We have been working hard here at Big Creek Church on applying the principles of the "Simple Church" to our vision and process. We have been wrestling through a lot of issues on how we communicate clearly "who were are" and the process of "how people get connected" within the church. The good news is that we haven't had to totally whiteboard previous work and foundations of the church to do this entire process. We had some really good foundations to build upon, but even so, there was a lot of clutter and ministry barnacles that needed to be stripped off. Even though this part of the process has been challenging, I am convinced that the make it or break it part is going to be our communication to the congregation.
This is the part of the process that we often fall short in. We have great ideas, wonderful creativity, faith filled initiative, but it then it ends with poor communication. Effective communication is hard in our culture. I know that many people find themselves confronted with information overload but that fact is exponentially true in North Georgia. There is so much information clutter, it is hard to cut through it all. And to often we think we have communicated by simply telling people information. But information and communication are not the same.
We need to leverage as much energy and forthought on how we communication our vision and process as we spent time developing it in the first place.
I think that this is where Mark Batterson has a helpful contribution on how we communicate.
Mark Batterson recently posted the six communication keys.
#1 The Law of Scope: less is more
#2 The Element of Surprise: violate expectations
#3 The Picture Principle: a picture is worth ten million words
#4 The Law of Metaphors: say old things in new days
#5 The Authenticity Test: you are the message
#6 The Law of Emotion: stronger emotion equals longer memory
How do you communicate more effectively within your church?
Technorati Tags: Communication, Simple_Church, Ministry
This is the part of the process that we often fall short in. We have great ideas, wonderful creativity, faith filled initiative, but it then it ends with poor communication. Effective communication is hard in our culture. I know that many people find themselves confronted with information overload but that fact is exponentially true in North Georgia. There is so much information clutter, it is hard to cut through it all. And to often we think we have communicated by simply telling people information. But information and communication are not the same.
Harold Davis, the elementary children's pastor at Church on the Move (Tulsa, OK), makes this distinction between information and communication:
Too often we think that we are communicating by ticking off a bunch of bullet points in front of a church on a Sunday morning. But communication has to penetrate and get through the noise and static that people face.Information and communication are often interchanges, but they have two distinctly different meanings.
- Information is giving out.
- Communication is getting through.
We need to leverage as much energy and forthought on how we communication our vision and process as we spent time developing it in the first place.
I think that this is where Mark Batterson has a helpful contribution on how we communicate.
Mark Batterson recently posted the six communication keys.
#1 The Law of Scope: less is more
#2 The Element of Surprise: violate expectations
#3 The Picture Principle: a picture is worth ten million words
#4 The Law of Metaphors: say old things in new days
#5 The Authenticity Test: you are the message
#6 The Law of Emotion: stronger emotion equals longer memory
How do you communicate more effectively within your church?
Technorati Tags: Communication, Simple_Church, Ministry
1 comments:
This is GOOD stuff!! I don't have a church to communicate with but this really applies to all communication to an "audience" and when you think about it isn't everyone around us our "audience"?
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