In the movie 'Dumb & Dumber' Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels play two incredibly good hearted and incredibly stupid friends.
I was reminded of the movie the other day a friend tweeted his frustration at a door to door salesman who came knocking on the door trying to sell gas. That the salesman didn't seem to 'get' that my friend just wasn't interested in what he was selling, and even if he was, he wouldn't tell him. My friend would only choose a new service provider on his own terms.
Here's the thing. Churches have some things in common with the Dumb & Dumber and door to door salesman:
1) We are good hearted - No doubt about that one. The people we all work with live, breathe sleep ministry. Indeed, many give up brilliant careers to serve. But having a good heart isn't enough.
2) We can be incredibly stupid – Because we try the same communications method all the time, even when it just doesn't work. We just don't get that sometimes we need to try something new, something really different to connect to our target audience.
10 tips for avoiding dumb & dumber church communications:
1) Understand your primary audience
2) Measure how effective your communications really are
3) Kill your communications 'sacred cow'
4) Speak their language, not yours
5) Good communications goes way beyond a creating a groovy mailer
6) Be courageous. If you think your idea is the best.
7) Learn how to sell your idea and win over your leader.
8) Someone may of done it better already. Use their stuff. It's smarter.
9) Don't copy what the other church is doing down the road.
10) Spend Money. Don't spend money. They can both work for different reasons.
These steps aren't easy, its okay to fail. It's what you do next that counts.
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