In less than a week, I’ll be closing my office door at Park Community Church for the last time as well as closing the door on a nearly 10-year career of doing church communications. While in my new role I’ll still be championing the cause for church communications, it won’t be in the capacity of being an everyday practitioner. That being said, I have a few things I want to share with you while I’m still “one of you.”

First, know that what you do really matters.

Communications rests on different levels in the life of many churches, so regardless of where you fit on the flow chart, know that you do really matters. We’ve been entrusted with an incredible opportunity to share and communicate the message of the Gospel in new and creative ways. It’s more than letting people know about the next membership class, new sermon series or women’s prayer group. It’s more than doing bulletins, designing graphics or building websites. It’s more than responding to a tweet or posting a link on Facebook.  It’s about stewarding the opportunity God has given us in our hyper-connected world to help people find connection with Christ.

God has uniquely gifted each one of you with different creative gifts to express the message God is longing to communicate to your city through the work and ministry of your local church.  The things you write, design, or create help pave the road for people’s journeys back towards Christ. You may never be up front teaching or leading worship but the work you do helps to remove barriers so people hear and connect with the message. People may never know who you are or really understand what you do, but more times that not, something you’ve created or designed intersects someone and causes them to come to your church to find out more.

As silly or minute as it all may seem, in today’s world stuff like this matters. People will often form their first impressions of your church when they come to your website or see something you’ve designed that’s been put in their hands by a friend, mailman, or however else you may work to get your message out there. The time you spend picking out fonts or finding the right image, the tireless time you spend writing and revising, editing and redesigning all matters. You are helping to present your church, and ultimately Christ to your community.

How your church communicates is vitally important and in most instances, that responsibility rests on your shoulders. Don’t look at what you do as a job; consider it you holy calling. Let your passion for God flow into the things you create and ways you communicate. Recognize the immense responsibility you have and steward what God has given you to communicate with pixels, images, or words that express His heart and compassion to the world around you.

I could probably write a short novel about my heart for all of this and for all of you but let me condense it to a few bullet points:

• You matter.
• Don’t get down or discouraged, know that what you do really matters.
• Remember you are pursuing a holy calling.
• Work to remove barriers so people can connect with God their creator.
• Know that your best leadership will come in the form of service.
• Don’t bog people down, relieve and release them.
• Always remember you are serving your Church and its vision, not building your own kingdom.
• Be relentlessly learning, growing, and sharing.
• Less is more.
• Take care of yourselves… guard your time and your heart.
• Live your life with wide margin.
• Learn how to best connect and serve your church’s senior leadership team.
• Take time to make friends with all of your co-workers… don’t lock yourself in your office.
• Teach people how or why something is done – don’t try and do everything yourself.
• Care for your volunteers.
• Take time to disconnect so you can reconnect with God.
• Be inspired, don’t imitate.
• Listen.
• Stop speaking in tongues.
• Don’t chase what’s cool or what’s hip – do what’s most effective.
• Be a change agent.
• Know your context – be connected with your city and community – that will help determine your content.
• Remember your competition isn’t the church down the street or across town.
• Have as many face-to-face conversations as possible. Don’t hide behind your keyboard.
• Be willing to admit you are wrong and own up to it.
• Stay humble.
• Live with a sense of wonder.
• Harsh but true: people don’t care about your church.
• Read books that will challenge your thinking or help you work more effectively.
• Be OK with saying no – that will enable you to say yes to things that matter most.
• Keep your perspective focused on what matters.
• Know that excellence isn’t always achievable and that’s OK.
• Remember the Church has existed for 2,000 years without people like us.
• Be a curator – your church has amazing stories to tell, collect and share them.
• Strive to be empathetic.
• Know that constraints are OK – they will challenge you in a good way.
• Stay humble. Yes, I repeated that.
• Forget your mission and vision; what’s your passion?
• Be adaptable.
• Remember you can’t effectively communicate if you are not in active communication with God.
• Keep telling the Story.

There’s much more I could share with you all, but let me leave you with this thought:

In our ever-changing world God has given you the responsibility to communicate His unchanging message to a world that’s desperate and searching for hope.

I DO believe that the Church is the hope of the world and firmly believe that our greatest days are yet to come. While the world around us is shaking we stand on the truth of God’s Word and rest in His love and compassion. He is our hope.

Each one of us has the opportunity to share that Story, to tell of the Kingdom of God, to explain what is unseen and bring people into God’s glorious light. It’s not a secret to be kept but one that must be told again and again in different, creative ways.

We’ve got the greatest story to tell, how will YOU help your church share it?

“God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:14-16, The Message

It’s been an honor serving the Church with you – remember greater things are yet to come!

Tim Schraeder

One of my favorite TV shows right now is Hoarders on A&E.  It’s fascinating [and sad] to watch how people can let things accumulate around them and consume their lives. On a recent episode a woman had spent away her entire life savings buying designer handbags. At risk of having her home foreclosed on, her family intervened. They hoped by cleaning and reselling the over $350,000 worth of designer purses they could help save her home. As a team of appraisers began sorting through the huge collection they began to notice something unsettling… all of the purses were fakes. While they had Gucci, Prada, and Coach all over them, they were indeed imitations. The $350,000 collection only ended up being worth about $1,200.

It’s very easy to copy in our world today.

With a few keystrokes you can copy content, images, ideas, and code and repurpose them as your own. While it’s easy to do I’m fairly convinced that in most instances it’s not the right thing to do.

When we were all infants we learned to speak by imitating our parents. They would repeatedly say “ma-ma or da-da” until we could fumble our way to saying “mom and dad.” Imitating allows us to learn but eventually we need to find our own voice and begin telling our own stories.

In the church space especially we oftentimes think that because we are “all on the same team” that we can borrow, steal, or adapt content from one another and it’s ok. Well, it’s not. Some churches like LifeChurch.tv are incredibly generous by sharing everything they create, and many churches offer videos, media, and other things they’ve created for a small price that is invested back into their ministry. Having resources available like these is incredibly valuable for churches who don’t have the ability to produce videos, media or graphics. However, when you are consistently copying, borrowing, adopting or adapting ideas from other places you can lose the true sense of who you are.

In REWORK, Jason Fried shares some great ideas on why copying is such a bad idea. He says that copying skips understanding, and understanding is how you grow.

“You have to understand why something works or why something is the way that it is. When you copy and paste, you miss just that. You just repurpose the last layer instead of understanding all the layers underneath. So much of the work an original creator puts into something is invisible. It’s buried beneath the surface. The copycat doesn’t really know why something looks the way that it looks or feels the way that it feels or reads the way that it reads. The copy is a faux finish. It delivers no substance, no understanding, and nothing to base future decisions on.”

Strong words but they are so true.

When I first started in church communications I learned by imitating. I wrote to over 100 churches that were listed in Outreach magazine’s Top 100 issue and asked them for examples of what they were doing with their printed communications. I created an idea file and pulled from it for a few years as I was learning my way. Eventually I found my own aesthetic and voice and didn’t have to rely on others to create. From there, I took a posture of being inspired.

I think there is SO MUCH we can learn from watching other churches, organizations, and businesses. We need to learn from what works, we need to take notes and we need to be students… but we also need to understand that every church has its own story to tell and its own voice that needs to be heard. God has embedded something unique in each one of our churches that we are meant to bring to bear in the life of our communities.

When we copy what worked somewhere else we can be hindering what God wants to do through us right where we are. The Church is made up of people and people are all different with unique stories, needs, and experiences. Every church is different, requiring your creativity and insight to know how to communicate most effectively. Open source is great, learning from others is invaluable, but every church has a unique audience and importing what worked somewhere else might not translate in your context. You learn the most by doing things yourself.

The heart of the matter as it relates to copying for me is this: the first sentence of the Bible tells us we serve a creative God. God’s creativity is seen in the world around us. If we are made in His image then we have that same creativity inside of each one of us. We shouldn’t have to rely on other sources but simply look to the Source and find inspiration, creativity, and wonder.

Imitate as you are learning to find your voice… be inspired as you grow and mature… but don’t copy + paste. God is more creative than that and you have better stories to tell than someone else’s.

Avoid the temptation to copy + paste and commit to doing the hard labor of creating. Ask God to let you see your congregation and your community through His eyes. Listen to the stories being shared around you. Watch for the signs of what God is doing around you. Create from a place that is inside of you as God’s Spirit leads. Let the words you speak [or type], images you create, stories you tell, and things you craft be ones that bring life and light to the world around you. You can’t imitate or fake authenticity and originality, and that is what it takes to truly connect with others.

Jason Fried offers a simple way to determine if you are copying: if someone else is doing the bulk of the work you’re copying.

Control + C and Control + V makes things much easier to lift and adapt, but just as the Hoarders team discovered, imitations are just plain cheap. Be inspired, don’t imitate.

Things are changing right before our very eyes and what was on the bleeding edge moments ago is now almost obsolete. We live in an instant society and culture, which brings tremendous challenges and opportunities to the Church. We have an unchanging message but the methods used to communicate it have continually adapted. From burning bushes and writing on the wall, to Baalam’s donkey and an audible voice complete with a dove descending from Heaven, God has chosen a wide array of mechanisms to communicate with men. In more modern times the Church has used stained glass, print, media and even flannel graph [that's how I was taught as a child] to communicate the Gospel.

The game has changed significantly in the last few years and what worked before isn’t working anymore.

We have a tremendous challenge as communications leaders to leverage what’s working now to communicate and engage with our congregations and communities. And, in so doing, we bring up a word that some churches have a hard time dealing with: CHANGE.

While churches get that change needs to happen in people’s lives they are oftentimes a bit resistant to the word when it comes to their methods and ways of doing things.

As communications leaders, who tend to be ahead of the curve on what’s happening, change usually comes from our end and knowing how to lead change is an indispensable art in leading communications. Over the last 10 years I’ve led both churches I’ve worked for through some significant changes in the ways we communicate and here’s a few things I’ve learned about change:

Earn Trust First

Before you can effectively lead change you need to earn trust. When I started on staff at Park I had a shortlist of things I wanted to change: the logo, website, bulletin, email, etc. However, if I would have jumped right in and started making change it would have caused some ripples. So, instead, for the first nine months I was on staff I took time to learn the culture of the staff and church, investing in relationships and getting to know people. During that time I maintained what was already in place and only changing things that absolutely needed to be changed. By taking that time to earn trust when I did start rolling out new ideas for how we were communicating I wasn’t “Tim the new guy,” I was “Tim who is my friend.” By earning trust I earned permission to begin bringing change.

You Aren’t a Smart as You Think

Just because you “get” social media, blog, are addicted to twitter, read Seth Godin and have an iPhone doesn’t make you an expert. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself and think you know more than you really do, and all too often we can come across with a “know-it-all” kind of attitude. Don’t be like that. Realize that while you may be on the fast track to knowing all there is to know about what’s hot right now that there’s still a lot you don’t know. We need to always be in a posture of learning and not take ourselves too seriously.

Don’t Assume and Don’t Expect

You know what people say about assuming, right? Don’t assume that people will instantly understand or get what you are trying to sell. Realize that in the chaotic and ever-changing world that we live in that people are still catching up. Don’t assume people know and don’t expect them to understand why certain changes need to be made.

Be a Teacher, Not an Expert

Teachers help people understand a concept or idea. Experts often talk in lofty themes that only insiders understand. Choose to be a teacher. Teach people along the road of leading change. Explain to them in words and terms they understand why change needs to happen. Whenever people ask me why social media matters I always point to the Social Media Revolution video. That video, in under 4 minutes, explains what social media is and why it’s important in ways people can easily understand. Save yourself some breath and energy and use that! Remember people have different ways of learning, so be adaptable and have some empathy!

Show People Change

It can be hard to get people to agree to buy into something they can’t actually see. Instead of presenting a lofty idea of what is possible give people a picture of what change could look like. When I sold the idea of a monthly bulletin to the team at Park I made a prototype for them to see, touch, and take with them. Instead of saying, “we are going to kill our weekly bulletin and do a monthly,” and leaving them hanging, I was able to show them what the change would look like if it were implemented. They liked it and the rest is history.

Recently, my friend Mike at Calvary Chapel in Ft Lauderdale led the staff at his church through the change of going from a weekly to a monthly bulletin and created a webpage to explain the change and included multiple ways of explaining it… short form, long form and with a video. Brilliant!

Showing people what the end result is will help them make the decision to embark on the journey much, much easier.

Remind People that God is always Doing a New Thing

Whenever change is introduced in the church setting we naturally hear the response, “well that’s the way we’ve always done it.” I don’t know how or why it happened but a lot of churches have made an idol out of the way they do things. We’ve put the method over the message and get more upset over the method changing than the fact that the message isn’t being heard clearly. [I'll get off my soapbox on that one.] In these situations it may be a good time to conjure up some verses where the Bible clearly shows and says that God is always doing something new…

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new

Isaiah 43:18-19
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Ezekiel 36:25-27
And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.

Remain Adaptable

One of the hardest parts of leading change is the fact that changing things are always changing. No one would have guessed about six years ago that anything would ever top MySpace. Well, today we have Facebook. Things are changing rapidly today and one of the challenges we face is that we always need to remain adaptable and willing to change when we need to. There have been many ideas or changes we’ve pursued in the way we communicate at Park over the past few years that worked for a season but eventually needed to be changed or phased out. Part of leading effective change is knowing when to pull to the plug and being willing to adapt.

Change Starts with You

Remember that change always starts with you.  Change matters and God has placed you where you are to make it happen. When you consider what’s at stake it makes the battles and challenges you face making change happen worthwhile. Just remember to stay humble, pray for wisdom, and ask God to guide you as you take what you are passionate about and bring it to bear in the life of your Church. Your ideas matter… you can do it!

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There’s something in each one of us to want to compete. We like a challenge. We like to pick a fight. We like to come out on top. It’s just part of the survival instinct that’s inside each one of us. It’s part of what makes us human. While that can make for some healthy competition all throughout life it can also create an unhealthy pattern of striving to be the best or seeking to outdo the rest.

When it comes to church life and ministry we can sometimes bring that competitive edge to the table. Let me be quick to remind you of something simple: you’re competition isn’t the church down the street. It’s not the church across town that has a bigger auditorium or the church downtown that has all of the young people. It’s not the church that you read about in the news or the one that made the fastest-growing-most-innovative-largest list either.

Our competition is against the forces of darkness that enslave people in our communities. Whoa. I know. I think sometimes we forget we are in a spiritual battle. Our competition is with the things that are unseen. It’s the battle against destructive cycles and mindsets that trap people, it’s the battle against the golf club or country club, the big game or anything else that takes away people’s time and attention away from Christ. There are real forces at work around us [not to freak you out] and our job is to call it out and bring light to the darkness.

It’s really to easy want to compare or become envious of other churches’ success. Sure it would be cool to have the church with 20 campuses or the church with the rock star pastor, but the reality is God has a unique calling and plan for your church.  Consistently comparing yourself to others will only dilute your own vision. It will cause you to be far more reactionary than visionary. You have a specific role you are called to fill in your community and in living out the mission and vision God has uniquely given you, there’s no room for competition with anyone else.

In Chicago there’s hundreds of churches and whenever we hear of a new church being planted in the city we don’t get scared or feel threatened — we get excited. The reality is there are nearly 3 million people in the city and that requires many different kinds of churches for many different kinds of people. It’s exciting to see what God is doing and to partner with other churches in the city to truly be the Church and be united in mission to see it transformed by the Gospel. The Church is most powerful when it’s working together across boundaries of congregations and denominations and is visibly the united body of Christ, working together to serve our communities and cities.

When you hear about another church’s success, celebrate. And take out a notebook and pen… see what you can learn. But don’t try to copy what’s working somewhere else or try to outdo another church. Remember our competition is with the things unseen. Our competition is against everything that keeps people from coming to our churches, connecting with our community, and ultimately with Christ.

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I’m sorry to say it so harshly but it’s true… no one cares about your church.

Look at recent polls, church attendance, or even watch the news and it’s fairly obvious… people don’t care about the church or what we have to say anymore. We’ve lost credibility for some legitimate reasons. And don’t chalk me up to being a church basher, I passionately care about the church, I’m just saying what’s true and what some of us might not want to admit.

The Church has moved from the center of our Western culture and while some fight to keep it in the public square others of us are realizing the greatest way we can impact culture is by being on the periphery.

Christianity at its core has always been about counter-cultural, so why in the world do we try to be perceived as being relevant by looking just like the culture around us?

We’ve cheapened the Gospel by trying to be accepted at a great cost. The emerging generation can see right through the charade. We’ve created a machine out of what was always meant to be a movement. We’ve organized something that was meant to be organic. We’ve franchised something that was meant to be localized. We’ve put CEOs in the seats of what was meant to be a spiritual office and treated salvation like a commodity. We made an idol out of our methods.

And to try and fix everything we’ve thought marketing it to look like a cheap version of everything else in culture was a good idea.

Here’s two truths: people don’t like the church and people don’t trust advertising. Why use a mechanism people don’t trust to promote something they don’t care about?

I’m not trying to paint a picture of gloom and doom, I am just saying it how it is. I have great hope for the Church and believe that it does matter and believe the church has a great future ahead of it… we’ve just got to make some adjustments.

I think we have a great new opportunity to reintroduce Jesus, the Gospel and the Church to a world and culture that has been weary of what they’ve seen and heard.

The next generation is tired of gimmicks they want something real and authentic. They want to be known. They want community. They want a sense of belonging. They want to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves. They want to be significant. They want to be a part of the Church they read about in Acts but have only seen poor reflections of in today’s world.

More than anything they want to give themselves to cause that is greater than they are. Why do you think movements like TOMS Shoes, To Write Love on Her Arms, LIVESTRONG, charity: water, the one campaign or any of the big social movements that are out there today exist and have so much popularity?

They are all doing great work and doing tremendous good, yes. But they are telling a compelling story. They are giving people the opportunity to make a difference. They give people the chance to do something that matters. They are sadly, doing the work the church has been neglecting.

When you really care about what people care about things happen.

When churches rally around the needs of their communities and are actually outward focused, truly living for something outside of themselves, that’s when change happens and that is when the church matters in culture.

To truly care about the things that matter to people is to truly live out the Gospel. God is all about people. And what matters to people matters to God.

We’ve been too focused on ourselves, our numbers, our growth, our success, and at the expense of a generation that’s looking for a cause to believe in and give themselves to.

I can’t think of a better cause to give my life to than the cause of the local church and I think while we live in a culture that doesn’t care about church we have an amazing opportunity to redefine what church means and what it means to be a follower of Christ.

When we sing or pray the words break my heart for what breaks Yours, we are really asking God to allow us the opportunity to see the world through His eyes.

We’ll never earn the right to be heard in culture by screaming on street corners or by having a slick ad campaign. We earn the right to be heard by caring about the things that people care about and ultimately the things the move the heart of God.

Stop trying to promote and market your church. It hasn’t been working and it won’t. Stop trying to make people care about something they’ve already decided isn’t worth their time or attention.

Start listening. Start looking around you. Listen to the cries of people in your community and start responding with the love of Christ. See through His eyes. Earn the right to be heard. Be Jesus hands and feet. Do good. Care about what people care about. Be Jesus and the Church to your community.

The Church isn’t an organization or a building, it’s people.

When you truly care about what people care about and prove it, people will care about you and what you have to say.

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You’re talking, people are listening, but do they understand what you are saying?

Example: the teacher [or any adult figure] in the Peanuts cartoons:

The teacher is saying something. Linus, Lucy and others can understand her and are able to communicate with her, but to the average person [you and me] watching it all sounds like nonsense.

When people come to our churches and hear what we’re saying, or if they are reading something on our website or in print, do they have the same experience?

I don’t know how or when it happened but we developed our own inside language. Our own secret code. Some people call it Christianese, but I like to think it’s just like speaking in tongues.

We are saying some really important stuff, but all too often the message is lost in translation. We’re saying things in a language people don’t understand.

Intellectual vs Intelligible

For some reason we’ve taken something very simple and made it incredibly complicated and hard to understand. In our quest to be intellectual we’ve really turned out to become exclusive, hindering people from hearing the message of the Gospel in way that’s easily understood.

I’m not bashing theology or saying we need to dumb-down what we are trying to say, but at the same time I want to point out the fact that Jesus didn’t use words or phrases justification by faith alone, double imputation, Ebenezer,  transubstantiation, limited atonement, eschatology, or predestination.  He used everyday objects and experiences to communicate some of the most profound spiritual truths to His audience.

In our quest to study, understand, and explain what it all means, we’ve complicated the message. And while it’s great to sound smart and use big words, we’re oftentimes leaving people in the dark.

Use words people understand. Use experiences and circumstances people relate to. Tell stories… Jesus was a master storyteller.

Words Matter.

Language is oftentimes our first impression.

What do people really hear when they hear you speaking? What impression do they get when they read your publications, website content, or other printed communications? Are you building bridges or creating barriers with your words?

There can be a difference between life and death in the words we use. We have an immense responsibility to communicate the Gospel with reverence for the message and respect for the audience that will be hearing it.

Choose your words carefully. Craft your messages with conviction. Are you bringing people closer to Christ or pushing them further away with the messages you convey?

Give People the Basics, Not a Dictionary.

People have limited time and a short attention span. Remember to embrace brevity. Give people what they need to know in an uncomplicated, easy-to-understand way.

Acronyms, individual ministry identities/brands, and insider lingo can create tremendous hindrances for people trying to get connected. When I started at Park I felt like we needed to give people a dictionary to understand some of the names and phrases we used in everyday publications. If something has to be explained or defined it needs to be renamed. Create easy on-ramps for people by clearly defining the path they need to take. Don’t litter the pathway there with words and terminology that need to be defined.

Be an Interpreter

In Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost people started speaking in tongues. To the passersby, it sounded like a bunch of nonsense and people even thought they were drunk. Finally, Peter stood up and made sense out of the chaos and interpreted what was being said. In the end, thousands were added to the church.

As communications directors, we’re not the people preaching but we play a vital role in ensuring the messages our churches communicate are effectively and clearly communicating the message of the Gospel in way people understand.

The throngs of people around the upper room in Acts 2 heard nonsense, but when Peter stood and communicated what was really being said, they came to faith in Christ.

We are interpreters. We’re standing in the gap between what is being communicated and the audience that is going to hear what is said. We have an opportunity to help form and shape the message so people can really hear it.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind as you interpret your church’s messages:

• Where are you? Context matters. What does the community around you look like? What’s happening in your city? What do people in your community care about? What are they worried about? What are challenges people are facing? Are you focusing inward so much that you are neglecting to see what’s happening in the community around you?
• Who are you talking to? Knowing your audience is key. Who are you talking to? A middle-aged crowd? Young adults? Families? Singles? How do they communicate? Are you talking in a language or style that they understand?
• What language do they speak? What words and phrases are used in everyday conversations in your community? Do the conversations you create sound like your community?
• What are you really trying to say? Be clear. Don’t complicate your message with excess “fluff” or Christianese. Just say what needs to be said. Pare down what you are trying to really say to a single sound-byte. Think 140 characters, not 140 words. Focus clearly on the main message and only tack on what’s essential for people to know immediately.
• Why does it matter? People are motivated by their own needs. Focus on how what you are saying can connect with their need. Lead with their need and your solution.
• How are you coming across? Tone is everything. Do you sound needy? Too excited? Listen to what you are saying and the tone in which you communicate. Find balance. Don’t be too serious. Don’t be bubblegum happy either. Find balance.
• When they hear it, what do you want them to do? Make the next step clear. Everything you communicate should motivate people to do something… sign up, respond, repent, give, etc. Have you clearly told them what to do next?
• Get an outside perspective. One of the most valuable exercises you can do is get an outside perspective. As much as possible look at yourself as an outsider as you develop the messages you communicate. Listen with outside ears and read with outside eyes. And, when you need to, have someone who is a real outsider give their perspective and feedback. I had a self-professed pagan proofreader for about a year once. She was great at grammar and editing and I had her help me edit church publications. She quickly helped me identify things that didn’t make sense and in the process I had a significant opportunity to share my faith with her.

It’s been said that Christianity is fundamentally a communication event. Throughout time and history God has wanted to communicate and have relationship with mankind. We have a tremendous opportunity to ensure that message doesn’t get lost in translation. Be an interpreter. Communicate with clarity and conviction. Do all you can to make sure your church isn’t speaking in tongues so that people can hear the message of the Gospel clearly and ultimately connect with Christ.

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For the record, I grew up in an Assemblies of God church and this post was not all intended to bash speaking in tongues or to suggest I’m a cessationist. Just putting a new spin on the whole Christianese discussion, that’s all.

Last month I did a breakout session at the ECHO Church Media Conference called Reworking Church Communications. In the session I highlighted 10 different ideas to challenge and change the way we approach church communications. Over the next month or so, I’m going to unpack the 10 ideas I presented [Jerod Clark at ChurchJuice did a great job summarizing them here] and flesh them out a little bit more.

Regardless of what your particular role in your church may be,  I believe it’s safe “the way we’ve always done it” isn’t working anymore. The world around us has changed dramatically due to the advances in technology and our changing economy. We’re living in a new reality that requires us to go against conventional wisdom and rework the way we do what we do.

One idea that is especially relevant to me right now is the idea that Constraints are a Blessing.

We tend to avoid things that hinder us. Freedom is always preferred over constraint. We’d rather have more than less. But as we’ve seen in the changing world we live in….small is the new big, less is more, and yes, even constraints are a blessing.

At Park we are in the midst of a challenge we’ve never encountered before: we’re behind on our budget. Our fiscal year runs (oddly) from September-August of each year and with the end of our fiscal year coming we can see there’s going to be a gap between what we budgeted and what people actually gave. It’s not a huge gap or anything worth getting too stressed over… it is what it is.

We’ve had an amazing year of ministry… we’ve grown over 26% in the last year; added another campus, now reaching 3 neighborhoods across the city; we’ve seen over 100 people go public with their faith and be baptized; and the list goes on. We have so much to be thankful for and at the same time recognize that we’ve got some challenges ahead of us.

Our leadership team sat and worked over our projected budget for next year and decided that people were more important than programs, so instead of cutting jobs, we’re cutting back on some non-essentials. We’ve all taken pretty big hits to our individual ministry budgets [mine was reduced by nearly 50%], and we’ve all agreed we are going to have to live with a new reality… one that is going to force us to embrace some constraints.

I was a little disappointed, I had some cool ideas in the pipeline for next year and those are going to have to go on hold for now, but to tell you the truth I’m really excited. Here’s why…

Constraints force us to realize what’s essential.

One of the biggest hindrances we face in Western culture is our abundance. Churches have a hard time saying “no” to new ideas, programs, and initiatives. And while continuing to expand our reach and do all we can to reach more people, more “stuff” can really get in the way of us doing what is truly essential. One famous buzz phrase we hear often at church leadership conferences is, “if your church vanished tomorrow what would your community miss most?” That’s a dramatic place to start, but what if you looked at everything your church did in any given year and decided that instead of 40 events you’d do 20. Not only would you be doing less, you’d be doing what you are doing with greater care and excellence. Chances are that as you begin to take away different things you’ll find what’s really core or key to your church’s DNA and the things to make your church what it is and the role it is truly called to play in the life of your community. Doing too much can actually hinder us from doing what we are really supposed to be doing. Constrains can help us pare down to what’s vital and focus our energy, time, and attention.

Constraints actually give us more space to be creative.

Believe it or not, constraints actually make us more creative. In his book Making Ideas Happen, Scott Belsky argues that creativity is formed within confines.  G.K. Chesterton says, “Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.”  Having constraints gives us a defined starting and ending point. While most creatives want space for artistic expression, having no boundaries can be worse than having a defined space to play in. When we know we don’t have much to work with it forces us to reinvent and rethink how we what we do in the limited space we have provided.

Constrains force us to make the most out of what we’ve already got.

Having less means having to maximize and make the most out of what you already have. I think all too often we can become preoccupied with what we don’t have. We think that if we get the best website, the newest HD camera, a better logo, or ______________ (you can fill in your own blank) that things will instantly get better. That’s not always the case. Content is what matters most. A great camera doesn’t make up for a bad script. [But that's another tangent, back to the point...] Chances are you already have most of what you already need, you just need to do something with it.  Effective and expensive are not synonymous. You can do some great things with little or next to nothing.

Someone I’m continually amazed by is Jason Widney, our Media Arts Director at Park. He’s one of the few people I know that can take some styrofoam panels, paint, and few lights and make something absolutely breathtaking. Less really does more. And oftentimes, it only takes a little to do a lot.

Constraints increase our dependence on God.

Not to get all cheesy here, but it’s true. When our proverbial well runs dry it makes us look to the source. I believe that in seasons of lack we find ourselves increasingly dependent on God. And honestly, there’s nothing greater that we should be leaning into but God Himself. We can get pretty reliant on our own talent or ability, or even our own budgets. When we have to look to God to provide it changes the game significantly. It doesn’t require us to do much but trust and have faith.

All throughout the Bible we read stories of instances where there was little but God showed up in a big way and made it much. From the loves and fish feeding 5,000 to a group of 12 guys who, by society’s standards, were hindered by their lack of education,  He used situations, circumstances and people who seemed to be restrained to do some of His most mighty work. God can take our little and make it much.

I know these challenges are not new to many churches and ministries, but it’s a new reality for us at Park. While there is some uncertainty ahead, I’m excited about this next season because I really believe God is going to do some significant things in all of our lives and in the life of our church as we grow more dependent on Him!

Constraints are a blessing, they are an exercise in our faith and trust in God to provide.

Deadlines, rough drafts, deciding which font to use, racing to get your files to the printer, frustration over the time it’s taking for a video to render, forgetting to save the document you’ve been working on only to delete it, agonizing over the perfect image to use, people asking for way too much with so little time… it’s easy in the life of church communications [whatever that may look like for you] to lose your focus.

What we do matters but why we do it is more important.

In a hyper-connected, image driven world that’s only growing more complex and louder each day, we have a unique opportunity to bring order to the chaos and elevate the message of our church [and ultimately, the message of the Gospel] to a world that’s searching for something true, authentic, and real.

We may never preach a message or lead a worship service but the various things we do intersect people we may never know. Whatever we do…be it designing a website, brochure, postcard, signage that directs people where to go, or a video that shares a story or communicates a message… matters deeply. Communications connect people, and we do what we do because people matter.

Knowing how to effectively communicate requires much more than skill [although that helps!], but takes discernment, wisdom, and ears attuned to God’s voice.

Unfortunately, distractions are numerous and it’s easier to focus on what we’re doing and forgetting why we’re actually doing it. It’s crucial that we change our perspective and realize our focus should be driven by something greater than a deadline.

Those perspective-changing moments come in many different ways.

For me, this past Sunday was one of them.

One Sunday each summer, our church gathers on the shores of Lake Michigan in the early morning hours just after sunrise. Hundreds of people dot the shoreline and a nearby pier to watch nearly 100 people go public with their faith in Christ by being baptized.

It’s my favorite Sunday of the year.

Words can’t begin to describe the sight of people of all walks of life and backgrounds, with so many different journeys, that led them all to this point. Friends, family, and small group members wade into the frigid waters [yes, even though it is July] to support their loved ones as they make a public display of an old life that is now buried and a new life that is raised with Christ.

What adds to the beauty of the day is the fact that the city skyline envelops the background… a striking visual reminder of why we do what we do: seeing lives transformed in the city.

With the wet sand underneath my toes, watching all that was going on around me, I got a lump in my throat.

It was one of those moments of clarity… a perspective-changing moment.

I looked out and thought…”THIS is why I do what I do.”

All of the little things that bog us down in our daily routine matter, but what matters most is how they help us shape and share our story, inviting people to find their place in God’s Story.

That’s what it’s all about.

So as you start off a new workweek, which will undoubtedly be busy and chaotic, take a moment to step back and reflect on why you do what you do. For me, I’m printing a copy of that picture and putting it above my monitor so I have a visual reminder of why I do what I do.

What does that look like for you? What could be a simple reminder for you this week? Take some time to reflect and think of how you can keep your perspective amidst the craziness.

What you do matters, but why you do it is what it’s all about.

Baptism videos can be a bit of a show-and-tell for some, and you probably won’t know any of the faces in this video, but to me this is a beautiful picture of what God has done in our church and reminds me why we do what we do.

Enjoy.

I’m wondering if you have a checklist (mental or otherwise) that you use to critique your work before it goes out.  I print a lot of flyers, postcards, and email promotional materials for events and it seems like I always miss important details, even when I have multiple proofreaders.  It’s so frustrating to pour yourself into a piece only to realize you’re missing key details. Also, any tips on design?

My reply…

At Park we don’t do much print these days, but here’s some general rules of thumb to consider as you design print pieces…

Remember the 5 W’s and H

• Who – Does it communicate clearly in the language of WHO it’s for? Avoid churchy terms and use a language and style that’s reflective the audience you’re trying to speak to.
• What – Have you clearly defined WHAT it is? “It” being the event, opportunity, class, etc?
• Where – Is there a location, address, map, directions, showing people WHERE they need to go?
• When - Have you double-checked the time and date of WHEN it is?
• Why – Have you explained WHY it’s important for the person? Don’t just broadcast your information, focus on why it’s important for the individual. Highlight their needs first, then focus on your solution.
• How – Have you given them next steps on HOW to respond? Have you clearly directed them to a person, website, email, etc to sign up, register, get more information.

Design Elements

• Logos. Is your church logo or the appropriate ministry logo on it? Your logo should be on every printed piece you create. Think of them as a return address on an envelope. In case it gets lost or placed in the hand of a friend, it should be able to point easily back to where it came from. Be sure to include your web address, too!
• Fonts. Are there more than two fonts on it? Try to use a standard body font for everything so while design elements may be different, there’s at least a consistency that’s easy to recognize and unify all of your print collateral. You shouldn’t use more than two fonts per printed piece.
• White Space. White space is good. Less is more. Don’t try to fill an entire space. Give people room to breathe. Don’t let design overpower your message unless the design is helping to communicate your message.
• Consistency. Try to have a consistent placement of your church logo on all printed pieces… i.e. always on the lower right hand corner, top left hand corner, etc. Having a standard font is good, too.
• Standards. Set some standards when it comes to dates, times, phone numbers, and web addresses.
  • Tuesday, July 13th or Tuesday, July 13
  • 10 AM or 10 a.m.
  • 312-361-0500 or 312.361.0500
  • www.parkcommunitychurch.org or parkcommunitychurch.org

Double-Check the Small Stuff

Double-check all addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. There was one time I accidentally put my personal phone number on the back of a churchwide publication. I found that out AFTER it was printed! Not good. Double check the small stuff. In some cases, I even copy the email address and send a test email just to double-check and confirm it’s the right one. The things you would easily overlook are usually the things you need to check the most.

Ask Others For Help!

Another set of eyes is sometimes exactly what you need to either catch an error or to get some input on design. The Church Marketing Lab from the Center for Church Communication is a great place to get advice and input from others. They have a flickr group where you can upload your latest project and get advice from others. The Church Marketing Lab has been a lifesaver for me and in addition to getting help, it gives you the chance to help and learn from others.