That’s Quotable [Phil Cooke]

June 11, 2008 in That's Quotable with Comments Off

Phil Cooke, owner of Cooke Pictures, as quoted on his blog (June 9, 2009)

“I’m shocked at the number of people that just keep doing the same thing year after year as if the direction of the ministry, audience numbers, response, income – whatever, will magically change. But getting from point A to point B doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through a well thought out plan.

“And by the way – when it comes to churches – changing graphics, cool music, lighting effects, or dumping the choir robes isn’t a strategy. That’s just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You need a fundamental re-think of what story your church or ministry is trying to tell, what that means to your audience, how to connect with that audience, and why it’s absolutely urgent they respond right now.”

No Responses to “That’s Quotable [Phil Cooke]”

  1. Read Scott June 11, 2008 at 10:49 pm #

    Strong. Thanks for the excerpt.

  2. cynthia June 11, 2008 at 11:29 pm #

    Love the message, but always wished he hadn’t used the Titanic for the analogy.

  3. phill longmire June 12, 2008 at 1:09 am #

    for years we have been placing shiny bolts into an old machine

  4. Chuck June 12, 2008 at 8:33 am #

    Hindsight is 20/20, so it’s easy to make such statements when “Phil of the Future” is blogging from 2009!

    But he’s right of course… problem is, shifting a congregation into a meaningfully altered course is hard, it’s risky (yeah, you might lose your job), it takes a long time, and you will likely have failures before you have successes. It’s so important to set your congregation’s DNA early in life to smooth the way for the changes that will become necessary later in life to remain/become effective.

  5. Peter June 12, 2008 at 4:34 pm #

    You’re hitting us pretty hard lately, Tony. Another great thought shared. Now to actually apply it….