On "Feet On The Street"

From Morguefile

Long post...

The other day I noted that Seth Godin had a couple posts last week that I wanted to comment on.  Here's the second of those.

In a post he calls Feet On The Street lists sixteen items that are the kinds of "lower level detail" that a business, even when it's "product and strategy is brilliant"*, must do to leverage success.  That even with an amazing product and a killer strategy for placing that product in the eagerly waiting (or unsuspecting - heh) public's hands, that's just not enough today.

Anyway, I thought many of the sixteen points could be applied to church-land.  We have an amazing message - life changing - life GIVING in fact - and, well, some churches actually have a strategy for connecting with people who don't know Jesus*.

So, just some thoughts on Godin's post (his original points in orange, my comments in white):
(Orange bullet points copyright Seth Godin)

Contact every user who stops using your service and find out why.  We don't do this often enough - we need to know why people leave.  NOT to try to beg them to come back necessarily, but to know if we are doing something wrong - especially if we've done something that they see as unbiblical or otherwise offensive to the Gospel.  There are as many reasons to leave as there are people who leave, but we don't do a better job of being the church by assuming we know why someone leaves without asking...  It's hard and uncomfortable sometimes, but it's absolutely necessary...  

Create a newsletter for every journalist who covers your space, and deliver it every three weeks, even when you're not asking for anything. Just to keep them in the loop.  I don't quite get this directly - that is, I don't know EXACTLY what Godin means by this point - but I will say this - communication is key.  We would head off many conflicts if we could just get more people more information.  Anything perceived as a secret in the church is destructive to the fellowship of the church.  I don't know that we have to announce every move made (twitter "I'm getting coffee now - no cream or sugar - and skipping the donut today") but more information is better than less.  Always. 

Eagerly pay attention to people who mention you online and engage with them in a way that they prefer to be engaged.  Who's on Facebook?  Twitter?  Who has a blog?  That's what *I* know about social networking and online presence.  I mean, there are specialty forums and the like, too, of course.  Where are people of the church connecting?  This next point is important: IF THAT IS SOMETHING YOU ARE INTERESTED IN AND WOULD NATURALLY BE A PART OF, then (pastor, youth leader, other church leader, church person in general) dive in and enjoy - engage and be part of the community.  Nothing is worse, though, than false interest.  Another point here - some people prefer email to phone calls, an e-bulletin to a physical bulletin (or newsletter), etc.  We should be paying attention to this stuff, too.

Sponsor industry events and actually show up.  Here's my take on this for church-land.  We ought to sponsor community events - stuff that matters for the community - "and then show up."  Make a difference.  Make an impact.  Bringing in a nationally touring Christian band can have an impact for the Gospel, but setting up a day for kids in a local trailer park might have a deeper impact for the Kingdom in the neighborhood and might touch more lives who don't already know Jesus. (BONUS - it would probably take about as many people, about as much time to plan and implement, but cost WAY less). 

Write a thank you note every single day, to someone who doesn't expect one. This is a GREAT idea.  I don't care who you are, what "business" or ministry or whatever you are in.  This is something anybody anywhere could implement and have a HUGE impact.  Church TAKE NOTE.  Maybe you don't have enough for one a day - how about one a week?  There can't be too many people who might read this who couldn't come up with 50 people a year to thank for some reason (good stuff happens, even when bad stuff happens - like  Lori's favorite cashier in this post.

Build your permission asset by 1% every day. Every day, 1% more people are eager and happy to hear from you.  This is what we ought to be doing anyway, isn't it?  And, frankly, the above mentioned thank-you note a day ought to help this a bit.  But for a church 1% a day might be a lot, depending on how we measure this - and what it means to us.  "Happy to hear from you" is different things to different people.  But we'd like to turn around some of the perception trends evidenced in the  younger  generations.

Write a blog every day, not to sell, but to teach. Godin is definitely putting his "money where his mouth is" in this case.  The church, as a whole, is way more likely to use a blog to announce - not to teach - maybe to proselytize (but probably in the "come to OUR CHURCH" not necessarily "come to faith in Christ" kind of way).  How much better to just put good, solid "this is Christian teaching" stuff out there because people need to know the truth - links on the sidebar to your church or ministry or whatever, fine.  But  point them to Jesus first.

Connect people in your industry, because you enjoy it. You know what I don't know that I've ever seen?  (and, no, I haven't done it either) - links to other churches in the neighborhood/town on a church's website.  We don't, as a rule, work very well together.  We know each other, we "like" each other (on Facebook, at least)... but we don't really connect much.  More the shame, really, because we really aren't in competition with one another... Why do we act like we are?  Isn't it just the Kingdom of God? One body, right?  When one part rejoices, we all rejoice, right?  When one church suddenly starts attracting new members, all the other churches rejoice, right?  RIGHT??  Sigh...**

Host community meetings in your store. Once upon a time, the church was the center of the community.  Why not do what we can to become the center again?  We're trying (and it's going so slowly) to put in a playground for all the community to enjoy because there isn't one in Pittsfield - and a group of people from the community put up a hoop in our parking lot for everyone to use - AND fixed our broken hoop... Community meetings, AA meetings, MAKE up reasons for the community to come to your building... We have a summer program that meets here (they rent the building for the summer) but as part of that program, they offer free lunches for school age kids.  Community center...

Put a lemonade stand in front of your business and let the local kids donate the money to whatever charity they like. Another idea I LOVE.  And churches are the perfect place for kids to do this.  NOT to add to the church's budget in any way - but some cause that kids feel deeply about.  Like  this seven year old who had a lemonade stand

Hand out free samples every chance you have. People love free stuff.  But it has to be meaningful stuff.  Free water on a hot day.  Free help for a move.  Free babysitting.  That kind of stuff can work.  But also, make sure your message is free and EASY to access and EASY to understand.  Other kinds of free samples that would be meaningful?

Keep in touch with people who used to work with you and continue to help them get great gigs and new business, even years later. Again, we HAVE to move away from the "my kingdom" and into the "God's Kingdom" mentality for this to work. We are NOT in competition with each other.  There's got to be stuff that people who used to go to our churches are well suited for that we could recommend to them - and the KINGDOM would be better for it, right?

Put together an honest buyer's guide, pointing out in which instances your competitor's products are a better choice. As I said above, I don't know of any church websites that advertise other churches on them.  I heard Craig Groeschel talk about his church offering a "free pass" or something like that in January - if Lifechurch wasn't giving people what they were looking for - if they weren't plugged in and engaged, etc (I can't remember exactly how he put it) then in January they could go to another church, no hard feelings - and they passed out brochures with other church information published in them.  It was in a video from Catalyst, I believe.  Anyway, why not advertise another church's youth ministry or adult single's ministry or...whatever? 

Run classes for your customers. Yeah, we sorta do this.  Let's do it better.  With really meaningful stuff that helps people really live this life.  Small groups and that kind of stuff.

Run classes for your competitors. I don't care what kind of church you are, your facility has SOMETHING that another church wishes it had - a pipe organ, a great sound system, a tech-savvy person, projectors, wireless microphones, a great band, a huge sanctuary, an intimate chapel, a big fellowship hall, a big yard, something...  Let 'em use it.  FREE. 

Build a recruiting pipeline that is in place more than a year before you need to hire someone. Be ready to need volunteers and staff long before you need those volunteers and staff.  Churches are TERRIBLE at this.  We're constantly scrambling to "meet the need"- often too late and somewhat poorly - rather than being prepared...  Look ahead.  Where are we going.  Get ready for it.  

Geez - all sixteen of those could be posts (don't worry, they probably won't be)***.  One of the trends in that I see (and have known for too long) is that we don't work well together.****  And there's lots of ways we can improve.  We're doing some good stuff - lots of ways we can connect with people better, though.  Meaningful ways.  Meaningful for the people around us, of course, not just "meaningful for us."

That's feet on the ground to me.
















*Can I use the E word?  Evangelism is sooooo scary for most people - heck, for most churches...  Go to the doable evangelism website for some ideas.  Good stuff there.


**Why not?  Well, I mean, I KNOW why not.  Suddenly, we are inadequate - "What's wrong with us?  Why can't WE attract 500 people on a Sunday?  Well, they're OBVIOUSLY watering down the Gospel.  CLEARLY they are doing SOMETHING unbiblical..."  ARGH!!!!!!  Angels are rejoicing that souls are coming to Christ...but I bet God is weeping because those who say they are Jesus' DISCIPLES bicker and fight and just can't get along...


***Probably.  You never know.  But I don't intend to do anything like that.  Honest...


****I'm guilty of it, too.  I don't like "Ministerium" stuff - 'cause usually it's "let's get together and do a church service" or something.  Frankly, I don't really see that as "doing ministry together" so much.  Better if we could get together and all help the local church that is building a new building...well, build their building, don't you think?  Or, even better, help some of the really desperate families in the area (and we're connecting with them through Love INC) do...well, frankly, just about anything they could ask us to do...