Mayor of your zipcode
I read today in Seth Godin’s blog about a new site by the folks at Squidoo who just built a promotional tool that lets you become the central expert on all things in your area. Mayor of your zip code is a way to start a discussion group/info page about what’s happening in your slice of the world. You become the single relevant source of information on your community. That said, if you only spend a few minutes on it and then move on, it’ll fail. But, if you were to budget a significant portion of your time or those in your organization on working on your page, what do you think would show up in Google searches? What sort of interactions would you start having with people thinking about your little part of the world?
The context of that article was aimed at the sliding real estate market and the “Plan B” marketers who stayed in the game but it got me thinking about how much more of an impact we could make as Christians in our community if we took the time to make this kind of investment from a cultural perspective. Along side the restaurant reviews and high school sports could also be the pregnancy resource center or information on how to get involved in the local homeless shelter. Events at local schools, fairs, and maybe even churches? This is resurgence at its core folks. This is reformission.
I dream regularly of “taking back the pub.” That long forgotten meeting place of men where philosophy and theology are discussed at length over pints and grub. Of local leaders engaging in thoughtful debate and community care as well with the clergy in their respective towns. This might actually be an opportunity to make your church a respected and relevant landmark in your community. A place that’s important to people from a cultural and community perspective. Rather than being a castle for frightened Christians who hide out and manage the sins of their members, how about we become the lighthouse where everyone in our community finds direction for every area of their lives?
