Tag: Jesus

What New People Visiting Your Church Need This Sunday

I got a nice hand written (remember that?) letter from Richard Reisling today thanking me for putting his great stuff on my blog based on my thoughts about the notes I took from his visit. Well it’s my pleasure – and I’m not done yet! Here goes… What new people need: I NEED DIRECTION. They need someone to have thought about where they go, explain what’s happening with their kids etc. I was walking through Terminal 4 of Heathrow Airport recently and thought, ‘None of this just happened!’ It took SOMEBODY to think how all these people with all these needs, routes, cases, schedules… get around the place. We’re talking about things like signs here. (I just made up a Christian joke about not having signs that make people wonder, but you have to be a charismatic to get that one). TREAT ME AS NORMAL. Like when someone comes to your house. You know how to be hospitable already. Remove the following phrase, ‘Are you new?’ There’s no way to say it without offending someone. Ask instead, ‘How long have you […]

The Cross That Sets Us Free

Colossians 2:13,14 “…you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. I took this photo on my iPhone the other day, just passing the Albert Pub in Didsbury and noticed how they’d put up a warning sign to deter parkers, on a cross. Ever been clamped? I got my car clamped once – and I could tell the guys who did it just loved their job! Grrr… it was so frustrating to be stuck like that, subject to punishment. Not able to go where I wanted. Captive! I didn’t have the money to pay them and contested it vigorously because (unlike this one) the sign wasn’t clear or even visible from where I parked. Finally, a friend agreed to pay half and then I paid the vultures who held my car, and was free! I was so struck by how this pub has put their […]

God looks at the inside. Visitors don’t!

Continuing the Richard Reising insights… Marketing is biblical. At various times it says, ‘Jesus perceived their thoughts / reasoning in their hearts – and said….’ What was he doing? Managing their thoughts. Reshaping them where neccessary. We have to have a finger on the pulse of what people think about us. We have to be aware – and adjust. (that’s not ‘people pleasing’). A great example occurred at Pentecost. Acts 2 – in the midst of crazy charismania, when people were thinking, ‘What on earth is this?” Peter stood up to manage their perceptions; ‘We’re not drunk as you perceive, this is what the Bible says, let me explain…’ Peter was sensitive enough to know, ‘I have to manage this perception.’ Result? Thousands were won to Christ that day! In fact, God is the ultimate marketer. If you’re a Christian, it’s because He did whatever it took to reach YOU. He knew exactly what to do. Everything the church does ‘markets’ for good or ill.   Someone will quote 1 Sam 15:7 where it says, ‘God looks at our heart.’ Well […]

The Management of Perception

Richard Reising visited Ivy today, and gave some great input which I’m going to be pretty much directly quoting from my notes on and putting out as a series of posts on CHURCH MARKETING… I know, I know… Marketing is a dirty word in church circles but marketing principles are not contrary to scripture – they pretty much come out of it! Marketing is NOT what you think it is. It’s not telemarketing people ringing and bothering you etc. It’s the management of perception. That’s pretty simple. It’s not the manipulation of perception! Management = to know were we are today, where we need to be and make the neccessary adjustments How is the church today perceived? How do we want it to be perceived? What do we have to do to bring about the change.  If you ask people what the church is for, you’ll probably get an answer you don’t agree with. Your church has a perception. OR (worse) nobody knows about you! Everything you do that forms a perception of who you are – it’s marketing. Whether […]

Beware. This may not build your self esteem.

‘Jars of Clay.’ Whole talks I’ve heard about this passage and blogs I read around it talk about being ‘cracked pots.’ There’s a problem with that. It’s not in the text. It doesn’t say anything about the pots being cracked. I wonder whether we want to add that in because we want to make it about US again. The point is not about your cracks. Don’t make it about that. The point is, the container is NOT the point. It’s what’s inside that matters.