I few days ago I talked about the difference between art and design and I think when we understand that concept the next step is realize that quality is the result of a solid workflow of art and design. When we are constantly stuck in the design phase, and not operating out of creative surplus, then we will almost always have to settle for ‘good enough’.
True quality comes out of creative surplus wherein we have the margin to do our best work.
The New York Times reported some key census data relating to marriage and family make up that fly in the face of how most churches do ministry in America.
Are you currently married and have kids? You probably don’t feel like it when you are hanging around church people but the fact is that you represent only 20 percent of the population of this country. This is the demographic that the local church has always targeted and done well to minister too.
But what about the rest?
Speaking from personal experience this is what I have seen:
Singles?
We make them feel like they aren’t fully a part of our community until they get married.
DINKs (Dual Income No Kids)?
The slow moving culture of Church has no place in their active lifestyles.
Divorced and Still Single?
We ostracize them from community and all too often force them into another relationship doomed to fail.
Single Parents?
We don’t invite them to be a part of our families (it takes a village).
Seniors?
We leave them to populate dying churches rather then find a way to let them belong to our community.
It’s easy to sit back and raise questions but what are the answers? What is next for the Church in this reality?
I’m reading Cognitive Surplus for the third time…I have recommended it so many times in the last month that I figured I should take my own advice again.
I’ll say this about Cognitive Surplus: If you lead an organization that creates and distributes content to be consumed and you are not ready for the cognitive surplus reality than you and your organization have a bleak future. In short; if you have a career because you control a channel of communication to a given audience your days could be numbered if you don’t figure out how to make it participatory.
“…media is like a triathlon with three difference events: people like to consume, but they also like to produce, and to share.”
Think about how that effects you at a personal level as a leader or communicator.
If you do too much of anyone of those three things without enough of the other two you will marginalize yourself.
Too much content producing and you become a broadcaster. The newspaper industry is going through this discovery right before our eyes…we are now seeing it effect churches.
Too much content consuming and you simply aren’t in the game and are useless. Think spammer.
Too much content sharing and you are an irritant to your community and they will tune you out. People want fresh ideas not regurgitated thoughts.
You cannot be creative without margin in your life. I know many people who could create the most amazing things and come up with the most incredible ideas if they only had the life margin to slow down for a minute and put some teeth on those thoughts.
Do you consider yourself a creative yet your schedule has you maxed out working 60+ hours a week? Kid’s soccer? Evenings out? Parties? Blah blah blah?
How can you be creative running from one thing to the next? I know I can’t.
When was the last time someone asked for your time…right now…and it was an easy yes?
When was the last time you had a creative idea…right now…and it was easy to take the time to give it some legs?
Creativity isn’t concerned about your schedule.
Just a thought
I thought I was all alone in my grief. Sure, bad things will no longer be done by Osama Bin Laden on this planet; but quite frankly I don’t live a world view that is so narrow as to be that focused on this life. There is more. I don’t know all the answers but recent events made me pause and take inventory of my own humanity and the fact that I DESERVE DEATH.
By ‘we’ I mean humans. Will humans stop killing humans?
Today we seem to have marked an important moment in history for certain groups of humans. It would appear that a human was killed of such importance that millions of people on both sides of the fight knew his name. I knew his name.
Thousands of people die every day. The vast majority of them I don’t know their names and their death will not change much of human history. I’m sure a good number of those are killed by other people.
The one with the name died and more than anything I was immediately reminded that people are still killing people and I can’t wrap my mind around that.
A quick read through that list and it’s pretty blaring what major need Americans have. Seven of the ten are drugs directly related too or closely tied to conditions that are a result of bad diet. Granted some of them are also prescribed to fairly healthy elderly people dealing with issues that are more hereditary.
I’m not a health expert by any means but it is important to me and what I do to have a pulse of the people I intend to effect change in.
What can the church do to make a difference in this area? Locally? Nationally?
But even more so; why hasn’t the church been doing anything up until now?
