Are You Relevant?
Posted by Geoff Wasserman in Non-Profit/Ministry
If you’re trying to reach the lost…better watch your language!
A Church marquee sign off the highway read, “Praise Jehovah…He shall return for his lost sheep!”.
I couldn’t help but chuckle, remembering my “B.C. days”, and thinking…who talks like that? More importantly, who wrote it and did they actually think it was the key to increasing attendance this Sunday?
How easy it is, the more time we spend in an environment, to allow the environment to shape our thoughts, actions and words. How ironic, that the very environment the Church tries to pray people into produces a language that confuses the very people it has a heart to reach?
The toughest thing for a company to do is market their product in a way that their target consumer says, “I gotta have that!” It’s why shoe commercials don’t break down the chemical composition of the rubber sole, beer commercials don’t simply list ingredients, and car commercials don’t describe for us every component of the engineering process in great detail. They match the product’s most attractive features with a lifestyle a consumer desires…in language from the customer’s world, not from the manufacturer’s warranty.
So, the next time your Church has a great event designed to reach the lost…remember to translate from Christian-ese to Average Joe! He might actually want to come…and bring his family with him.
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One Comment
T. Rhodes
29. Dec, 2008
Geoff,
After reading your blog on “R U Relevant?” what a great reminder - the world IS watching, and the question is what are we doing to make what they need to hear “attractive”. Who knows how many families the church lose each weekend because our Christian-ese cannot be translated to relate to as you say the average Joe. Hopefully blogs like this will be that reminder that will bring a change. Thank you for your thoughts!
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