evan mcbroom THE OTHER SIDE of the boat

Basics of Church Communication - Webcast preview

 Thursday, August 19 (Noon - 1pm CDT) I'll be leading a MinistryCOM webcast: Basics of Church Communication.  

The webcast is aimed at those who are "new to church communications and overwhelmed by the job."  To give a heads up, I'll be covering

• Basic Challenges (why is the job so challenging? hint=it has to do with people)
• Responsibilities (and my thoughts on the specific skills, gifts & talents needed)
• Resources (we'll look at some of the basic ones and I have a new assessment tool to help you map out plans for improvement for yourself and your team...if you have one)

Hope you'll join in. Hope it is a help.

Staff Changes - what to say when you can't say anything yet

Recently, we were asked by a church client to help them with some delicate communication planning.  They are working through a major staff reorganization.  For a number of reasons, at this point the staff knows the details of each of their own situations and they have a clear picture of the new staff structure, but all of the changes will not be public for a period of time.  Knowing the dynamics of any workplace (and especially a church), church leaders and staff are anticipating that they will get questions from people in the congregation.  The reality is, questions are coming and rumors are already afoot. As these questions come, Church leaders and staff are asking a big question of their own:

"If we can't talk openly for a while, what can we say about the staff changes when people ask?"

Everyone involved wants to maintain truthful communication, but leaders are stressing to the staff that there are important reasons why the full picture of changes should not be made known right away. 

Here is Fishhook's recommended outline/talking points for communication for every staff member and elder as they respond to questions from the congregation:

1. Acknowledge and Affirm

• As a member of the church staff/elder, I'm aware of some upcoming staff changes as our church leaders work to make us the best church we can be.
• I appreciate your interest/concern/question. And here's what I can share with you at this time.

2. Convey Trust

• First, let me say that I trust God is sovereign – and I trust He's in control.
• Second, I trust our church leaders – and I trust they are praying through the changes and they are seeking God's will for our church.
• Third, I trust that I can ask you to be patient until more information can be shared because these changes involve real people, real families and real work and ministry assignments.

3. Outline Next Steps

• You may hear accurate information and inaccurate information circulating in the weeks to come. Please be patient until you hear more information directly from our church leaders. Soon, more details about our vision and future plans will be shared with the entire congregation.
• Staff: you can share broad personal feelings: I'm excited, It's hard, I'm praying, etc.  
• Staff: If you sense someone needs/wants to know or discuss more, suggest they contact (specific church leaders by name).

While this language is geared to staff changes, the basic outline could be applied to many types of changes within a congregation.  The staff received this information well and knowing what to say gave them greater confidence.  

How would it work for you?  Does it feel authentic and complete enough for your world?

Remarkable or predictable?

Is your work remarkable or predictable?  I don’t mean your role or position at your church.  I mean is the job you are doing, or the team you are leading…is it performing at a level that is remarkable, outstanding and extraordinary, or is it predictable, bland and stale?

I don’t journal everyday, but I tend to in times of stress.  Looking back in my journal I was reminded of a season when I felt like my work, and our team’s work had become predictable.  It’s been over a year since I worked through this, but I felt like, as a team, we were too steady, too routine and I was not sensing the same high level of group creativity we had been experiencing.   My journal features a doodle of a chrome counter bell.  The kind a waitress rings to notify the short-order cook of a new ticket.  “Order up!” is written next to the bell.  I wondered, “what was wrong with our team?”  Under the sketch is this statement and question I asked God:

 We have moved from remarkable to predictable.  How do we return to remarkable?

 As I prayed through this question, I wrote this, “God wants me to LEAD, not just orchestrate, manage or coordinate.”

 The remarkability issue was not about the team…it was about my leadership.   God gently pointed the way back to remarkable.

 Are you feeling predictable?  I don’t know what God may say to you…but seek His direction and find your way back to remarkable.

People will do anything for a free shirt

Do you count on other people to get your stuff done?

 Whether you lead a team, draw on volunteers or contract with outside resources to get your work done (or some combo) it’s key to keep your people moving, motivated and feeling upbeat about their work.  Recently, I was reminded of a very simple truth that reinforced this point.

My new friend and Fishhook client, Mike Ducy of Run2Relay has been involved in the running and competition event business for 20+ years.  Before launching Run2Relay as a low-barrier community event for churches to incorporate into their outreach strategy (and a all out fun event for competitors), Mike owned End Result and GetMeRegistered.com.  Mike sold these two businesses to allow him the time and focus to create Run2Relay.  Recently, Mike and I spent time together connecting with people at the North American Christian Convention.  We were both wearing Run2Relay shirts and the shirts were a giveaway in his booth.  We had devised a simple game people could play that engaged them in learning the Run2Relay story.  As it turns out, everybody wins the game and everybody got his or her own Run2Relay shirt.  What amazed me was to watch men and women, teens and kids stop dead in their convention-induced-walking-trance to play the game…to get the shirt.

As Mike and I spent time together, he said, “People will do anything for a free shirt,” and proceeded to tell me several stories about how he has used event shirts as the way to get all sorts of stuff done over the years.  Convention center dockworkers would drop what they were doing and lend Mike a free hand to unload his stuff…in exchange for a airborne tossed free shirt.  Event bystanders would roll-up their sleeves and jump in to help man a table or water station…for a free shirt.  And the stories went on.

 So, here’s a simple idea. 

1. Connect with your favorite designer and come up with a cool shirt design to represent your communication team or church.
2. Hook up with your favorite shirt vendor and get a batch of shirts made.  Stick with one color and a decent weight T and you’ll likely be at $5/each – print up 100 and you’re only $500 invested toward a bunch of team love.
3. Start tossing shirts around.  
4. You’ll bring a smile to your staff, volunteers or partners.
5. Watch the results. They’ll be more excited to help you get your stuff done.
6. Send me a free shirt if the idea worked for you! 

Facts & Figures are Boring

Here is some guidance I gave to church leaders this morning.  They are preparing to cast vision for their people and complied a list of "good things" going on around their church.  They want to share this list as positive examples of what's going on around their church. 

The message they sent to me and their team: 

Here are some more ideas for positive bullet points:

• Broadway style Christmas play that is done every year is a big deal and always generates new commitments for Christ from the message and invitation that is presented.

• New roof paid for in cash.

• Grenada and Kenya. Need to hit on how many trips and what has been accomplished.

• Food pantry - should be easy to calculate approximate pounds of food given away every year.

• # people attended Church 101 - and explain what Church 101 is.

• Partnering with Habitat and what has been accomplished.

• New back building paid for.

Now, here is my response:  

Team - as you think about these kind of good things to celebrate, try the best as you can to put a "face" to each one.  Make as many of these as possible about the story of how people are involved, how lives are changed, etc.  You will find that the more you focus on people stories the more your message will get through.  Projects = boring.  People = God at work!

As an example - I'm making these up...

• Broadway style Christmas play that is done every year is a big deal and always generates new commitments for Christ from the message and invitation that is presented. 

Try to find the story of a person who was IN the play this past year, but came to the church (or perhaps even came to Christ) as a result of attending the play in the past as a guest.  Tell THAT story.

• New roof paid for in cash.

Find someone who gave to the project and for them, this was a big first step of generosity.  Perhaps they went through Crown or Financial Peace and as a result gave in way they had not before.

• Grenada and Kenya. Need to hit on how many trips and what has been accomplished.

Yes, focus on how many trips...but don't just give a list of "we built 5 houses" or we "saw 200 people in our clinic" - instead tell the story of one of the new homeowners, or tell the story of a woman who put her sick child on a donkey and walked 12 hours to come to the clinic (this is a story from another church...it's real and moving)  

• Food pantry - should be easy to calculate approximate pounds of food given away every year.

Yes, it should be easy to calculate the number of pounds of food...but that in itself is INFORMATION and it is not a MESSAGE.  The message would be a story about a widowed young mother who needed to visit the food pantry to feed her 3 children and how not only did she get food, but someone from the church went to her house to fix her broken window...etc., etc., 

• # people attended  Church 101 - and explain what Church 101 is.

And tell the story of one of those people and how Church 101 FINALLY helped them open their eyes to truly understand the Christian life and what it meant to be loved by a church....

• Partnering with Habitat and what has been accomplished.

Again...tell the story about people.  There's the story of your people and what they felt God do in their lives as they served and the story of the person who is now in a home and what it means to them to be part of the community...and what it means to their children...

• New back building paid for.

Story of an older person in your church who was resistant to change...but saw the vision for this space and gave to the space, and what it means to them to be part of a church that values being free of debt.

OK - get the idea? You must get away from facts and figures and tell stories.  I promise if you do, you will touch a variety of people in a variety of ways...God is at work in all of these "good things" but the better thing is the work he's doing in peoples lives. Focus on those stories.  

Church Branding - eternal, worldly & local

The Short Story: heard a great sermon this weekend.  Rev. Chris Chase from Good Samaritan Episcopal Church in San Diego taught on Church Branding.  His lesson

• In Revelation we learn that there will be those who will be marked/sealed as belonging to God -eternal.
• Jesus teaches us to "love one another" as a sign to the - world.
• The local church needs to identify itself uniquely in it's community - local - and Good Sam is in that process.

The Longer Story: This past weekend I traveled to San Diego to lead a branding discovery session with church leaders from Good Samaritan Episcopal Church - or "Good Sam" as they are know to friends and family.  Good Sam is a beautiful place filled with people who are easy to be around. They describe the worship service as a "lighter and relaxed interpretation and presentation of the Episcopal tradition."  It was that. Liturgy, robes, communion and an altar girl wearing orange canvas shoes. They are warm and welcoming bunch and they quietly pour themselves into the lives of each other andhurting people - locally and beyond.  Over and over they described their experience at Good Sam as one of "healing."  One member of the discovery team, Julia, a bright young woman in her Junior year in high school, described Good Sam as "Mrs. Weasley's house from the Harry Potter series." She said, "it's a little clunky, and the people are sorta quirky, but it's a place you can totally just come be yourself."  Every head around the table nodded in agreement.  

 This was an interesting day because, in addition to attending worship services and leading the discovery session, I was also invited to teach a Sunday school class, Church Branding: What Story are we Telling?  Communication Director Leanne Shawler invited me to lead this session, helping the congregation toward better understanding and fostering discussion on the topic.  Often, the work of church branding is done behind the scenes and then revealed to the congregation.  At Good Sam, it's a collective experience.  While a team will lead the effort its the congregation is well aware of what's underway.  Not only was there a class on church branding, but Rector Chris Chase's message presented a fascinating perspective as well.  The entire branding team and process was lifted up for prayer.  

Chris outlined three distinct and powerful perspectives on church branding - eternal, worldly and local. The highlights:

1. In Revelation we learn that there will be those who will be marked/sealed as belonging to God - eternal.
2. Jesus teaches us to "love one another" as a sign to the - world.
3. The local church needs to identify itself uniquely in it's community - local - and Good Sam is in that process.

  The message is about 20 minutes long.  It's worth a listen.  

When I grow old I won't wear purple, but I will...

 Surely you've heard of the poem embraced by the ladies of the Red Hat Society.  It's a sweet thing about the unacceptable things a woman plans to do as she ages...tossing conventions aside, including wearing purple.

I don't think I'll wear purple, but as I get older (and even now) I'm gonna pace myself better than I did in my youth. I used to run at work full speed for months then find my recuperation...sick in bed.  So, as I get older, I'm gonna take more afternoons off.  I'm gonna spend a couple mornings a week sipping coffee with my wife.  And this coming Monday, I'm gonna take Presidents Day off and be with my family.  

Tuesday morning I'll be behind on email.  I'll have to ask someone for an extra day to have their proposal ready.  I'll show up less than prepared to a meeting.  But I will enjoy a day with my kids and my sweetie that makes all those fumbles worth it.  

How 'bout you?  For some old lady, the change is purple. For me, it's pace.  And you? 

Creating Buy in For Next Big Thing

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of about 40 pastors and other church leaders at the Cornerstone Conference (Twitter #ckn09) in Charlotte. (that's not me in the picture, it's Matt Evansof Rockbridge Community Church in Dalton GA)  I spoke on the topic of casting vision.  I promised folks that I would post my slides here.  Here they are. (I pulled a few of the photos out, but it's still a 8MB file)

Download Communicating Next Big Thing - CKN Charlotte - blog version

And here is the link to an article published in Church Solutions Magazine that tells some of the same story.

If you attended, I'd love your feedback on the session.  What resonated.  What repelled?

Take the first step

Do you have an overwhelming task?  Are you faced with a challenge too big to tackle?  Do you have a Goliath sized to-do list and not a single stone in your sling?  I feel that way right now.  I've got some things...mostly just annoyingly detailed tasky-tasks that need doing.  They need starting.  But I don't feel I have the go-juice to get 'em done. And so...I look around me to find some measure of inspiration to get off my jeans pockets and knock 'em out. 

Take this moment for instance.  This is me on Saturday a few minutes after the completion of my first half marathon.  13.1 miles.  Official time 2 hours, 05 minutes, 52.8 seconds. I finished 69th in my age bracket.  No records here...but it was a big day for me.

A bigger day?  January 1, 2008.  The morning I started walking. In a post dated February 1, 2008, I tell of my first month of walking.  75 miles in a month.  Those first early morning steps 22 months ago set in motion a series of events that led to Saturday's finish.  I would say that the decision to get out of bed and walk was harder than the decision to run the final mile on Saturday.  It wasn't glamorous to get out of bed.  There was no cheering crowd and certainly no medal waiting for me at the finish...but the first step was the first step. 

What's the first step you need to take to get the big task off your list.  I've got mine...I'm gonna go take it now.

Church finance talk...bring in the experts

Here are just a few of the topics I'm unqualified to advise on:

• How to raise quiet children
• Pre-Colombian art
• Physics, Algebra, Engineering
• Office organizing
• Car repair
• Photoshop
• Church finances

The good news is, most of the church leaders we serve could care less about many of the things on that list, but church finances...now that's another thing. (and it's a critical thing)  So, when I learned that our pals at Aspen Group were hosting a pastors lunch titled "Straight Talk about Church Finances." I wanted to help make it happen.  I'm thrilled that Fishhook is joining the NACBA and Aspen Group as sponsors.

Church leaders - you're invited - you can check out the official invitation. 

Download Aspen Group Pastors Lunch

And while I don't know two cents about church finances, the speakers at this event are worth their weight in gold.  Here's who they are and here's what I like about 'em:

Allen Walworth- President & Principal of Generis

• I’ve met him up close, have visited with him at his home and he is the real deal. Big heart for seeing people experience God's love through a generous heart.
• I’ve seen him speak at a recent Cornerstone Conference where he personally challenged and inspired me.
• I’ve seen the evaluation from the audience at that conference and from their comments he challenged and inspired many.

Jon Huskins, MBA, CPA, President and CEO of Crosspoint Capital

• I’ve met with Jon as a brother in Christ – just to get to know each other and see how possible collaborations might come together.  He has a humble heart and a seemingly incredible brain for church finance stuff.

• I’ve worked with Jon in my capacity as a Fishhook creative guy and his role as an elder at his church and through this, I’ve heard his heart for people who aren’t in relationship with Jesus.

• He’s known Fishhook’s Janie Mehaffey for years…and when I asked Janie for her thoughts about Jon, she said, "He's one of the smartest people I know. Jon could easily brag about what he knows and what he has accomplished, but he is such a humble and godly man that his focus is constantly on what he can learn from others and how he can invest his big brains into making a Kingdom impact."

The event is October 15.  Greenwood, Indiana.  Aspen Group's Lynn Noe is the go-to for questions and RSVP.  Hope you can join me as we learn together.

Here's the invitation with lots more detail: Download Aspen Group Pastors Lunch