At the 2010 Internet Ministry Conference (Grand Rapids, MI), I spoke on creating a tailored Internet strategy with language and relationships. Here is the outline of my talk:

A SHORT STORY

This is a story about two brothers - identical twins, Abe and Eli. Like most twins, Abe and Eli were more than brothers. They were best friends. They did everything together. They went fishing. They threw rocks. They watched the same movies, listened to the same music, and dated the same girls… er, I should say fought over the same girls. But they made it threw that messy conflict. In college, they shared the same friends with whom they also shared a same rent house. Life was good. But then things changed… Abe and Eli graduated. They got jobs. And as their careers demanded, they moved away to separate towns.

Five years passed without Abe and Eli seeing each other face to face. Five years passed quickly. But then one day Eli receives a phone call. His stomach sinks and his Adam’s apple knots into the back of his throat. Abe had been in a serious car accident. It does not look good. Abe is in a coma. So Eli books the first flight to Boston and makes his way to Abe’s bedside. It is difficult to see, but Eli believes that Abe will make it through this.

So Eli determines to take care of Abe’s house until he is better. After all, he knows Abe better than anyone else. So Eli hops in his rental car and drives across town to Abe’s house. Eli doesn’t have a key, but he does have a hunch that Abe still hides a key box around the back of the house just like they had at their college rent house. Sure enough, he is right.

Eli laughs as he entered the house. Everything is just like Abe - the same quirks and details he had always had. “This is going to be easy,” he thinks, “I know Abe.” But what Eli doesn’t know is… “Woof, WOOF, Woof!” A beast lunges at Eli as he opens a door. It is Zeke, Abe’s 3-year-old German Shepherd. Eli had never met Zeke, but he is confident he can handle some dog.

But Zeke is not just “some dog.” Zeke does not respond to any commands. Eli takes Zeke outside. A rabbit is spotted and zoooommm! There is no response to whistles, clapping, or “Come here, boy!” It is a long chase through the suburbs. The drama continues and continues with each day Eli spends with Zeke. One night Eli gives Zeke table scraps to win him over, but instead Eli finds himself rushing a wheezing dog with allergies to an emergency vet.

The good news is after seven days, Abe came out of the coma. With tears in their eyes, Abe and Eli celebrate the come back. Eli jokes, “I am glad you are well. Perhaps now you can take that dog of yours to obedience school.” Abe pauses with a puzzled look then laughs. “Ha! No need for that. Zeke has already been to obedience school. In fact, he was best in class. The problem is you don’t speak Zeke’s language. He has been trained to respond only to specific commands in German.”

This is a lesson about language and relationship. Eli’s relationship with Abe gave him intimate understanding about how Abe would want his house maintained. But Zeke was not Abe. Just because Eli had a good relationship with Abe doesn’t mean that he has a relationship with Zeke, which would have helped him avoid the allergy fiasco. And just because Eli knew how to handle some dogs doesn’t mean that he knows how to speak Zeke’s language.

LANGUAGE & RELATIONSHIP

Outside of prayer and obedience to the Holy Spirit and God’s Word, language and relationship are some of the most important keys to successful ministry strategy.

Language is cultural relevance. Relationship is emotional relevance.

When you speak someone’s language, it increases the potential of you forming a meaningful relationship with that person (language creates intimacy through understanding). But at the same time, the better your relationship is with someone, the easier it is to speak their language (relationship creates understanding through intimacy).

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

I believe that much of the good that is done for the Kingdom is done through relationships. Relationships are timeless and enduring. Relationships are driven by love, God’s love, which selflessly and sacrificially heals the hurts of others. There will always be hurting people, lonely people, the neglected, the abused, and the rejected. People crave good relationships.

Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.
- Colossians 4:5-6

SPEAKING A TAILORED LANGUAGE

Language defines how you do ministry. It is what connects who you are with who you are called to reach. It is more than words. It is the details of how you communicate through every touchpoint. The tricky part is language is rooted in culture, and culture is always changing.

I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.
- 1 Corinthians 9:22

Language is cultural relevance. And it is important to clarify that cultural relevance is not gimmicks and novelty and entertainment. True cultural relevance is understanding people well enough to speak their language and interact with them in a way that better engages them.

If you want to tailor your language, you must:

1. Know Thyself (and how you are evolving)
   If you do not know who you are, you will be misguided. You will lack purpose. You will lack vision. And the Bible is plainly clear that without vision, the people will perish. The corporate world calls this branding. In ministry, we call it our calling.
2. Know Your Audience (and how they are evolving)
   People want to hear a message that is focused on them. A message tailored specifically to you is more effective than one designed for the entire nation.
3. Identify the Communication Channels (and how they are evolving)
   Once you know who you are and understand who you are called to reach, then you can best determine what is communication channels you should choose and how to use them. There are hundreds of communication channels, but not every one is right for you.

USING COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

Every touchpoint you have with someone online or offline communicates something - be it good or bad. There are tens of thousands of ways to communicate, so I am not going to cover many of them.

Instead, I encourage you to focus on building real relationships and speaking a language that is authentic to your calling and relevant to people’s culture. The more you do that the easier it is to naturally understand what works within your unique context.

I will, however, lightly cover four areas among many that should be considered when tailoring your ministry strategy.

• Design
  Your design is your credibility. You can’t stop people from making assumptions, but you can create an image that produces the right assumptions. Good design temporarily supplements relationships by creating a perception of your ministry before you have a chance to build a real relationship. Good design helps people overlook faults within your approach.
• Social Media
  Do not do social media for social media’s sake. Merely having a Facebook page or a Twitter account does not help you. In fact, using social media the wrong way will hurt how people perceive you. You must add value.
• Search Engine Optimization
  Focus on people’s needs and not the obvious. If you are Grace Church from Chicago, IL, don’t optimize yourself for “Grace Church” and “Chicago church.” The people who need you the most will not be searching with those terms. Instead optimize yourself for “Chicago divorce help,” “contemplating suicide,” and “Chicago addictions.” With these search engine optimized terms, you can help hurting people in the moments of need with valuable instant online content and ways to receive ongoing support.
• Community
  Online community can be a tricky thing. People often do not use the tools you’ve created in the way that you have intended. Online community must constantly be evaluated and tweaked. You can force people to interact the way that you want, but you can give subtle nudges with the language you use and the online environment to steer community interaction.

REALITY CHECK

The better relationship you have with someone, the easier it is to put yourself in their shoes and answer, “Why should anyone care?” Why should someone care about the postcard you sent them? Why should anyone care about your ministry?

What are you going to do that will cause people to actually care?

During Catalyst Conference, Daniel Pink, author of Drive, discussed motivation.

Human beings respond very well to rewards and punishment within our environment. But we also do things for other reasons like purpose, faith, etc.

However, too often we stop at motivating people by only using rewards and punishment. The problem with this approach is it is wrong. It is simply not scientifically true. There have been hundreds of studies verifying this, but we will focus on two:

STUDY #1

A Duke University study separated people into three groups with varying levels of cognitive difficulty and assigned small, medium, and large financial rewards. What was discovered was:

As long as the task only required mechanical skills, financial bonuses were directly related to performance. A larger reward led to better performance.

But with higher cognitive skills, the larger the financial reward, the worse the performance.

STUDY #2

In another study, commissioned artwork was found to be rated less creative than noncommissioned work, yet they were not rated as different in technical quality.

SO HOW DO WE APPLY THIS?

Fact: money is a motivator.

You must pay people enough. Once you pay people enough, than additional units of money have very little effect on additional levels of satisfaction or performance. The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.

Once people are paid enough, three factors motivate them:

1. Autonomy
   Autonomy is our desire to control our own destiny. Management is a technology from the 1850s for organizing people that is designed to get compliance. But we don’t want compliance. We want engagement. And the only way we get engaged is if we get there under our own steam. Let people control when they do something, what they do, and who they do it with in order to get the desired results. Carve ut time for noncommissioned work.
2. Mastery
   Mastery is our desire to get better at stuff. The single most motivating thing at work is making progress. We have to start doing our own performance reviews.
3. Purpose
   People want to do things that matter.

So ask yourself, “Am I improving?”

Shane Hipps, author of Flickering Pixels, discussed the ever-changing gospel that never changes during Catalyst Conference’s third session. Shane is an ex-adman turned Mennonite pastor. Here is what he said:

Christianity is fundamentally a communication event. God uses many media channels.

We have a little assumption that we all hold very dear… the methods change but the message stays the same. This assumption means that we have to change our methods while protecting the message. But this assumption assumes that each medium is neutral and doesn’t affect the message.

But the advertising industry teaches you the opposite. The media is the message. This means that how you say something determines the message more than what you say.

For example, there is a huge difference between printed words and images. Printed words are processed in the left hemisphere of the brain in a logical way. Images are processed in the right hand of the brain are processed in the emotional right hemisphere of the brain. Images and words are not interchangeable. They are fundamentally different ways of doing things.

In Mark 2:22, Jesus says no one pours new wine into old wine skins. The unchanging message of the gospel then actually changes with each medium. Reality is the ever-changing gospel never changes.

To explain how something can always change but never change is like this… a man always stays a man but he constantly changes from a baby to an old man throughout his life. A mustard tree will always be a mustard tree but simultaneously always be growing and changing.

You don’t have to be afraid of breaking the gospel. The gospel has no room for fear. All you have to do is love.

As each tree grows higher and higher, its roots grow deeper and deeper. The Bible has untouched diamonds buried in it that need roots to grow deeper in order to discover them. But in order to do that we must become gardeners of the gospel rather than fearful guards.

For the fourth lab of Catalyst, Shane Hipps, author of Flickering Pixels, discussed how technology shapes us in unexpected ways. Shane is an ex-adman turned Mennonite pastor. Here is what he said:

When I was in advertising and worked for Porsche, I had a sense that I was creating a counterfeit gospel. I left advertising because I did not agree with how it manipulated people’s lives. While in advertising, I learned about what influences consumer subcultures.

The implications of how technologies shape you are vast and deep.

ORAL CULTURE (<1500)
<tribes / empathy / intimate>

In order to understand community, we must go back in time to the age of oral culture. This means that you must rely on the people around you. You share stories with each other… repetitive, conservative stories. People in an oral culture tend to be very tribal and communal and empathetic.  They are intimate in their living conditions. And their acts of violence are passionate.

The technology of writing changes this.

LITERATE CULTURE (1500-1850)
<individuals / separate>

Writing separates you from the tribe. Reading and writing as a technology demands isolation. In order to read, you can’t interact with others well while reading. Literacy brings the rise of individualism. It makes relationships distant. It has the ability to be anonymous. You no longer have to know the communicator in order to know his thoughts.

ELECTRONIC AGE (1850<)
<tribes of individuals / empathy at a distance / intimate anonymity>

The phonograph, the telegraph, and the radio revolutionized communication. Marshall McLuhan says, “The electronic age has given man an ear for an eye.” The separation experienced from literate culture is less destructive than what happens when oral cultures are fused through electronic media. It is a tangle of complex emotions. For example, while cell phones connect you with people digitally, they also separates you physically from the people closest to you. There are pros and cons.

Empathy at a distance is what happens when you sit down for dinner in front of the TV and you are emotionally engaged by the trauma on the news without being able to help. There may be an initial response, such as giving support to relief organizations. However, the human being was not designed to withstand human suffering all day every day. In order to survive, you grow numb, which leads to apathy not action.

Technology allows you to share intimate details with the masse. However, the way you preserve intimacy is by exclusive boundaries. The moment that curtain parts and everyone else is invited in there is no more intimacy.

Tech based communication lowers our inhibitions digitally the same way alcohol lowers inhibitions in person. For example, teens use social networks to do the following:

• 92% keep in touch with friends (which is normal behavior)
• 60% play a trick on someone
• 44% ask someone out
• 42% write something you wouldn’t say in person
• 24% break up with someone

So what does all this mean?

The more aware you become of these dynamics, the better it is for you as a leader. The trick is to understand the paradox. And if you understand the paradox then you can be discerning. You can become more intentional about your relationships.

Technology is like food. Ice cream has a proper place in one’s diet, but if you only eat ice cream then you are in trouble. If you only consume tech communication, it is not healthy.

If you doubt that these online mediated relationships are less than in-person relationships, they are. They are thinner.

Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss the future of church websites over a video conference with Cleve Persinger and the team at The Chapel (Libertyville, IL). I spent some time sharing my thoughts on effective SEO church marketing, and Cleve was kind enough to archive the talk for your enjoyment.
[pardon the rocky audio]

To sum it up, optimize your church website content by using the keywords that are most often searched by the people your are called to reach. You can research these keywords with Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

For Discussion:
- What is your church marketing SEO strategy?

One of the most intriguing and challenging books for me in recent years is Shane Hipps’ Flickering Pixels. It takes a fascinating look at how media affect content and faith. It is a bit of a big concept, so I will use some of Shane’s words to give you a glimpse of what is all about.

It is commonly assumed that as long as we protect the unchanging message of the gospel, the method of communicating doesn’t much matter.

The logic is pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it true.

If the first truth is that our methods necessarily change, the second truth is whenever our methods change, the message automatically changes along with them. You can’t change methods without changing your methods - they’re inseparable.

Throughout the book, Shane discusses the complexities of how the medium affects the content and the audience. For example, Shane writes:

Images focus our attention on the realm of cosmetics. Often, it is for the sake of showcasing beauty and talent.

The radio returned our culture to the experience of the tribal campfire with its shared stories, songs, and banter.

The Internet has a natural bias towards exhibitionism and thus the erosion of real intimacy.

Printing put the left hemisphere of the brain on steroids.

If you communicate with people through any medium, you need to understand the pros and cons of that medium and how it influences your communication. You are just as much responsible for the medium you choose as you are for the words you use (or whatever content you communicate).

Here is the review of the most interesting links of 2009’s 5th week (my picks).

DESIGN

• 22 Most Used Free Fonts By Professional Designers [iShift]
• 50 Must-Have Photoshop Brushes [Smashing Magazine]

MARKETING

• 5 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter [Copyblogger]
  (1) Call to action. (2) Timing. (3) Links. (4) Social Proof. (5) Value.
• The Do’s and Don’ts for Expanding Into the Hispanic Market [Chief Marketer]
• Top Tactics for 2009 [eMarketer]

RESEARCH

• 2009 Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report: 276% Growth in 35-54 Year Old Users [iStrategyLabs]
• Boys With Unpopular Names More Likely to Break Law [LiveScience]
  Boys in the United States with common names like Michael and David are less likely to commit crimes than those named Ernest or Ivan.
• Income Distribution Within U.S. Religious Groups [The Pew Forum]
• Infants Draw On Past To Interpret Present, Understand Other People’s Behavior [ScienceDaily]
  University of Washington psychologists have learned that 10-month-old infants use their prior exposure and understanding of familiar actions by a person to unravel novel actions. However, this ability is limited by the location in which the new action is performed.
• Remember That Time? New Study Demystifies Consumer Memory [ScienceDaily]
  Our findings suggest that marketers may engineer experiences to maximize customer enjoyment by improving the most memorable events. For long-term customer enjoyment, marketers should attempt to make consumers’ initial experiences with a service or product very positive.
  
• Repeat abortions among teenage girls have risen by 70% [Daily Mail]
  In 2007, 5,897 girls under 20 had their second, third or even fourth termination. Sixteen years earlier, in 1991, the figure stood at just 2,934, the journal Contraception reported. Abortions in the UK have reached record levels.
• Teens and Cell Phone Use [Harris Interactive]
  40% say they would die without their phone. 42% say they are able to text blindfolded!
• Video games linked to poor relationships [TechRadar.com]
  Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah talked to 813 university students across the US and found that as the amount of time the students spent playing video games went up, the quality of their relationships with friends and family suffered. The more people play videogames, the more frequent their involvement in ‘risky’ behaviours such as drinking and drug abuse.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
Jan. 28th - How to be a Better Listener in 3 Easy Steps
Jan. 29th - 7 Church Leadership Mistakes to Avoid

THE REVIEW OF 2007
Jan. 26th - Women Prefer Direct Mail More Than Email
Jan. 30th - 4 Things Young Adults Want in a Church
Jan. 31st - 4 Qualities of Successful, Growing Churches

At Innovation3, Stacy Spencer of New Directions Christian Church (Memphis, TN) discussed how to have a radically different church.

Radical differentiation is about finding a whole new market space. Your ministry brand is not who you say you are, it’s who they say you are.

How to Protect Your Brand

1. When you start growing… the more cream you add to the coffee, the weaker it gets. As your church grows, do not forget why you are called.
2. Protect against misalignment. Your vision is not in align with your values. You promise more in the showroom than you have in the stockroom.

Churches that zag can fill in the blank - “My church is the only church that _______.”

If you do what you are supposed to do, you will be blessed. When you get comfortable with who called has called you to be, you will be blessed.

The brand must be consistent with who you say you are. Whatever it is that called has called you to be, do it better than anyone else.