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Will Sodas become the new cigarette?

February 16, 2010 in Communication, Lead 3

Diet Pepsi, originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures.

The picture above is old school Diet Pepsi. I need to make a confession, Diet Pepsi is my favorite thing to drink in the whole world. You might say that it’s unhealthy. I would try not to look at you in the eyes when you say that to me….

But there was a report that came out last week saying that sodas contribute to pancreatic cancer. Which is bad. It also contributes to obesity and diabetes but apparently those aren’t as dangerous in our minds as cancer.

So there have been a ton of articles on this very subject, that because of their dangers will they become the new cigarettes? Dangerous product tax it so people will be discouraged to use it.

Where do you stand? How would you feel if a 12 pack of your favorite soda cost around $13-$15? As someone in #kidmin, are you going to fight against it or sit this one out?

Apple Tablet?

January 26, 2010 in Communication, Tech 0

iSlate UI Concept, originally uploaded by celipovideos.

So we’ve all heard crazy rumors about this very device.

iSlate
iPad
iTablet

and I’ve even got a good friend who thinks that it’s going to be something totally different.

But here’s what I think. I think Apple is designing a new way to look at a computer. They want a family device to take media consumption to a whole new place. Think of art, reading, games, television all on one device with the ability to be all-in-one but also peripheral device.

Seems to be an incredible technology upgrade to me.

But what do you think? What does Apple have up their sleeve?

Integrated Web Strategy

December 21, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry 0

Web 2.0 Landscape, originally uploaded by vincos.

So I can’t get this off my mind. Someone in #kidmin world I need your help!

I am trying to develop and Integrated Web Strategy for BrookwoodKiDs and frankly can’t find any examples. Please point me to this somewhere.

Basically I’m trying to create a guide on how we use the web focusing on three areas:

Kids
Parents
Volunteers

How do we communicate to each of these groups on the web?

Hit the tweet button to spread the word, unless you know then drop me a comment!!!

Thanks in advance!

Ministry Marketing: Focus

December 13, 2009 in Communication, Lead 1

church-marketing1

Now usually I’ll give you my own personal insights but I really want you to go check out this post by Kem Meyer. And if you don’t already subscribe to her and you are loving this Marketing Series, then you would be hurting your growth in this area if you didn’t subscribe to her blog.

Now she goes very corporate to give you a picture of what the Identity Crisis looks like with brands. However, when you look at your church, can you say that all aspects from Communication to Assimilation to Environment to Content to Message are all unified in their apparent purpose?

If they aren’t then what does that communicate to prospective “shareholders”? What are you leaving out of the loop when it comes to the heart, core, nucleus of what you do? By leaving that thing out does it communicate something different than the message you intend for people to receive?

I’ll give you an example for #kidmin that most of us probably never think about. Preschool-check in. What value do our preschoolers get from checking in to a desk where they can’t see the attendants and they have nothing to occupy their attention?

Where is an area that you think the church might not be considering when trying to communicate the heart, core, and nucleus of what they are about?

Ministry Marketing: SWOT analysis

December 2, 2009 in Communication, Lead 3

church-marketing

Maybe you don’t feel like you can totally take on the brunt of change in your ministry and the way they market themselves? Would you like a very easy and practical way to get started without having to just totally destroy any bridge you might have by asking for a total overhaul? Or would you just like to get your feet wet a little bit? Or are you just ready to get past the overly utilized, yet classic infomercial introductory question time?

Then the SWOT analysis is for you!!!

But seriously a great place to start is a SWOT. Contrary to what you might think this has nothing to do with slapping anyone’s wrists or destroying insects, but instead has everything to do with gaining a little focus for your ministry.

Simple Overview Time!

SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Ask yourself some questions about each of these.

Strengths:

  • What would the community say are the strengths of our ministry?
  • What assets do we possess? (financial, property, key relationships, or maybe just awesome people)?
  • What needs are we meeting in the community?
  • We are incredible at…

Weaknesses

  • What would the community say are some weaknesses that are present?
  • Do we have any liabilities?
  • Are there some needs that are obvious that we are not meeting?
  • We are pretty much bad at…

Opportunities

  • Are there trends in your community that you can support, be a part of, or contribute to?
  • Are there needs in the community that we can meet that no one else is?
  • What opportunities are there in the community that align with out strengths?
  • We could really do…

Threats

  • Any community trends that could hinder your impact?
  • Long Term Plans?
  • What is the plan after this leadership is gone?
  • We could do this, but…

Again this is a pretty basic SWOT. But it’s a great place to start the process and gives you some nice ideas with where to go from where you are now!

Hope this helps you out. Have you ever been a part of a SWOT analysis? Give me some details, let me know what the process was like.

Ministry Marketing Part 1: Overview

November 18, 2009 in Communication, Lead 0

church-marketing1

Well I thought it would be best to give you an overview of what exactly is Ministry Marketing? Well to start off I’ll give you the AMA’s (American Marketing Association) recently updated definition (2007) and then my own.

AMA:
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Me:
The art of creating and aligning content, communication and process in order to create value for people that could be affected by your ministry.

Ok so what does that even mean? Well Marketing even when I was in college from 2004-2007 was more of a function or a department of a company. Recently though, this thought has changed. Marketing is no longer a function or a department, but an activity that every member of the corporation is responsible for. So anything that your ministry does creates some kind of value for people.

Is the value that you individually creating for your ministry positive or negative?

But with so many ministries and different people how can you control the value that is being sent out? Great question with a simple yet complex answer.

You can’t.

You most certainly can do things to affect it but you will never be able to control it.

But why write this blog about Marketing if we can’t control it. Because I think that we can affect it in a way that provides clear value to a world that is hurting and needs help from a Savior that can satisfy all of their needs.

For fear of losing you with more boring rhetoric, I’ll give you some juicy tidbits to consider for your church or ministry.

Three things that need the most help

  1. Purpose:

    2 necessary questions. First what is it? What is your purpose? God created each of us differently and each of our ministries should mirror that. God put us in a place to meet specific needs for people and gave you and the people in your ministry specific skills in order to do so. So once you know what your purpose is then ask this question. Does this (communication piece, video, event, game, song, etc.) satisfy our purpose?

  2. Communication from top down:

    Not talking about just staff here, although Lord knows we need help there as well. But your volunteers are value holders just as much as you are. Here is one of my favorite quotes and something that I try and live by. It comes form George Bernard Shaw.

    “The problem with communication…is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

    Don’t judge how well you’ve communicated purpose and vision by your most committed people. Instead judge by your least committed people. Then you’ll know how effective you are at communication your vision and purpose.

  3. We’ve always done it this way:

    I don’t think this is necessary a problem on most church staffs when coming up with ideas. But when it comes to the implementation, the hill to climb in order to persuade, convince, get buy-in, bribe people into changing is just way to big. We’ve got to allow God to lead our change and do things that create value in the individual way that He created our ministry/church/person to do.

O there’s more fun on the horizon. What do you think about everyone being a shareholder? How about the three things I listed? Any that you would add?

Ministry Marketing

November 17, 2009 in Communication, Lead 3

church-marketing

So I’ve really been thinking about this thing alot lately. And yesterday oddly enough, CMS ran a post on a Church Marketing Plan provided by the United Methodist Church that is really intense. I have never seen a plan like this for the church.

Do they exist? I’m sure they do.

Have I ever seen one? Nope.

So if you don’t know, I have a degree in Marketing. It’s something that I really enjoy. I am not a salesman. I didn’t go to school to be a salesman. Marketing is not Sales. They are very different. So I thought over the past few weeks, how it would be fun to give some things that I have thought about for a long time as far as Marketing and the Church are concerned. Then I saw the post and just had to jump on it. So over the course of this week I’ll throw out just a few tips that I think will help some people. Not only that I will pose some questions that you need to answer. I hope this will be helpful if you are a Marketing persona or do some sort of Church Communication/Promotion.

But maybe you are the opposite. Maybe you feel that this is the furthest thing from your job in the church. Everyone plays a part in the Marketing and Branding of a Ministry. From the pastors, to paid staff, to trustees, to voluneers, we all have a part to play. If you don’t know what yours is in your particular church then I hope that this series will help you.

I’m pretty pumped to give you guys some advice on something that I actually know a little bit about. I mean I love Children’s Ministry, but I am very much a Daniel-son grasshopper guy. And no I’m not an expert by any means when it comes to Marketing, but I got some skills, yo.

So hope that you get some useful tips from this lil thing! Let me know what you think when we get rolling!

Kid Appropriate

October 22, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry, Lead 6

I’m shocked, Dad…., originally uploaded by Tampen.

While I hate to admit it, I get torn alot on this issue. I grew up in the church and I know some of the waysthat the teaching affected me. I’m currently writing a series on Abraham for the new year. Obviously some things in the story of Abraham aren’t necessarily kid friendly.

Abram/Sarai/Hagar ring a bell.

And this quote will help paint a picture of what I’m talking about.

“All of childhood’s unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values and dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.” -Maya Angelou

And I’m not gonna lie, it’s a really tough place for me. A couple things that I’ve realized that might help you in developing some things for kids and maybe the line you are drawing is very gray or grey if @funnymandan and @kidinspiration

So here are a few things that I have learned in the process of what to teach and what not to teach on age appropriate things in scripture.

1. Gradual Revelation

Just like the Bible our lives are a sequential process. Things aren’t always revealed to us at one time. It would be disingenuine to push that process especially in areas that are meant to be learned over time. Sex and violence are two of those things in my mind. Sometimes they are just revealed too early however, that doesn’t mean that we should be afraid to confront these issues with Scriptual backing. However, in what is generally anywhere from 7-25 minute teaching isn’t enough to teach an all encompassing lesson on either of these matters.

2. Trust

This is the one that I struggle with the most. I take on a heavy burden teaching kids the Bible. I want them to grasp spiritual things and sometimes get down on myself that I can’t teach them everything in the time alotted. Or that maybe I said something that could damage their foundation of living a life for Christ. But I have to remember that the spiritual matters have to be left up to God. I must do all that I can but not more than I can. And this is always a tough place for me.

3. Will you leave unanswered questions?

This is really a pet peeve of mine. So if this example I’m about to throw out there is you, I apologize beforehand. I don’t understand using rhetorical questions in teaching.

“Like have you ever imagined a world without hypothetical situations.”

I’m not sure if our job as teachers to kids is to present them with more questions. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that we must try and answer the questions. Yes there is a value in posing new questions for sure. But I don’t want to leave my pupils without an answer to the questions we were going to answer.

4. When in doubt teach something else.

Again I feel torn about this particular situation with ol Abram. I know that I got to my teen years and was studying alot of these characters that I knew about and then was like, they did what!!!!!????!?!?!?!?!?!

Maybe it’s just me but didn’t hear about Abe and his infidelity, Noah and his issue with alcohol, and Moses and his anger issues. (Which feel free to throw both of your hands up at your desk and thank God for grace. Seriously. Do it now.) Now hear me on this please.

Do Not I repeat DO NOT ADD OR TAKE AWAY FROM GOD’S WORD. However, teaching things that kids more than likely aren’t dealing with should not be our goal either.

So anyway to conclude I’m still torn. I really am. But from the people in my life that are very wise, they’ve told me to find a way to acknowledge that mistakes were made without going into the mistakes or skip it. I know very uncomfortable piece for me to write today but I hope it helps someone out there. Again just an issue for me to trust God more than my own ability to teach these things.

But what about you. I’m sure you’ve got some insight. I’m just a youngun teach me, please.

FUN, FUN, FUN

October 14, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry 2

Alright #kidmin peeps this post should be right up your alley. If you are in #kidmin you know that one of the major elements in place in your environment and programming should be fun. Why? Well it’s well documented on countless blogs and sites that the two questions asked to kids in the car after church are:

What did you learn? Did you have fun?

And as a Production Director I know that fun is an essential part of the equation. Why? Well many reasons. Fun gets seekers to come back. Fun helps you build relationships. Fun is fun and people like fun. In fact Dale Carnegie (didn’t know he liked to have that much fun) said that

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”

I mean it’s true, go into an organization that has fun and compare it to an organization that doesn’t have fun and I’ll tell you the more successful organization. Now again fun is an essential part but it is not the whole. But let’s focus on the fun.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=player_embedded

Go to thefuntheory.com to check out what the guys at Volkswagen are doing to make ordinary things more fun and the effect it has on people.

Now the question for you in #kidmin is there something that people are having a difficult time buying in to? Is there something that people dread to do? )Sorry for the hanging prepositions but I can’t resist) Will FUN save the day?

Open up and see if fun can take an ordinary, mundane practice and turn it into something that people love to do.

Perception

September 23, 2009 in Communication, Lead, Life 9



Depth Perception, originally uploaded by Hinata’s_Guy.

It’s funny because this is how I used to think… I used to think if you are excercising Biblical Truth and are living by God’s Word then it doesn’t matter what people think about you or your decisions that you make.

But when I went to college for a degree in marketing I totally did a 180 on this concept. Let me give you a for instance then you can weigh in.

I’m a pastor in the middle of a bad economy, I have saved up for what I consider a dream car for ages and now finally have the financial means to acquire it. This car is a ’57 Chevy with a Candy Blue paint scheme which is totally custom and not from that era ( you can decide whether my dream car is made up or not) and it costs a pretty penny. But in no way does it affect me because of my due diligence in saving for it. But knowing people would almost certainly view my decision in a negative light I choose not to.

So my question is this, how do you weigh perceptions in your mind when you are making a decision both personally as a leader of an organization and corporately making decisions where people’s perceptions are prevalent?

-young leader searching for advice on the matter above.

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