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An Unlikely Journey

by Tim Schraeder on 03/08/2011 in Examples with 6 Comments

As a blogger, I’m never sure of the impact my short riffs and rants actually have. Every once in awhile I’ll get an email or run into someone who has been challenged or inspired by something I’ve posted and that’s always a good dose of encouragement to keep up the work and emotional labor of blogging.

A few days ago one of my former co-workers at Park Community Church called me to tell me about the unlikely journey a couple had made to Park and it was all because of my blog. I was blown away by the story and reached out to them and asked if I could share it. To say I was humbled is an understatement. Read and you’ll understand why.

Several months ago, a friend of mine on Facebook posted a link to your blog post about a different kind of Christian demonstration at the gay pride parade.  I was touched and quickly forwarded it on to my husband who was also very touched.  Having read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, we had always loved his story of the “Confession Booth”, and knew that that was the kind of Christianity we wanted to be a part of, so to read this story was very encouraging to know that these Christians really existed!

Another few months had gone by and I was unable to sleep one Saturday night, so I started checking out some of the apps on my iPod.  I opened up the Catalyst app and found another one of your articles titled No One Cares About Your Church. I found myself agreeing with all of the points you made and thought “I need to find out what church this guy is from!” The next morning I was excitedly telling my husband about the article and how the church was in Chicago (a city we love!), and he was quick to respond, “Let’s get ready and go this morning!” So we did.  Once we got there, I think our whole family instantly knew that finally we had found our church home!

People are always surprised to hear that we drive an hour and a half one way to go to church. We are often asked, “Don’t they have churches in Lake Geneva?”  We use the drive to engage in good conversations.  We try to use our time in the city wisely and often pack extra lunches and leave early and hit as many exit ramps as possible before and after church, handing out food to someone in need.  We have a heart for the city of Chicago and love how Park reaches out to see the city for Christ.

Now, this is where the story gets personal. A year and a half ago, I found out that my husband had struggled with a lifelong pornography addiction.  I was devastated, to say the least.  He was exposed at a very young age and had been unable to get out of its powerful snare although it was something he desperately wanted to be rid of and went to great lengths to protect me from. So when I say I had no idea, I truly didn’t have any idea that he had this double life.  In dealing with this we reached out to several churches in our area but were discouraged at the counsel we received. Through God’s grace, my husband has been able to make great strides in dealing with this addiction even without the help of a church.

A little more than a month ago, he confessed that he had had an affair several years ago that stemmed from his pornography addiction.  It was something I had strongly suspected but continually tried to push out of my mind during the past several years.  After this painful disclosure, we turned to Park and my husband set up a meeting with one of the pastors.  After the first meeting we immediately felt hopeful that we had finally found Biblical help.  To my surprise, the pastor ended our session saying “I’m just going to say something…” and he proceeded to say that after what we’d told him that he didn’t believe my husband had ever truly become a Christian because of all the secrets and things he’d been hiding. He also said that either it had never taken root with me or that it had and I’d walked away from God.  Wow, I was blown away and immediately thought my husband would be devastated.  The pastor walked out of the room to give us a moment and my husband looked at me and said, “I’ve known that for a while now.”

When the pastor came back in, my husband thanked him for being bold enough to call him out on that, because he longs to have men in his life that WILL call him out when necessary.  That night we both prayed to receive and fully accept Christ as Lord and Savior in the pastor’s office at Park overlooking the Chicago skyline.

A few weekends later we were able to attend Park’s marriage retreat where we had some wonderful conversations, talked about some difficult but necessary things, and have learned so much about confession, grace, repentance and forgiveness.  We have been encouraged and committed to our marriage from the very beginning but what’s happened as a result of attending Park has made us even more hopeful that what was meant for evil, God can and WILL use for good. We feel like not only will we make it through this, we will be better than ever, and that someday I might even thank God for allowing this in our lives.  We ended the retreat sharing Communion as a couple and I’ll never forget the impact that had.  It was the first time I felt like I truly understood the significance of Communion and the price God paid to forgive my sins, just as I was being asked to forgive the sins of my husband and examine my own heart and seek forgiveness for my own failings as well.  After we took Communion, my husband grabbed my hand and prayed as we both wept and he asked God for a new beginning for us.  We truly feel like what happened at the retreat connected us on a spiritual level and in new ways that were never possible before until we were both willing to put God first in our lives and marriage.  While we still have a long journey ahead of us, I feel confident that with God’s grace and with the supportive community at Park, God will use all of this for His glory.

The impact that Park has had on our lives has been truly life changing.  We’ll always be so thankful that the pastorwas willing to call us out during that first meeting. And we’ll always be thankful for your blog and way that it led us to Park.  We truly feel like the adventure is just beginning.  I don’t feel like it was coincidence or by accident how everything has happened.

First, I want to thank this family for having the courage to share this story. It’s remarkable to see the journey God has led them on and it’s humbling to hear how they found their ways to Park and ultimately, back to Christ through two blog entries of mine. I’m so thrilled to hear how they have not only come to know Christ but are in the process of building a stronger, honest and Christ-centered marriage. I’m thrilled they’ve connected with Park and are able to begin to share their story and their journey.

I don’t share this to pat myself on the back but simply to express to the rest of you out there that you have no idea who will be impacted by the words you share. Our online presence can play an important role in the lives of people we don’t even know, helping them find their way back to God. This story serves as a reminder for me of why I do what I do. Beyond sharing ideas, insights, conference notes, and the occasional rants, I hope to create content that inspires the church to communicate more effectively with the ultimate goal of seeing people connect with Christ. That’s what it’s all about. And, in a crazy way, sometimes as in the example of this story, God can use your stories to help people find their place in His Story.

Keep sharing. Keep writing. Keep connecting. You never know who is on the other side of the screen or the journey God has them on. Fight the resistance. Post content that scares you. Be honest. Be authentic. Be willing to take some risks and speak the truth with love and grace, not compromising the message but with a humble heart to help people see the Church and Jesus differently.

Rethinking Capital Campaigns Part 2: Texting

by Tim Schraeder on 05/28/2010 in Church Communications, Examples, Park, Social Media with 5 Comments

In my last post I shared about how we changed the way we ran our most recent stewardship campaign at Park. We didn’t do much of the prescribed hubbub that surrounds most church stewardship campaigns. Read more about that here.

One of the unique things we incorporated into this campaign was texting.

We’ve been using texting at Park for over two years now, both in our weekend services as well as a means to communicate important announcements and events.

During the campaign we used texting in some new ways that helped extend our message, engage our audience, and communicate information about the campaign.

Opt-in Text Group
At the beginning of the campaign we set up an opt in group for people to get text reminders throughout the sermon series.

During the week we texted questions for them to consider, highlighted what was coming up, and texted various verses and quotes on generosity and giving. It was also a great way to communicate announcements related to the campaign.

We announced the opt in group the first week of the [IN]VEST campaign and had over 950 people [that’s over ½ of our church] sign up to receive them.

It was a huge success and something we’ll consider repeating for future series as way to help people continue the conversation around our messages.

Text Polls

We’ve done text polls in service before, but for this series specifically, we wanted to ask some tough questions and challenge people’s understanding and motivation for giving.

There’s two distinct benefits to doing text polls in service:

1 – They create a shared experience. We all come into church with different experiences, thoughts, and ideas. Many people just  spectate and never engage in the service. Something as simple asking people a question invites them to participate, and in doing so, see that there are other people in the room who feel the same way they do.

One of the questions we asked during the series was, “Do you think people outside of the church view the church as being generous?”


2 – They help the speaker gauge the audience.

Texting in service can help bridge the gap between the speaker in the audience. And, it can help the speaker know where the audience is coming from or their understanding of a particular topic. In the few times we’ve done text polling the audience’s response has helped refine our pastor’s message and made the content more applicable to people’s experiences.

One question we asked toward the end of the campaign was what people’s primary motivation for giving was. It was a great way for our teaching pastors to see how our church viewed the topic of giving.

Commitments via Text

We printed about 3,000 paper commitment cards for people to fill out indicating how they’d like to commit to our campaign. Less than 100 printed cards were returned.

It took some creativity to make it work, but thanks to our friends at Jarbyco we were able to create a way for people to text in their commitment to the campaign.

Since our campaign was called [IN]VEST, we created the keyword IMIN and asked people to text in if they’d like to respond via texting. Nearly ¾ of our commitments for the campaign came in via texting!

The Results

  • 455 households are [IN], representing roughly 600 adults – that number reflects the number of new people in our church since we did our last two campaigns!
  • People committed to invest in hundreds of lives to help their friends cross the line of faith.
  • People committed to invest in nearly 50 different neighborhoods around the city
  • Our church has committed to fighting many different injustices, the greatest being those around education, human trafficking, and poverty.
  • Our primary financial goal going into the campaign was to pay down 2 debts totaling $2 million.
  • Thanks to those who continued to fulfill their pledges from previous campaigns and the new [IN] pledges we have enough commitments to meet our goal of paying off the 2 notes totaling $2 million!

Closing Thoughts

This was by no means a perfect campaign. There are probably many things we could have done differently, but it worked.

We didn’t follow a prescribed path, but charted our own course that was reflective of our congregation’s thoughts and experiences around a tough subject.

We focused more on the holistic aspect of stewardship instead of zeroing in on money. As a result, people are focusing on creative ways they can invest, make a difference in their neighborhoods, and in the lives of their friends.

More than anything else, we recognized there were many new faces in our audience and used the campaign as an opportunity to share our vision, tell our story, and invite them to invest in our future.

Rethinking Capital Campaigns

by Tim Schraeder on 05/27/2010 in Church Communications, Examples, Park with 5 Comments

I’ve decided the only thing worse than doing a weekly bulletin is doing communications for a capital campaign.

Campaigns suck time, energy, and resources and requite an incredible amount of work. And let’s be honest, whenever we communicate things related to money our jobs get very uncomfortable. No one likes when the church talks about money let alone when we ask them to give more!

In March, Park launched a campaign and we had our work cut out for us. There were a few key factors that made it complicated…

  • It was completely focused on paying off debt. There were no buildings to be built or projects to fund… we just needed extra cash to make payments that were coming due on our previous building project. It’s easy for people to give to something they can tangibly see but it’s much harder when the focus is debt retirement.
  • This was the third capital campaign Park had done in the span of five years. Yes, three in five years. With the amount of new people in the church as well as the number of people who come and go in the city, nearly 60% of  the people who are a part of our church today hadn’t been around for the first two.
  • We launched the campaign during a time of financial hardship for a majority of our congregation. People in our church were just beginning to feel the affects of our economic downturn. Not exactly the most opportune time to ask them to give more.

Consulting firms that work with churches on stewardship campaigns have a cookie-cutter way of running them which typically consists of making lots of glossy handouts, having countless meetings, doing private invite events, doing a huge song-and-dance, etc.

We didn’t do any of that… we broke the rules… here’s what we did…

We Weren’t Shy About Why We Were Doing the Campaign

Instead of going with some clever or catchy title for the campaign, we were forward with what it was about when we named it…  We called it [IN]VEST. We were also very open and transparent about the state of our finances an why we needed to do a campaign.

Last fall, we put this video together to explain our financial situation:

We Didn’t Do Glossy Brochures

Since the goal of this campaign was to pay off debt, it didn’t make sense to go into debt by printing brochures and handouts. We already don’t print much at Park, so we opted to keep things simple and use space in service and existing communication pieces to communicate what the campaign was all about. The only print piece we did was our response card.

We Cut The Amount of Meetings

Instead of doing leaders gatherings, private ‘large donor’ events or all of the other meetings that are usually suggested, we scaled down to one gathering that we repeated over the course of five nights.  We invited our entire church to come with their small groups to learn more and to ask questions. We recorded that meeting and posted it online so anyone that couldn’t attend was able to get the content.

We Made The Campaign About our Vision

We used the campaign as an opportunity to recommunicate our vision. With so many people new to our church, we used the campaign as an opportunity to re-tell our story, share our legacy, and challenge people to invest in future of our church.

We also created this awesome video which linked the story of Park to the story of the Church!

We Tied it Into a Teaching Series

We spent a total of four weeks doing a teaching series called [IN]VEST where we challenged our church to invest in a holistic way, not just with their finances, but with their time and talent. The focus was more on what they were doing with their whole lives, not just their checkbook.

We Got our Small Groups On Board

We put together a 52-page study guide that our entire church went through over the span of six weeks where the idea of [IN]VEST was further unpacked and discussed in small groups. The study also included practical resources like helping people evaluate how they were investing their time, challenged them to consider how they were using their gifts and talents, and assisted them in creating a personal budget.

We Told Stories

There were people in our church who were already investing in major ways, so we used the campaign as an opportunity to tell their stories.

This is a cool story of a couple who chose to step out in faith and invest in a dream God had placed on their hearts while facing the challenges of raising children in the city.

We Launched a New Church Campus

As a church, our vision is to invest in the city by planting new churches in strategic neighborhoods.  The week before the ‘big ask’ we prayed for and launched a new church campus in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood. [Which had standing room only their first Sunday!] This was a tangible way of showing how we, as a church, were investing and an opportunity to remind people that the more we were able to pay off of our debt the more we’d have to invest in church planting.

We Challenged People To Do More Than Give Money

Earlier in the year we challenged our church to pray around three specific areas: 1 Person, 1 Neighborhood, and 1 Injustice. So, instead of just asking people to give a dollar amount, we asked for the names of the people they were praying for, the neighborhoods they wanted to impact and the wrong they wanted to right.  And we were very clear that if people weren’t in a position to give financially that we wanted everyone to commit to invest in some way.

We Used Texting

I’ll share on how we used texting throughout this campaign and let you know the final results tomorrow!

Stay tuned!

Church Communications Essentials: Empathy

by Tim Schraeder on 04/13/2010 in Examples, Principles with 3 Comments

My friend @DawnNicole posed the question via Twitter few weeks ago…

It generated a lot of response and it got me thinking…  so I decided [with Dawn’s permission] to do a little blog series on some of the things that I think are essential for Church Communications Directors.

First up: Empathy.

In StrengthsFinder 2.0, Tom Rath describes empathy this way:

You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own . Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for the right words, you seem to find the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings – to themselves as well as to others.

Empathy is a gift of understanding how other people feel, and in our role in church communications it’s vital we put ourselves in the shoes of people our church may directly or indirectly come into contact with. It’s important we understand the way things sound and come across and that the language we use doesn’t hinder the ultimate message all of our churches must communicate: the message of the Gospel… a message of love, grace, forgiveness, compassion, reconciliation, and hope.

As Kem Meyer says, our job is to remove barriers to entry. We need to understand how to make things simple for people to understand and connect with our church and ultimately to Christ.

Here’s a few ideas on ways you can begin to practice the discipline of empathy…

  • Listen to what you’re saying. Is the language you use easily understood by the people who make up your community? Are the words you use real words or Christianese? Do people need a dictionary to understand your ministry names and acronyms you use? Do you use a lot of ‘inside language’? Use simple, concise language that’s easy to understand. [Idea: If you have to explain what 242 or C.A.R.E. means, it may be time to consider a name change.]
  • Gauge your audience. Think about the different people in your audience and their experiences… how is what you are saying coming across to them. What are their unique challenges and needs? Does your style and expression match theirs? [Idea: Look around at a church service and take note of the types of people there.]
  • Be a student of your local culture. What’s happening in your community? What are people talking about, what do they care about, what are local challenges or hardships people are feeling? [Idea: Read local newspapers, follow local news outlets on Twitter.]
  • How do you talk about ‘outsiders’? How do you talk about non-Christians, unbelievers or seekers? Do you make them seem like projects? Read what you write through the lens of a skeptical outsider. Never put the words lost, unbeliever and non-Chrisitan in any print communications and try not to use them verbally from up front. [Idea: At Park, instead of saying 'your lost friends' we just call people what they are... 'your friends.']
  • Look at the image(s) you project. Do the photos and images you use accurately reflect people who actually attend your church? I’m pretty sure the iStockphoto family doesn’t go to every church in America. And, for the love, if you aren’t multiethnic, don’t use those awkward racially diverse stock photos. [Idea: Use real images of real people and celebrate your community by using images of your city.]
  • Always be a first-time visitor. Always try to be an ‘outsider’ when you go to church. View the experience from pulling up in the parking lot to the closing “amen” and think through how every aspect of your experience would feel if it were your first time.Do you ask your visitors to do awkward things like raise their hand or stand? DON’T! [Idea: Have you asked people who are newer to your church about their experience and if it was easy for them to connect? ]
  • Are you needy? How much are you asking from people? Are you consistently talking about your church’s needs or sharing ways you can help them in their own lives. Be people-driven, not need driven. [Idea: Scan through your bulletin or other communications and see how many things you're asking people to do... sign up for this, register for that, volunteer here...it will surprise you how much we ask of people.]
  • How do you handle holidays? Holidays are always special times of celebration but can also be painful for many. On Mother’s Day, how can you express compassion for couples that cannot have children or care for those who have lost or aborted children?  On Father’s Day, how can you gently embrace those who grew up without fathers? How are you creating community for those with no family around Thanksgiving and Christmas?
  • Remember it’s all about people. The church is a business that’s all about people. What we do, in the end, is all about people. Don’t forget that. Programs, policies, rules and regulations aside… it’s all about people. Too often we get so focused on what we do that we forget what it’s ultimately all about. [It's all about Jesus... but how we do what we do is all about people.]

Having Empathy for Those You Work With

Just as much as we need to be empathetic for new guests and members, we need to remember our role, in the end, is a servant role to our churches. We don’t run the show. Our role is important, yes, but it’s not about us.

For some odd reason, in most churches, the communications team/directors tend to be feared… and probably for good reason. With our style guides, font and clip art policing, policies, project requests, guidelines and standards… we can be a force to be reckoned with. We rain on a lot of parades, cause commotion, and shut down renegade designers.

We are a pain to work with. No matter how servant-hearted we may be about what we do, no matter how flexible and understanding we may try to be, we’re still a pain to work with.

What we do is important… we should care about the way things look, the way things sound, the messages we communicate, the images and words we use to tell stories, and ultimately the way everything our church communicates for one single reason: we care.

However, oftentimes HOW we do what we do isn’t very caring. Empathetic may not be a word your co-workers would use to define you… but it should be.

Church life is crazy. Everyone is busy and focused on their individual areas of ministry and our role is to support and help them maximize what they are doing. Some people won’t get it, and we need to learn to have patience and figure out how we can lead up and work with them instead of trying to make them fit a mold they’ll never be able to fit into.

Here’s some ways to begin to practice empathy with your co-workers, ministry leaders and renegade designers…

  • Spend time away from your computer and face-to-face with your co-workers.
  • Remember to always RESPOND, not REACT.
  • Spend more time listening and less time talking.
  • Matthew 18. ’nuff said.
  • If there’s a miscommunication or misunderstanding resolve it in person as often as possible, NOT over email.
  • Figure out the best ways to communicate with members of your staff and their preferred ways of communication. Some may like texts, others email, and some may prefer face-to-face.
  • Don’t overcomplicate processes you’ve set up for projects.
  • Use non-technical language.
  • Share what you know! Create opportunities for people to learn what social media, blogging, and everything else you do is all about and why it matters.
  • Be accessible… don’t lock yourself away or hide behind your monitor and ear buds. And, if you can, leave your door open [if you have one]. Interruptions aren’t ideal, but be accessible as possible.
  • Admit when you make a mistake and take ownership of it… don’t make excuses.
  • Do. Delegate. Defer. Delete.
  • Remember people’s feelings matter a lot more than your policies.
  • Edit yourself… ask for feedback from your co-workers about how you come across.
  • As much as possible, show people what change will look like… don’t just tell them about it. Helping people see what the other side of change will look like will make the journey there a lot less painful. [This was invaluable when we killed our weekly bulletin.]
  • Realize that people are just as busy, stressed and under the gun as much as you are… you aren’t the only one who is working hard.
  • As much as possible, let people know you are for them.
  • Remember what you do is all about people.

The Master Empathizer

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them…” – Matthew 14:14

If there’s one person who embodied the discipline of empathy it would be Jesus. He could read his audience, feel their pain, knew the right words to use, and was able to  compassionately tailor His message [however nice or harsh it was] to the individual. Take some time to read through the Gospels and see how He interacted with people… He’s the best example we’ve got to follow.

Closing Thought…

We need to care and care about the way we go about caring.

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