Go Power #1: Ignore the critics
I’ve been talking about the concept of becoming a goer with a friend lately and have decided to put a few concepts in line prior to taking this to a larger audience. You, the faithful few who follow my blog will get to see it first.
So, I have had the distinct pleasure of being in church leadership for a number of years now in some way or another. One common thread you see running through the pews (or chairs, or halls, or grass, or whatever) is the “WAAAAAAAA!!!” coming from all of the people who somehow seem to know so much better how to do things than everyone else, but who aren’t actually DOing anything at all themselves. A recent post by Seth Godin, genius o’ marketing and communications applies SO well in the case of church mission as well.
You see, the church’s goals are parallel to the business world in many cases and his advice there applies quite well in ours as well. It’s all about reaching the maximum audience with the clearest message. In this missive he astutely points out that our nature as humans is to try to please everybody. If you read 100 comments about you and find two negative, you’ll go about your life trying to fix those two negatives, or getting 1,000 people to tell you those aren’t in fact negatives, or arguing with the people who wrote them, etc.
The goal instead should be to recognize the 98% who you’re actually reaching and not allowing the quite vocal minority to affect the majority. He even goes so far as to say to ignore your fans as well. Your fans will applaud you and in the same breath, they’ll create a litany of brilliant commentary on how you might do things better (aka “their way”).
So, here’s the trick: Focus on the GO’ers! You know, that 10% of folks around each week who are going… and doing. Sound familiar? YES! It’s called the Great Commission. Christ called us to GO and DO, not whine and complain, or appeal to those who do. If we want to make our mission EFFECTIVE and POWERFUL we need to be listening to the goers and doers. Track down that busy 10% if you can (they’re so busy you might have to work at it) and ask them what they would do differently, or leave alone. They’re bringing new people each week, talking to folks about Jesus at coffee shops and at work. They’re offering crying shoulders to the hurting folks who sit in their barber chair, or they’re feeding the homeless every week. They’re actually living this thing out in a real way so ask them what would THEY do? THAT is the question to be asking and they’re the ones who really need to be asked.
So, what do you do with those notes from the whining minority?
Use them to start a warm winter fire for somebody who’s cold.
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