I have a couple phobias; deep water and windows I can’t see out of. I don’t like the unknown. I don’t like surprises. I don’t like deep water because I can’t see the bottom. My mind wanders to what scary creature of the deep might be swimming just beyond my toes. I don’t like dark windows I can’t see out of because at night… when I have the lights on in my house, I know if someone were in my backyard that they could see me and I wouldn’t be able to see them. It’s an unsettling feeling for me… the unknown.
I like to know what’s coming. I like to be prepared for what happens next. But that’s not what God calls us to do. God doesn’t want us to be comfortable. He wants us to take a leap into the unknown. That’s where the people are that need to hear about him. God doesn’t need me to focus solely on his people that have already come to my church. I spend a lot of time there… “doing God’s work” in the church. God calls us to face our phobias and get uncomfortable.
A surge of new technologies and social media innovations is altering the media landscape. Convergence is everywhere. It’s easier than ever to reach a large audience, but harder than ever to really connect with it. These changes are affecting the way people behave. Are you ready for the future?
This video says that more content is being uploaded to sites like YouTube each month than is being shown on CBS, NBC and ABC combined! People are pimpin’ their own agendas now! Sites like Facebook and Twitter have allowed people to have a voice as big as CNN. So let’s take what we learned here and apply it to ministry.
to stop printing so many direct mailings and send out e-newsletters
to create thought provoking messages and post them on YouTube and Vimeo
to send text message updates to it’s members
to help instill trust in adults about using the web to donate money and sign up for events
to use social media to raise money for ministry. (If Dell can claim $3mil in revenue since 2007 thanks to Twitter, why not the church?)
to learn from other church leaders through free online conferences and collaborate with them
to produce audio and video messages to be downloaded and played on the iPhone
Some of this stuff is already being done by a small number of very large churches. But it needs to happen with every church! We’ve got a lot of work to do. Let’s not get complacent in ministry.
You will be faced with many struggles in this life. My encouragement is that you pick the harder path. You will be more like Christ and your character will be developed. Pick the harder path. You will meet and interact with so many different people. Try to learn something from every one of them. For it is not an accident that you have met them. And desperately try to leave each one of them better off than when you first met them. … Desperately pursue God and use the things that he has given you. And desperately pursue the people around you and love them. Our time is short my friend, let’s get to work.
