5 Things We Can Learn From the Mormons
July 20th, 2010 § 9
Over the weekend, I stumbled upon the new Mormon missionary site, Mormon.org. I was blown away. I also stumbled upon the thought process behind the site. Turns out the site has been years in the making, much of which was research on people’s perceptions, misunderstandings, and beliefs about Mormons. Not surprisingly, the site was created specifically to address people’s preconceptions. As the Northtemple blog says:
For our prototype testing, we wanted to know more than anything if what we’re proposing would help improve perceptions of people about Mormons. We took our participants through several scenarios to help them explore the site. (There was a part of the test where we left the participant on their own for a few minutes and watched them click around the site. That was revealing.) We tested the visual design, tone of voice, information architecture, and interaction.
What we learned is that people did not know very much about the Mormons nor that we are a very diverse church. We also learned that people wanted to know what we believe in and, unfortunately, what we’ve prototyped was not enough. They wanted more. They also wanted to know some answers to frequently asked questions about the Mormons but didn’t know where to go. At the end of the session, each participant was asked if their perceptions of Mormons have changed after reviewing the prototype and most, if not all, said yes, on the positive.
Make no mistake, the new Mormon.org site is a carefully crafted project with a very specific purpose—to answer people’s objections, make a huge emotional impact, and to blur the lines between Christianity and Mormonism. By and large, I think they’ve succeeded. And as such, those of us who work in church communications have much to learn from the Mormons. » Read the rest of this entry «
The Search for the Greatest Christian Album of All Time!
July 14th, 2010 § 1
OK, so I threw this Tweet out this morning:
And I’ve had more responses than I expected. So, I thought I’d open the discussion here. Thus far, we’ve had the following albums listed as “The Greatest Christian Album of All Time!”:
- Stryper’s “To Hell with the Devil” by @mxbx
- Petra’s “This Means War” by @thejakers (as a joke)
- Michael W. Smith’s “I 2 (Eye)” by @therwreck
- Daniel Amos’ “Bible Land” by Lyle Wallace on FB
- Switchfoot’s “Beautiful Letdown” by @garthbostic
- Delirious’ “Cutting Edge” and Derek Webb’s “Mockingbird” by @seanmortenson
- Gungor’s “Beautiful Things” by @i61Lee
I’d love to keep this running. Add voice to the conversation, and tomorrow I’ll compile the top votes.
What’s the Greatest Christian Album of All Time?
Piper Gives Caution to the New Calvinists
July 14th, 2010 § 1
Piper warns on the dangers of idolizing intellectualism.
St. Paul on the Prosperity Gospel
July 9th, 2010 § 0
Here’s Paul’s take on the prosperity gospel:
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.’) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
- Romans 8:35-37
On Distraction
July 9th, 2010 § 0
Here is a particularly poignant quote from a post by Justin Taylor on distraction. It comes from Douglas Groothuis:
Diversion serves to distract humans from a plight too terrible to encounter directly—namely, our mortality, finitude, and failures. There is an ineluctable tension between our aspirations and our anticipations and the reality of our lives.
Read the rest of Justin’s post here.
Three Key Roles for a Successful Church Plant
June 16th, 2010 § 2
Anthony Tjan wrote a great post over at the Harvard Business Review blog entitled “The Three Roles of Great Entrepreneurs“. He breaks down the necessary components for a successful startup into three simple things.
To stay focused, early stage CEOs need to remember that there are just three important things that need to get done in a business — 1) planning, 2) selling, and 3) executing — and that these tasks require three different mindsets. Some entrepreneurs can excel in all three roles, but the best ones are aware of their strengths and weaknesses and build their teams accordingly.
He then goes on to give three types of entrepreneurs.
The Architect: Big-Picture Planning
This is the visionary. The leader who can set the culture and inspire the troops, but who isn’t as skilled in executing that plan. They’re great at finding the right team members and inspiring them to own the vision, run with it, and make it successful. But they’re not too concerned with the details.
The Storyteller: Researching and Selling
This is the person who can take a vision, communicate it well, and get others outside the organization to buy into the vision or purchase the product. The Storyteller knows the details in and out and can communicate them with passion, blending the communication and selling.
The Disciplinarian: Executing
This is the leader that is great at making sure the plan’s details are perfectly executed. Where The Architect loves to build the farm, The Disciplinarian loves to cultivate it. This person measures results, builds structures, and develops systems.
Tjan’s article is dead on in terms of the business world. But it also strikes me as just as important for churches—especially church plants. The counterparts to these roles in the ministry world are the Lead Pastor, the Communications Director, and the Executive Pastor. While a successful church plant requires more than just these roles to be successful—most importantly God’s blessing and calling—I think one would be hard-pressed in this day and age to be successful without them.
Often church planters, and even seasoned pastors, try to do all three roles themselves. After all, resources are limited, and it’s hard to let others run with your vision. But as Tjan points out, it’s important to identify your strengths, leverage them, and bring others on to fill the important roles better than you can.
By building a great team that compliments each other, a church can far more effectively reach the world with the transforming gospel of Jesus.
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