Culture

This is a very interesting video where Malcom Gladwell (author) speaks about the process of discovery by a man studying people’s tastes in the food industry - specifically speghetti sauce. Watch the whole video - but do so in mind of the variety of ministry methods that exist from Mega Church Contemporary, Emergent Acoustic, to Hillsong Concert or Midwest Traditional. Think about different styles of preaching, different doctrines in preaching and different sizes of church.

[UPDATE: The way I said this initially caused confusion, like the different styles of church are different brands. In my head, and what I suggest is that all these styles are varieties of the same "brand" - Christ's body the Church.]

<<<Seriously - watch the video first and then keep reading>>>

As I watched this video and those things were coming to mind the light popped on that every church I’d ever been a part of always used absolutes in regards to methods, styles and processes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been a part of conversations about how we are going to “get the 20s and 30s more interested in church.” Maybe it is because we shape church to be “right” in our own eyes. We are building church that works for the masses - but only gives them 60% satisfaction in what they are looking for.

And that satisfaction isn’t shallow - it is 60% satisfaction in how they are growing, what they are learning, how they are serving and experiencing God as a part of a faith community.

What if instead we realized the diversity of humanity and the danger of “sameness”? That no congregation wants everything the same.

Think of it another way. When you order pizzas for a big group what type of pizza do you typically land on? Pepporoni and Cheese. It is the pizza everyone can eat. But is the pizza everyone that everyone receives the most satisfaction from? NOPE!

The point? The search for and application of the mentality “one-size-fits-all” is dangerous. This isn’t just for the diversity churches in a town, but for diversity to have a place within a local church. Here are the questions it brings to my mind, and some are disruptive, and some we might know answers right away - but take a moment and think of new possibilities in how we do church understanding within a community of any size people are in a variety of clusters in regards to preference and satisfaction of experience.

Questions to ponder:

• If a church has multiple services, why are they all the same (beyond it being easier)?
• What would be the clusters of preference within your local church?
• Is it possible for a local church to be united as a body but grow through several different church expressions or experiences?
• Does unity mean sameness in the church, or is unity the celebration of diversity?
• Why couldn’t there be two (or more) preachers for the same church? (think outside the ego of leadership and pride of position)
• Can a church have a unifying mission with a diversity of worship communities? (Young Adults in Cell Groups, Families in House Churches and Seniors in Sunday School?)
• Have you ever listened for the preferences or tried to see the clusters?
• How does your staff react to members of your community suggestion different expressions of worship, discipleship or ministry beyond the “chosen path?”

I think that the growing commodities of modern life that are being ushered in by technology and the ability to scale on a global perspective create tremendous possibility to help people find Jesus, live a testimony to his glory and enjoy Him better than ever before - but I think the key is listening…

What are your thoughts on this?

A friend of mine recently schedule a coffee with me to have us plan out how a new Sunday night service could try and connect with those attending through Facebook. This basic strategy could also work for any churches wanting to experiment with extending their worship services into a social network like Facebook - sort of an internet campus “starter kit”

Internet Campus Starter Kit

1. Script, shoot, edit and post a 3 minute video for the Facebook community once a week

• Content
  • Graphic Lead in and Close for Service branding
  • Announcements
  • Teaching summary (”campus pastor” does a brief overview of main scripture and teaching)
  • Teaching challenge (”campus pastor” explains the challenge)
  • Prompt to share challenge results or teaching questions in discussion topics “below”
• Bonus / Extras
  • Ministry Highlight (small groups, retreat, etc.)
  • Event Highlight (social, movie night, etc.)

2. Monitor Facebook Community Daily

• Leave Wall comments on all new “fans” to the page
• Have “facebook team” friend all the people who are fans of the page
• Monitor discussion topics and be as catalytic as possible for generating conversation
• Create a topic for every weekends teaching title the same as the sermon with “Sermon:” then the title each week
• Create a topic for every event, and send out and event update

3. Post 2 Updates to Fans a Week

• Announce the Posting of the Video
• Send a post with service and church announcements

4. 24 Wk Strategy for Initial Phase

• 1st 8 weeks: Building trust that you are going to show up each week and refinement of the content creation and posting processes. Don’t expect any significant growth or engagement
• 2nd 8 weeks: Community should start to grow along with engagement. Start recruiting people to be a part of the FB community team.
• 3rd 8 weeks: Start evaluating process, engagement and ideas. Work on implementation plans for new content, and activity on Facebook page - and look for 1-2 other social networks you can start a 24 week Initial Phase on.

What would you add, adjust or take out?

Here are the fireworks we watched last night in HD thanks to Vimeo’s ability to do so. Forgive the at times shaky camera and child discipline half way through - our kids were way past bed time (Make sure to hit “HD ON” on the right of your screen to see it in glorious 1280 x 720)

Forth of July Fireworks from Tony Steward on Vimeo.

Read this article, whether or not you like Barack Obama it is still pretty funny. Below is my favorite line from the bunch…

Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.

[From Rumors Barack Obama's campaign shouldn't try to correct. - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine]

Many people talk about the ever-widening gap in technology and internet usage between generations that is occurring right now. A lot of people seem to focus on the actual technology, that it is cumbersome, or hard to learn as a reason why previous generations are having a difficult time adapting. I think it is a combination of new values, other generations don’t see the value in using the internet for relationships, as well as having to learn to work in a new way.

All the collegiate graduates popping into the workforce over the next 12 months will be the start of the facebook and blogging generations entering the workforce en masse. They will have a tremendous advantage in regards to connectedness, speed and technology understanding. What most people used to put on their resumes (competency in HTML, etc.) are now pretty common skills, like using Microsoft Word was 5 years ago. And the “way” this generation will get results, and where they look for answers, and the speed at which they can find answers will continue to change the working environment.

Jeremiah Owyang has a great blog post on this topic where he is asking some great questions about this generation, if it will continue to use these technologies, and what changes are afoot because of it. Whether there or here, what do you think of these changes, and what effect are they going to have on relationships, work environment and society as a whole?

The question remains: Is this a generational thing that Gen Y will continue to communicate this way for the rest of their lives? Or is this a life stage experience where only the young participate online. I’m going with the former, expect to see my kid sister texting her friends until the next technology comes along, some sort of embedded in-person communication tool. [From Life Imitates Art Web]

You have permission. You have all the permission you need to grow, learn, get better, and be wildly curious. Many of your managers, bosses and CEOs are trying to keep you quiet and less skilled because they are threatened by you. They want to stay “king of the hill”, but to do so they have to say things like “you aren’t paid to think”, they have to be overly critcial and condescending and they need to take credit for your ideas.

And they do have something to fear. The command and control “boomer” world they grew up knowing and studying is dying very quickly in both its value and effectiveness. The “human voice” is making a comeback through realities like the internet, social networking, blogs and micro-media. You’ve grown up in this world, you are tired of the shams, corporate messaging and stupid advertisements.

In fact you’ve grown up with an immunity to interruption, stupid messaging and anything not connected to reality (unauthentic). You struggle to respect leaders that “spin” (which is to us lying), and you have an instant abiliaty to tell whethere there is a real human voice or a marketing message.

I was recently in church when a prominent guest preacher was delivering the message. He was quite good, his points were solid and he was very effective at connecting to the congregation. Then at the conlusion of the service it was announced that the preachers brand new book, of the same title and topic as the message he gave, would be available at the back and he would be signing autographs.

To the boomers in the room this didn’t raise a red flag, in fact they were even more excited. I was sick to my stomach. What I thought was a real message from an authentic human voice was really just marketing copy expertly delivered through preachers clothing. All credibility of what was said was completely lost, because it was primarily said to promote a stupid book.

You have permission for things like that to raise a red flag in your heart and mind. Your allowed to demand an authentic person, especially from the pulpit of your church. When you see “spin”, “to good to be true” presented to you as the real thing, you’re allowed to mock it and call it what it is - a lie and a falsehood.

You have persmission to be a person; as random, real, mysterious, passionate and spiritual as that really is.

{This rant was inspired by the Cluetrain Manifesto and the writings of author Seth Godin.}

There is an incredible deal of comfort in being the same. In fact, sameness makes life so much easier, at the same time it is making it boring. I guess this is just a short post to have you take a moment of reflection on what you are aiming for in regards to … well everything.

• Are you trying to exercise your faith in the same way as everyone else?
• Do you make an effort to dress the same as everyone around you?
• Music and Movie preferences?
• Do you bend to the pressure on political opinion as those you hang out with?

I think the dangers of “sameness” are rampant in the different areas of our lives. It is the smothering and oppressive aims of people trying to make everyone the “same” that are behind wars, racism and religious legalism. Diversity is the breath and color of life.

Growing up I would have thought that diversity only spoke to the racial make up of a community. But it is much more individual than that, even though after living in california for almost two years the idea of living somewhere that is only made up of white people sounds tremendously boring. And that leads into the biggest danger of being the “same”, which is that you lose yourself.

When you are spending your time aiming at being the best and most complete “you”, and instead are looking at just trying to “fit in” and be “normal” you start to lose who you are. The day will come when you realize most of your choices are just what you think someone else would chose. You don’t know how you would dress if it was just up to you. You don’t know what kind of work you would want to do if it was just up to you. You don’t know what you really believe for yourself, because you’ve been to busy trying to be accepted to see what you’ve been feed.

This isn’t nearly as rebellious of a post as it would seem. This has been a huge part of my journey over the past 2 years, and discovering who God has made me to be - not being what people are comfortable with. There is a profound difference for me and I imagine with you. I don’t want to sound all “woo-woo” and suggest that you “find yourself”, but it is so easy to start centering all your little and big decisions on others that there does need to be an effort on your part to just be you. Whether you is the CEO of a company, the mother of your children, the musician, the christian, the country-music lover, the guy with the weird hair-cut, the girl that tries out for the football team or the pastor with tatoos - it is important to be comfortable in your own skin.

This post was inspired by Seth Godin’s post on how a copyeditor, in doing her job, completely ruined the writing he sent her. She killed the personality, the quirkiness elements of the writing that made it stand out. She made it fit in, instead of letting it be the round peg that catches the attention of a square world.

Almost everything you do has some sort of copyediting filter. It might be the legal eagle or the graphic supervisor or the customer service police. They’re excellent at making round things fit perfectly through round holes.

Boring and ignored is fine with them, because no one complains.

[From Seth's Blog: Sucking all the juice out]