anton Ego: Very well. Since you're all out of perspective and no one else seems to have it in this bloody town, I'll make you a deal. You provide the food, I'll provide the perspective...

Ego's response is very enlightening for the church.  We provide the music, the sermon, the environment for worship, the structure, but the people in the pews (or chairs, or online) provide the perspective.

As church communicators, we can try to frame ourselves, our organization, or our mission in the best light, in an effort to alter people's perspectives.  We can show them the best of who we are, who we are trying to be, and what we are trying to become.  But we can also be authentic about who we aren't, what we're not trying to be, and our boundaries.  We just need to present all of these with the understanding that each person brings their own perspective.  

When we have our photo taken, who doesn't want their best side to show?  Sarge prefers his photo taken when he is standing, and from the front, because he looks less 'fluffy'.  Do we only show our best to those with whom we are communicating, or are we real about who we are?

Eventually, people will see us from the back.  They will get out of their seats and volunteer, or join a small group, and really get to know us.  As their perspectives change, will they find us to be even more of what we said we were, or will they see the fluff?

I'm not advocating that we air our dirty laundry, but that we be authentic in our communications.

If we communicate that life's a bowl of cherries, when sometimes, it's the pits, then when people get past the sweet, they might hit something harder than they are able to digest.  We need to assist them in altering their perspective.  Becoming a Christ-follower can be easy, but being a Christ-follower can be hard.  Being part of a body of believers is attractive on the approach, but not-so-pretty in the back.

How can we, as church communicators, present the good news in authentic ways? 

Do you have a Church Communications Plan?

I am helping a church develop a church communications document that would include their communications strategy, goals, and policies.

Here are some examples from denominational, district, and local perspectives:

Denomination: Four Square Church Style Guide

District: Seventh Day Adventist Public Relations Guide

Local Church: St. Matthew Catholic Communications Policies and Procedures

These each make up a part of what I believe a good church communications plan would include.  A complete plan would start with who the church is, why communication/branding is important, who communicates what, and how to communicate through various channels.  

Do you have a church communication plan, or part of one, that you would be willing to share?  Link to it in a comment, or if you're not ready to share it with the blogosphere, send it to my email.

It's Not How It Looks

McDonald's needed a change.  Moms with nugget-fueled preschoolers meeting for playdates used to be their bread and butter, but the butter was now being spread across other venues, especially coffeeshops.  Working professionals were spending their time, and their money, at Starbucks, not McDonald's.  So they added coffeeshop-style drinks, and then invested more than a billion dollars to remodel 14,000 U.S. locations (Details here).  They changed the color of the interiors to the same earth tones you find in Starbucks, bought espresso machines, and began offering free WiFi in all of their restaurants. 


I stopped in to a McDonald's the other day, and was confronted by this sign in the dining area:

McDonald's changed their restaurants to look more like Starbucks, but missed the point.  Starbucks serves caffeinated beverages, is painted in earth tones, and has free WiFi, but that's not why people spend their money and their time there.  Starbucks has a feel, and the feel conveys who they are.  They write your first name on your cup as if you're at a party where everyone has their name written on their solo cup with a sharpie so they don't accidentally sip your Diet Dr. Pepper instead of their super-sweet southern iced tea.  You can sit there for hours writing papers (or blogs, or facebook statuses) and no one will tell you your time is up.  This small sign conveys what McDonald's values: speed.  Buy it, eat it, and get out.

Recently, a friend visited a large church in Atlanta.  When asked to describe it in one word, she would tell you it was "Cold."  One of her comments was, "You'd think with that many people to draw from, they would choose the right people to be out front.  They must have some friendlier people in the church." Another was, "The hallways and common spaces were big and blank."  She contacted the church, let them know she was visiting from another city where she is in ministry, and asked if they could share information about one of their ministries.  She was told no.  The word community is in their purpose/vision statement, but this young lady felt anything but community.

Are your volunteers, physical property, printed collateral, and conversations conveying what you say are your priorities?

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

As a Christian, I am pro-life.  I believe strongly in the sanctity of human life.

As a realist, I undertand that we cannot focus every message on this topic, and therefore one Sunday per year is set aside to shine light on the issue.  Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is January 20 this year.

But honestly, as a woman, I often wish we wouldn't talk about it at all from the pulpit.  Because every message I've ever heard has centered on the murder of innocent children at the hands of a pregnant woman or abortion doctors.  We are reminded that the fetus is a life, how many of those fetuses are killed each year, and asked to give an offering to a crisis pregnancy center or some other well-deserving ministry that will counter Planned Parenthood's assault on unborn babies. 

The reason I am frustrated by these messages is because there is no message of grace; no offer of redemption; no opportunity for healing.  I am told that, as a female, it is my desire to participate in the sexual revolution without consequences that feeds the abortion machine.  (When Rep. Todd Akin stated that women don't get pregnant if they were legitimately raped, many evangelicals stood by his comments and affirmed his beliefs.)  If you get pregnant, you are a woman with loose morals and no responsibility, and if your loose living results in your decision to have an abortion, you are also a murderer.  Amen.  See you at The Golden Corral.

Here's a creative communication idea for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday: talk about how much God values all human life, including the life of the teenage girls in your community who feel pressure to have sex and don't have the self-confidence to make counter-cultural decisions.  And ask women in the congregation to mentor these teenagers in small groups.  Tell the young women that God loves them more than any man ever could, and that he wants them to be fully devoted to Him and not dependent on affirmation from whomever they are dating at the time.  Tell the divorced woman, the single woman, the widow, that they matter to God.  And tell the woman who sits quietly in the pew feeling guilty for her hidden sin that there is healing; that David was a murderer but we remember him in Scripture as a man after God's own heart.  That they do not have to be remembered for their sin, because forgiveness, healing, and redemption are right there for the asking, and they too will be known for their heart for God.  Demonstrate the sanctity of human life this Sunday by making sure women know that their lives are sacred, too.

There are a lot of great organizations that are in the fight to end abortion (+Paul Tillman is going to write about the March for Life next Monday on his blog: http://www.ingodsway.org/. I encourage you to visit his blog.).  I am not discouraging anyone from highlighting these ministries or taking up offerings for them.  I just pray that your communcation will be grace-filled and makes every person feel that God sees the sanctity of their own life.