ECHO 10 :: Jonathan Acuff

ECHO 2010 | 29. Jul, 2010 by Tim Schraeder | 10 Comments

ECHO 10 :: Jonathan Acuff

Jonathan Acuff is the founder of the stuffchristianslike.net blog and the author of the book, Stuff Christians Like. In the last 12 years he’s written branding for clients such as North Point Community Church, the Home Depot, Chick-fil-A, Bose, Staples and many others. He lives outside of Atlanta with his wife and two daughters.

  • He tries to clear away the clutter of Christianity so we can see the beauty of Christ.
  • Started StuffChristiansl
  • We don’t use our best creativity to tell the best story about the ultimate creator, God.
  • We often hijack popular ideas in culture and add some “God flavor” to them and make them our own.
  • We are in a weird place right now.
  • We are still in the toddler stage of social media.
  • We’re still making mistakes.
  • There’s so much advice out there… there’s no such thing as a “Twitter expert.”
  • Social media has a rhythm.

Surprise

  • We live in the most overloeaded, content heavy culture that’s ever been alive.
  • People see over 35,000 marketing messages a day.
  • How do we break through that clutter?
  • This generation gets marketing and messages and they are tired.
  • We can break through that with surprise.
  • In Accidental Magic by Roy Williams talks about the broca.
  • The broca is our brain’s filter.
  • When we hear a new idea we default to taking it and relating it to something we already know.
  • When we communicate people try to grab it and organize what we say and put it in an organized order.
  • When you can surprise people you can expose them to new ideas.
  • Jon shared the idea of Booty, God, Booty.
  • Nobody jumps on in the middle of our message.
  • We have a limited window of time, a limited opportunity.
  • When you surprise people you get around the the first filter that keeps most of our stories out of them.
  • There’s a risk.
  • There’s a huge difference between a surprise and shock.
  • Shocks are cheating and can be offensive.
  • Shocks burn out quickly… we see it in pop culture all the time.
  • We don’t know what Lady GaGa is going to do next.
  • There’s a concept, hook and core message in story development.
  • In the church we create BIG gaps in our stories. The gap should be seamless.
  • When we create big gaps we create really BAD bridges over them.
  • Find a surpise that’s real and a transition that it is natural.
  • Lifechange comes through a surprise, not a shock.

Patience

  • We hate to pray for patience.
  • We don’t pray for it because God will give it to us.
  • Patience is a big part of social media.
  • Example: Carlos Whittaker’s video of Single Ladies… that was one of HUNDREDS of videos he created.
  • The internet gives a false sense of overnight success.
  • We often “Carrie Underwood” God… we give Him the wheel but we hold on to the gas pedal.
  • Anytime we feel like things aren’t happening fast enough we need to remember the Israelites.
  • In Exodus 13, God took the Israelites on the longer road.
  • They thought they were ready, they were armed, but God knew they weren’t ready for battle.
  • God loves us too much to take us the short route.
  • We often don’t want to receive the gift of the desert road.
  • Be patient for the small things.
  • As you are patient, be careful to focus on the vital instead of the viral.
  • We want things to go viral but we don’t care about the truth.
  • Focus on what’s vital… don’t water it down so it can go farther… be real!
  • God’s about filling hearts first, not rooms.

Honesty

  • We don’t give honesty its due.
  • Honesty is as important as talent.
  • Talent is EVERYWHERE.
  • We’ve been bubbled up and have more access to talent than ever before.
  • Honesty hasn’t increased at the same pace.
  • The talent pool is really full… there’s plenty of room in the honesty pool.
  • You stand out and make an impact by being honest.
  • If you want to stand out in a world filled with lies, be honest.
  • Marketing understands the role of honesty… i.e. Dos Equis, NIKE, etc.
  • Honesty communicates.
  • Honesty matters.
  • Why aren’t we honest?
  • Our desire to be honest is inversely linked to the size of our audience.
  • It’s easy to tell 10 strangers about your struggles vs 10,000.
  • As our audience increases our honesty tends to decrease.
  • We think we have to be better or cleaned up to do the things we are doing.
  • The devil likes to step into our uncertainty.
  • The devil only bothers things that matter for the kingdom of God.
  • As you step into your gift and talent the devil gets nervous, so he tries to discount it.
  • We have multiple personalities… there’s “online” you and “offline” you.
  • That’s a dangerous place to be… we try to fix ourselves.
  • We use the “F” word all the time… fine.
  • We can’t fix “me” with me.
  • God came for the failures and the mess-ups.
  • Knowing that will change your life and the way you express your faith online.
  • Fame and celebrity are some of the worst drugs in ministry today.
  • Who’s acknowledgement of you is greater than God’s?

We need to have surprise, patience and honesty… and when you combine those things, wild things can start to happen. Jon shared the story of raising $30,000 to build a school in Vietnam. They raised that money in 18 hours but it really was over 18 months in the making.

  • We are in the midst of a mustard seed moment.
  • The internet tears down walls that normally existed between people.
  • We can put out little things that grow and flourish and change lives we may never know.
Related Posts with Thumbnails

If You Liked This, Check Out...

  • No Related Post

8 Tweets

10 Responses to “ECHO 10 :: Jonathan Acuff”

  1. @Stgoebel2
    29. Jul, 2010 at 11:18 am #

    This was great. Thanks!

  2. Karen Rabbitt
    29. Jul, 2010 at 2:23 pm #

    Great format, Tim. Thanks for the summary of Jonathan's excellent thoughts.

      More from author

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Additional comments powered by BackType