My blog blew up.
Well, not really, but the readership hit a peak of over 100,000 people in one week. That was rather frightening.
I knew my blog post on “A Different Kind of Christian Demonstration at Gay Pride,” would generate some response, but had no idea how fast and how quickly it would spread. It was most shared and most responded to blogpost I’ve ever written. That’s the beautiful and scary thing about social media… things spread quickly! It’s amazing how something so simple could make such a great impact, quite literally around the world.
I think the reason was simple: it was a beautiful story of Christians showing Christ’s love in an unlikely place. It resonated with people of all walks of life, faiths, sexual orientations, and backgrounds.
Reading through the comments on both my blog and my friend Nathan’s, along with the emails we’ve both received has been overwhelming. People’s lives have been touched in deep and profound ways, and many people have expressed how their views of the Church, Christianity, and Christians have changed.
Here’s a few of many emails I received:
Even though I’m not a Christian anymore, this heals scars that I thought I’d just have to live with for the rest of my life. I was active in church, and devout for most of my life, but for 23 years I had to listen, and worship a God that Hated the very essence of who I am on this earthly plane, in this mortal existence. This just makes it all better somehow, it’s strange, yet one of the most beautiful gestures that I’ve ever seen. Thanks for sharing.
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A friend shared this on Twitter and I’m glad I clicked through. Admittedly, I’m not a Christian, am very pro-gay, and probably judged this post before I read it all the way through. I’ve always had a problem with the “selective love” my Christian friends have shown the LGBT community, but this shows that many of you get it. Well done and thanks for sharing.
That’s what it’s all about.
At the end of the day I’m not a theologian, pastor, activist, or politician… I’m just a church communications guy. I’m passionate about God, the Church and seeing the Church communicate the message of the Gospel in way that connects and engages people, causing them to see God and the church differently.
Beyond being personally moved by the story, I think it illustrated some of the basic rules of effective church communications and we need to take some notes:
1 – You’ve got to earn the right to be heard.
People don’t care what we believe, what our church is about or who we are… so why do we assume they want to listen to what we have to say?
People have stories, cares, and concerns and all too often we’re more preoccupied with what we have to say instead of taking the time to listen.
You earn the right to be heard when you take time to listen before speaking.
2 – In order to reach people no one’s reaching you’ve got to do things no one else is doing.
People notice things that go against the norm.
A group of Christians in gay pride parade with t-shirts that say “I’m Sorry,” speaks much louder than the crazies with “God Hates Fags” signs. What these people did was something out of the norm and people noticed.
Where are the places in your community you tend to avoid? What people groups in your community aren’t present in your church? Maybe those are the places you need to be going the people you need to be reaching.
3 – Sometimes simple things make the biggest impact.
For whatever reason we get very preoccupied with bigger and better. We think “more lights, louder music, bigger show… “ you get the idea.
We think that in order to make a big impact in either our church services or community outreaches that we’ve got to do something HUGE.
Jesus taught a simple message… love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
He used five loves and two fish to feed thousands.
These “demonstrators” used some cheap t-shirts and poster board. What they did was simple and it was incredibly effective.
Less is more… small is the new big… quiet is the new loud.
4 – Effective communication changes people’s perceptions.
Sadly, the image most people in the world have of Christians are the crazy televangelist people begging for money or the angry street preachers with their bullhorns. That’s definitely not the MAJORITY of us, however that’s usually the first thing that pops into most people’s minds when they think of Christians.
How is your church changing the way people see Christians or view the church? Are you fitting the stereotypes or breaking them?
5 – You don’t have to write a press release if you’re doing something that’s really newsworthy.
Good News travels fast and far.
When Jesus intersected people’s lives they couldn’t help but tell other people.
When you do something worth noticing people talk about it. That’s what happened with this instance at the Pride Parade… news traveled across Christian blogs, LGBTQ blogs, and everything in between.
People talk about ideas that are worth sharing.
6 - Love wins.
As Billy Graham so eloquently said, “it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge, and it’s my job to love.”
Love disarms anyone. Hatred, condemnation and judgment does nothing but push people further away.
You’ve got to love people genuinely first.
They will know we are Christians not by our ministries, buildings, personalities, vision statements, conferences, harsh or condemning words, our politics or our by beliefs… but by our LOVE.
How we love others is how we love God. – Rob Bell
We’ve got a lot to learn, huh?
