As churches (and teachers), our intuition tells us we need new content in order to keep people engaged and help them take their next steps. I’m becoming more and more convinced, however, that we are just confusing people with every message we add. Rather than generating new content, we need to be focused on delivering the critical messages across multiple platforms.
That’s why, as an example, you may have heard me address the same topic on Twitter, on my blog, in eBooks, in traditional books, and from the platform at a conference. My friend, Ben Stroup, says it this way:
“The temptation for organizations is to just keep creating more and more messages while sending them across the most efficient and established models for the organization. The lie that organizations buy into is that they constantly need to have something new in order to break through the clutter and reach their target audience.” (See the full article.)
The problem, of course, is that we think we’re repeating ourselves. We get bored with the same message. We assume everyone has already heard it.
The important messages need to be repeated often. They need to be shared in multiple formats. In order to do that, we need fewer messages. And we need systems to support the messages we are sharing so that people know how to take their next steps.
Remember, your message has the potential to shift thinking. Your systems have the potential to shift behaviors.
(I’m guessing you’ve probably heard me say that before.)
