Comments on: Are we asking the wrong questions?

By: Daniel Hahn

Daniel Hahn — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:40:05 +0000

I agree, Tony. The problem is that not all content the church has to offer is “great content.” We are, after all, preaching a message that isn’t popular. I do feel that churches have to catchup to the online thing and social media, but we can’t forget that sometimes when we preach the truth–the kind that’s not watered down–people aren’t going to want to hear it. So then the question becomes “how are we going to get people to understand and embrace this harsh truth without them running for the hills?”

By: Adam Hood

Adam Hood — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:18:34 +0000

I find it remarkable how similar ministry is to business/marketing. I know some people will disagree. But there are many similarities between customer focused, value driven marketing and kingdom minded, Jesus focused ministry.

Don’t misconstrue my message. I’m not advocating ministry taking direction from the people, but understanding the people and communicating/interacting with them appropriately.

As far as the ‘online church’, look at the how traditional service based businesses have communicated/interacted with people online. What are the similarities between their model and the new effective church model?

Great, thought provoking post. Thanks!

By: Jason Yarborough

Jason Yarborough — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:26:43 +0000

Wonderfully said, how does this message become integrated into the churches current program? I think the church should be just as concerned about building their online community as they are their in person community. Where does it begin?

By: trey bailey

trey bailey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:40:11 +0000

Great timing..these questions have been swirling around in my head lately..and i just had conversation today with our lead pastor about this very thing..we are interested in learning more about church online and delivery methods for teaching, training, networking, small groups, etc. in the 2000s..
thanks for the post..forwarding now..

By: Jesse Phillips

Jesse Phillips — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:28:21 +0000

GREAT, GREAT QUESTIONS! Thank you for provoking thought.
I think these questions raise other questions about the motives and goals of the Church as well.

for instance, the “how can we create great content & deliver it online” – that raises the question, does the Church translate well via online content delivery format? Does delivering great content online accomplish the goals of the Church? What are those goals?

By: Marc Millan

Marc Millan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:32:50 +0000

I’m not sure if it’s a difference in generation’s or a control thing, the whole on-line thing has some churches completely in the dark. No presence, no urgency, no plan to move in THAT direction. It’s very strange, I wonder if it’s just some older leaders with strong hands haven’t let go yet to our generation and the way we are doing life these days. It’s staggering. Great content promotes itself, the means by which people seek information are always changing and we’ve got to evolve with it.

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:20:23 +0000

I can only speak for my church on this one. Having been in a lot of these program meetings over the years I can safely say that my church thinks of the second set of questions and tries to build off of them. I’m not saying we’re perfect in this way, but it is on our minds when we’re programming.

The first set of questions, although I agree shouldn’t be the primary questions, are necessary for logistical reasons. I think too often we gloss over the ‘important’ questions and skip right to the ‘logistical’ questions. Maybe this is because we think that without being able to pull it off… we shouldn’t even discuss it in the first place?

I don’t agree with this for one big reason. If we never discuss what COULD be… how will we ever get to a point where it CAN be?

Feel me?