As I have said before I am a big fan of the church marketing sucks website. They frequently have fascinating articles about how different churches have tried to market themselves in new an interesting ways.

At the chapel we have been considering a number of different ways of marketing ourselves to the unchurched (prechristian?) in a ways that are provocative and original. The intention being that we want them to talk about Jesus and his church and maybe get their curiousity up so they consider a visit.

My natural tendency is to be a little cheeky and maybe even a touch offensive so as to provoke a response. Thankfully I have people around me who I trust and who are significantly wiser than me. Here is how cheeky church marketing can go wrong.

Very interesting indeed.

I decided, after reading a blog post on ChurchMarketingSucks.com (It’s actually not a bad site) about making sure we tell true stories about God in order to get our point across — we don’t have to make them up or fabricate them.  While I totally agree with the point of the article, I couldn’t help notice the two negative examples they used were used for a “Put Religion Back in School” campaign.  After some thought, I began typing…  Here’s my response.  I’d love to know what you think.

I wonder if we should be putting “religion” back in schools. I personally do not believe Christianity is a religion, as it is more of a lifestyle change…a relationship in fact.  Many people believe that we should put Christ back into the school system. Honestly, when did He leave?  I believe my Lord has been there all along.  Maybe He has not been as active as we would have liked at times, but He is there.  He is there when a group of students pray around the flagpole before school.  He is there when a child reaches out to another who is always made fun of.  He is there when a science teacher decides to not teach about evolution as a fact, but instead one of the many theories.  He is there when students decide to perform a Christian song in their talent show.  He is there when a student prays before his/her test, hoping he/she will do well.  He is there when another student prays for a friend, and then finds one in sometimes unexpected places.  Are you really willing to say that God and Christ are not in our schools?  I beg to differ.  I think what many people want is it to be taught again.  Truthfully, I’m not sure I want a non-Christian teaching my child about the Bible or God.  There is no possible way that schools will start hiring only Christians, as that is discrimination.  So, instead of allowing so-called “religion” back into schools, I say that we need to embrace the fact that God NEVER left the schools…  We just chose to start ignoring Him.

Church building programs and related fund raising drives always make me nervous. Honestly I am not sure if this is the rabid legalist within me or the ridiculous idealist but the idea of a church asking for money from its members/local authority/trusts/general public makes me twitchy. Whether it is one of those repair the roof campaigns or simply a desire to have a building because the PA is pain to unpack every single week, whatever. I get weird.

Anyways Church Marketing Sucks (brilliant blog) highlighted this example of a church in Atlanta that is trying to raise $5 million to build a bridge to solve some car parking issues. That’s right people, car parking.

Watch the video on their “let’s build a bridge website”

I get grumpy that I have to carry 20 chairs up two flights of stairs in a Bar every Sunday evening. Good grief.

As far as the book industry is concerned, Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren is the number-one, all-time, best-selling, non-fiction hardcover book in history.   Period.   So you can see why everyone is excited about this November release, The Hope You Need (Zondervan).

Well, not everyone.   Certainly not at the blog, Church Marketing Sucks — yes that’s the name of it and don’t laugh, it was recently rated the 11th most popular Christian blog.

Their point of view, as outlined in this post, concerns Rick Warren’s decision to open the book jacket design up to a $5,000 competition, what graphic designers refer to as “spec work.”

Unfortunately, it’s not such a sweet deal. For the hundreds of designers who spent hours of time on your project, it’s a total loss. These kinds of projects communicate that their work is of little value.

As a double whammy, it’s not a very sweet deal for you, Rick. The quality of work you get is going to be sub-par … because the designers didn’t have the benefit of a working relationship with you the client where they could be privy to all the ideas, expectations, insights and everything else that goes into making a creative project work. In a nutshell: You’re not getting the best work because you’re not valuing the worker.

While the mechanics of getting a book to press don’t often register with booksellers, you really should read the whole article, and if for some reason you can’t then you really MUST have a look at the 1200 contest entries.*  You have to wonder why, given the success of its predecessor, a book that is this important is being put through this bizarre tendering process.

You’ll never look at a book cover the same again.

*That’s about 1,200 as of 1:00 PM EST today.   When first drafted, this article was called, “Don’t Judge a Book By Its 140 Covers.”   A lot changed overnight!

**SEPTEMBER 20, UPDATE:  As of the close of the contest they received over 2,900 entries.   They’ll stay posted online until at least October 2nd, by which time Warren and Zondervan will have to make a decision; unless the ‘winner’ is simply paid off and the cover was already determined.   Sorry for being cynical.

Participation in social media is quickly becoming a necessity as millions and millions of people every day tap into it. Sadly, though, many pastors still don’t see a need to invest at least a little time in social media. In an interesting post on this very subject, Pr. Paul McCain writes,

I have some friends who take great pride in being Luddites when it comes to social media. I always cringe when I hear people gassing on about how blissfully unaware and uninvolved they are in using Twitter or Facebook. Well, sorry folks, but it is a bad attitude, and doubly so, particularly among church workers. Why? The Church must be where people are gathering to talk. St. Paul searched out people gathering at the river for prayer perhaps one of the oldest forms of “social networking.” (Acts 16:13) We need to be aware of where people are talking and what they are saying. Whether we like it or not, or whether or not we yet fully understand the transformation that is taking place in global communication technologies, the fact  is that social media and social networking is becoming the communication tools of choice for vast numbers of people. Do you have teenagers in the home? Know any? Ask them what the use most to communicate. E-mail? Nah. That’s old school. It is all about texting and about Facebook. Older folks? Facebook fanatics, much to our kids chagrin…

A recent post from Church Marketing Sucks came across my newsreader this morning and the statistics are hard to deny. Here are a few…

• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The Internet took four years to reach 50 million people… In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.
• Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.
• More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day. Combined, more than 5 billion minutes are spent on the site on a daily basis
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.

Still don’t think social media matters?

From personal experience, I can verify some of these statistics at least on a local level. Most of our registrations for Vacation Bible School, Christmas for Kids, etc. are done online rather than by phone or mail. Just recently, for the first time, I actually had people tell me they would prefer receiving weekly E-Updates by e-mail or by Facebook than the snail mailings we send out each month. A growing number of members have also indicated similar preferences. For me personally, besides this blog, I’ve also taken an active role not only in our congregation’s website (which, God-willing, will soon be revamped!), but also in the creation of our congregation’s Facebook page, which has actually helped us to reach some interested people we would otherwise not reach with regularly updated announcements and invitations. I haven’t dipped my toe into the Twitter waters yet, but it’s very possible that time may come too.

Now, of course, nothing can replace the one-on-one personal interaction between a shepherd and his people, which is all the more necessary as people get more wired and don’t take as much time to build real relationships with others as they once did. It’s also important that the faithful shepherd doesn’t get too wired himself, but at the same time, the truth is, social media is here to stay and shepherds of God’s flock need to know how to communicate with the people of their congregation and community in this wired age. God-willing,  the proper balance between social media and personal social interaction can be struck as we minister to God’s people.

Brad Abare has a post at Church Marketing Sucks about a church who reminded people of how they should play nice with their community. I found it….refreshing. Read it here. I also posted below:

I saw this over the weekend from a church in Eagle Rock, Calif., about eight miles outside of downtown Los Angeles. Christian Assembly has been in Eagle Rock for decades and although the size of the church community has grown substantially, they refuse to move or expand their current “campus” (if that’s what you call a cluster of rag-tag houses, mobile dwellings and offices crammed into a corner lot, steps away from a busy street). The sanctuary looks the same today as it probably did 30 years ago, including the carpet and pews. Love it.

In their weekly bulletin, which includes announcements, a ministry spotlight, sermon notes, a financial summary and core values, there was a section titled “How we play nice at [Christian Assembly].”

How we play nice at Christian Assembly
• 1. We park at the mall because we don’t want to upset our neighbors by blocking driveways or crowding streets.
• 2. We are a big family so we wear name tags.
• 3. We give up any saved seats at the greeting time because admit it, they aren’t coming.
• 4. We reserve the last two rows of the section in front of the upper room for parents accompanied by small children… they might need a quick exit.
• 5. In our church family everybody serves in some way.

I’m drawn to this simple approach to remind people about how to behave. It may be a little juvenile to some, but I think it has an appropriate dose of pant-kicking persuasion.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but I’ve made a couple new additions to the blogroll and have a number of links that have been tucked away in the Study for a while that I’ve wanted to share. So enjoy!

New Addition:

- Lutheran Writer: This blog was started by Pr. Edward Engelbrecht at Concordia Publishing House to feature and encourage Lutheran writers. The site describes itself as “Edward A. Engelbrecht and guests share their insights on the Bible, life, theology, history, and whatever else may interest Lutheran writers. Edward welcomes both published and unpublished writers who want others to learn about their talents and interests. The texts are unedited; the site is for learning and experimenting.” The posts are generally pretty brief, but there’s some interesting insights especially since Engelbrecht has been serving as the General Editor of The Lutheran Study Bible.

Interesting Articles from the Files:

- Parenting Posts – Having served youth for much of his ministry, Michael Spencer over at Internet Monk offers some thoughts worth chewing on in the area of parenting in his articles Thoughts and Question for Parents on Father’s Day (6/20/09) and Seven Observations for Parents (12/2/08). So what do you think?

- I Trust When Dark My Road: A Lutheran View of Depression (6/19/09) – Pr. William Cwirla writes a review of a new booklet available for FREE by Pr. Todd Peperkorn who “charts his journey in first person through the ‘dark road’ of depression.” You can download it or order a hard copy for free here. You can visit Pr. Peperkorn’s blog of his journey here.

- Faith and Doubt – Pr. Cwirla responds to the “de-conversion” of the author of BeAttitude from the Christian faith.

- Think You Don’t Like Ceremony? Think Again! (5/20/09) – Pr. Johnold Strey writes a thought-provoking article about the role of ceremony in worship and its detractors (while those same detractors have no problem going through the “ceremony” of a college or professional football game.)

- Church Copycats (5/13/09) – Joshua Cody at Church Marketing Sucks writes about how many in the Christian church try to “redeem our culture”. Martin Springs at WELSTech writes a similar post entitled Digital Life Is Messy (11/26/08).

- Humor in Preaching Posts – Rev. Rick Stuckwisch & Pr. Cwirla offer some interesting posts on the role of humor in preaching – Preaching Is Not an After Dinner Routine (4/22/09) and Humor in Preaching (4/23/09). The latest edition of Preach the Word from the WELS Commission on Worship also focused on The Use of Humor in the Pulpit. So what do you think?

- Preserving Lutheranism Is Not the Point – (4/3/09) – Rev. Stuckwisch briefly reminds us of the point of Lutheranism–not to preserve itself, but to preserve and proclaim the pure teaching of the Gospel.

- Reducing the Data (3/27/09) – Pr. Strey writes about the need for the Church to remain on guard lest we fall into false teaching by “reducting the data” of Scripture on any point of doctrine.

- It’s About Substance (11/19/08) – Pr. Strey stresses the importance of solid doctrine not only in our preaching and teaching, but in the songs we sing in worship.

- Thinking about Churches (11/12/08) – Though this is geared towards church marketing, it really makes you ponder that question, “How much does the average person actually think about church?”

- Reading in the Gaps (8/19/08) – Some interesting insights into narrative preaching by Pr. Cwirla.

One of my favorite websites is ChurchMarketingSucks.  Their mission is “…to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ.”  Good stuff.

As an United Methodist, we have launched a new marketing campaign called “Rethink Church.” Much has been written about it.  I like it in theory but, ultimately, I think the theme is a problematic. I don’t see that many UMCs that are truly rethinking church at a time when church definitely needs to be rethought.

But that’s not the point of this post.

I am the layleader of Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, a small church with a big old church building in downtown Indianapolis.  Its an all volunteer church; we got great musicans but they don’t get paid; we get great pastoral support from a UMC pastor  but he doesn’t get paid, etc.  A lot of what we do now happens through our community collaborative Earth House Collective.

We have  a long way to go but we have captured the imagination of our community a bit.  Despite qualifying as a “nano-church,” we were voted by the readers of  Nuvo Newsweekly, the alternative free weekly newspaper here in central Indiana, as the best house of worship.   I talked to one of their advertising sales people and he said it wasn’t even that close.  We won in a landslide.

We had a debate at our church gathering on Tuesday night.  How do we celebrate this victory?  Or is  it even a victory?

I wanted to put a sign out front that says:

Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church

Worship 6:00 PM Sundays

Voted Best House of Worship by the readers of Nuvo

And then run some ads in Nuvo thanking their readers for their support and thanking NUVO for their support.  They have been very generous in covering the going-ons of our community and our partner Earth House.

When I proposed this I got a bit of a cold stare from a few of our church leaders.  They had a good point.  Church Marketing sucks.  And evangelism mostly sucks too.

I thin the point of contention can be summed up on this blog post by  UMC pastor Taylor Burton Edwards on EmergingUMC:

Probably many of us in the emerging missional movement have given up on institutions doing anything helpful toward real transformation, personal or social. Representational evangelism is thus something we’re more likely to critique than to do, much less endorse. And as for the marketing and seeker service models of passive evangelism, I think most of us have ruled that out on principle long ago. “Attractional is not missional” might be the way we put it.

Burton-Edwards goes on to talk about the oft qouted St. Francis “Preach the Gospel, use words if neccessary.” He warns that “The cultural supports remaining that could interpret actions without words as any sort of proclamation of the good news of God’s reign are in a jumbled shambles at best.”

He concludes,

Evangelism requires of us, at the very least it requires both lives that correspond to the way of Jesus AND a way of telling others, for whom few if any coherent cultural supports exist, why we live as we live and inviting them, personally, to follow Jesus with us.

He is absolutely right.  We have to to find a way of telling others about why we seek to walk in the way of Jesus and why it might make sense to join up and become part of this community.

Thank you for listening.

1. Ed Stetzer on Americans doing it their way. Recently, George Barna came out with some new research on how Americans are connecting to God and there is a surge of creating your own way. This is Ed’s thoughts and how the church should respond.
2. Perry Noble on Two facts about spiritual warfare part 1, part 2. These are so true and a great look at what a pastor and their family go through.
3. Church Marketing Sucks on Pick One. Your church can’t be all things, it can be one thing. You have to pick. Even though you think you shouldn’t, your church has already chosen, now, you need to find out what you’ve chosen and become better at that.
4. Scot McKnight interviews Ruth Haley Barton on The Pastor & Spirituality. Barton’s book Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership is a must read for any leader. Too often pastors forget the spiritual side of what they do, this is a great reminder of why your soul is so important.
5. Dan Reiland on Top 10 hiring lessons. It is easy to forget these when you are excited about filling a spot, but so important to hire the right person.
6. Sam Rainer on 10 bad church work habits.
7. Scot McKnight on Christianity vs. Following Jesus. Is there a difference? Did Christianity get off track at some point? 

Church Marketing Sucks is a ministry which seeks to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to do marketing better and further God’s cause with clarity and purpose.  I love following their blog and learning from it.

Their post Church Copycats (notice I’ve copied the title for emphasis!) explains a few current Christian mistakes that continue to mimic the world’s successes.  For example GodTube and now Godwitter.  I’m not even going to link you to them because the concept is so ridiculous!!!

Why do we feel it necessary to create Christian versions of secular successes?  Even when I was a teenager I thought it was cool to wear a ripoff Guns ‘N’ Roses T-shirt that said, ‘God N Moses, Appetite for Devotion’. Sad I know… but what is the point?!

Some questions to ask:  Does this further the cause of Christ?  Is it relevant to the world?  Will people move closer to a real relationship with God and eternal salvation because of it?

The other thing is stealing.  Stealing is bad.  We need our own ideas, websites crafted around our values, culture and vision, marketing that is unique and clever.

And we (the Church, each local church, every ministry, parachurch ministry etc) MUST respect copyright.  No stealing pictures, websites, logos, code, advertising etc unless you have the express permission of the owner.  I’ve used stuff from deviantart before but gotten permission to use it.  If you can’t afford it, raise money for it or start budgetting for it.  No stealing!

Let’s contribute to the world with real creativity, bright, colourful, ultra-relevant advertising, websites, ideas and marketing.  Lets infuse it with a love so powerful people will be attracted to whatever we’re doing.  Let’s honour the civil law (Rom 13) and copyright too.  Let’s be creative!  God’s first words created.  We’re in His image, lets create too.

1. 5 questions Andy Stanley asks while preparing a sermon
2. Abraham Piper on 5 foundations for a truth-drenched youth ministry. These are also great things to keep in mind for your home and raising kids.
3. Scot McKnight on Spiritual eroticism. This is a very interesting look at the way many people feel about worship and God and how our churches help to make that happen. Just shows the need for more songs where Jesus doesn’t sound like my boyfriend.
4. Jonathan Dodson on Simplified missional living. Great ideas on how to be missional in ways that make sense in everyday life.
5. Churches should learn to shut up. This is sad but true, we often talk without knowing it and we don’t talk when we think we are.
6. What Perry Noble believes.

Church Marketing Sucks founder, Brad Abare, had a great post that shows why so many people can’t stand Christians and don’t want to follow Christ. You can see the post here. I have placed the copy below:

Here’s another one for the “And We Wonder Why We’re Hated” conversation…

Matthew Paul Turner, the recovering churched boy, wrote a post earlier this week about an imaginary conversation between mother and child as they both gaze upon this picture.

“Mommy, what is that?” “Oh, Sweetie, that’s a picture of how much God loves the world! He loved the world so much that he took a cross made of 4X4s and penetrated the vital organs of a sheep-looking creature just for you, Baby. Doesn’t seeing it make you feel loved and hope-filled?”

“Mommy, is that the same sheep that Jesus left the other 99 to go find?”

“No, Baby, I’m sure that’s a different sheep.”

If we’re going to continue making banners like this and communicating rich theology and deep doctrine through mediums that contort the meaningful message of the Gospel, we’re going to keep having books written like this.

What say you?

This morning I came across a post on a blog I recently discovered and enjoy: Church Marketing Sucks. The post is called “Dealing With Your Church’s Bad Drivers,” and it’s a little story with big implications.

The post directs you to this site to listen to the voice mail left by a driver who was peeved by a woman who was thinking more about her appearance than the people around her – or so the story goes.

My response, as posted on the CMS blog, was this:

i just listened to the voice mail and the caller was 100% right. i’d be pissed, too, if i was in his shoes. the lady point-blank put herself above everyone else by holding up the line.

this kind of stuff is why i am a fan of 1 Jn. 3:18. or as Francis said (paraphrase), “preach without ceasing, use words if you have to.”

i don’t think a program, sermon, or series of sermons will remedy a person that doesn’t get what Jesus was saying when he talked about putting people ahead of your interests.

that’s just the frig’n Word Of God, man! either folks get it or they don’t.

plus, i’d like to say that christianese marketing materials are 99.9% always bad or wrong or in bad taste. take a listen to all star united’s “la la land” and that’s pretty much my sentiment.

if the christian faith is ever to be taken seriously again on a mass level – and it is not right now – then all the shine has to be wiped off, and an authentic Jesus must be presented. Jesus is not presented on a license plate cover, sticker, t-shirt, etc.

The  feedback that has been left by other readers has really shocked me because the voicemail guy is being portrayed as a guy who just wanted something to complain about, and some have gone so far as to laugh about the story, belittling it.

I will walk a fine line here between speaking truth and judgment, but it would appear that these folks A.) do not know or live by 1 Jn. 3:18, and B.) do not know or practice the discipline Jesus teaches regarding being given bigger responsibilities after small responsibilities.

Why does it matter if Voice Mail Man was a blow-hard? Is he somehow not important to the Kingdom because he was annoyed by a person who found it important to advertise what church she was affiliated with and stomp on his time? Is he not important because he sounds like an older Baby Boomer who fits some mold for grumpy-old-man? I don’t picture Jesus laughing this man’s point off. This man experienced a small moment that wasn’t set up, practiced, presented with lights and graphics… this was real for him. It was a small moment with huge implications.

Those small moments are the gateway, the very point of entry to putting Scripture into action, and hopefully eventually into relationships.

That some people would see this as something to laugh about or belittle speaks volumes of the community they are part of. It is a community that values the whole and not the sum of it’s parts – I’ll call it’ Gestalt Christianity! I can see the t-shirts, stage graphics, fog machines, lights, bumper stickers, license plate frames, web banners, music CD’s inspired by _________ artist, and so on.

So, other than my Twitter updates, I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog front as of late.  Not for a lack of things to talk about.  Many ideas, but nothing that has taken on any real form.

Soon, I hope to share some exciting news that has been a long time coming.

I appreciate everyone who takes part in our little conversations and hope to continue them shortly.

If you should think of me, I’d appreciate your prayers.

In the meantime, may I suggest you follow me on Twitter and check out a few places to visit on the web.

Seth Godin’s Blog

Church Marketing Sucks

Hulu

1. Paul Ingram is blogging
2. Church Marketing Sucks on Thinking about churches
3. Tim Keller on Attracting the Irreligious
4. Matt Chandler Reflects on being a dad
5. Tony Morgan on 10 reasons why you’re going to fail
6. Seth Godin on How to create a movement
7. John Ortberg on The election
8. Steve Knight on Eternity, Evolution & Emergence (this is fascinating, a real stretching though process, don’t know if I agree, but would be great to debate)
9. Mark Batterson on Purple cows & churches

Church Marketing Sucks has a great post that is compelling evidence for getting rid of the church signs that have the old plastic letter tracks that you can change out all the time. Click here to read the post.

A great post over at Church Marketing Sucks about church and politics by Kevin Hendricks. Click Here.

1. Perry Noble on The pastor’s pain
2. Don Golden on The missional church
3. Tim Keel on The election season
4. Church Marketing Sucks on The Illusion of Community Part 1 
5. Church Relevance on Family interaction reduces teen sex and substance abuse
6. Scot McKnight on Abortion (here & here)
7. Perry Noble on 7 things senior pastors want their staffs to know pt. 1,pt. 2, pt. 3
8. John Ortberg on The gospel & happiness paradox
9. Dave Ferguson on What it takes to catalyze a movement
10. Reggie McNeal on Prayer
11. Scot McKnight on Where theology is headed
12. Ed Stetzer Interviews Thom & Sam Rainer (authors of Essential Church)
13. CNN on How to save $9,000 a year

Last night a friend of mine saw me wearing my shirt from our retreat last year, LOST. It is a decent enough shirt. He was excited, “Oh man, is that a Lost shirt that is really cool, where did you get it?!” I told him that it was from church and what not. “Oh, Yeah, Lost, That’s Lame.”

Publically, I declare that I am not going to knock off famous, public, trendy marketing anymore. iCulture, will be the end of it.

• Why I’m Glad Some at Granger Don’t Believe in the Bible – A passionate post from Tim Stevens about evangelism, discipleship, the crowd and the church.
• Wesley Covenant Prayer, remixed – a relevant and faithful prayer from Allen Ewing-Merrill.
• Do you have a daily rule? Check out Tony Steward’s -  20 Rules – what are yours?
• David Livingston ponders Contemporary Worship names
• Great clarity at New Light in Our Mission and Vision
• The Importance of Follow-Ups from Joseph Yoo
• Good tips at Factors That Improve Online Experience from Church Marketing Sucks
• Seth Godin has some excellent Learning from a summer intern program.
• Scott Hodge summarizes a Harvard Business Review article at How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity.
• Kevin Watson lectures at Perkins and shares an excellent summary of The Methodist Method.

We wanted to list some of Innovative Ministry Leader’s top picks for blog sites. We try to read each of these sites daily for they contain tons insight and innovation. 

Here is our Top 10 list:

1. Swerve: Authors Craig Groeschel/Bobby Gruenwald swerve.lifechurch.tv

2. Church Marketing Sucks www.churchmarketingsucks.com

3. Tony Morgan www.tonymorganlive.com

4. Perry Noble www.perrynoble.com

5. Catalyst Catablog www.catalystspace.com/catablog

6. Ragmuffin Soul www.ragmuffinsoul.com

7. Tim Stevens www.leadingsmart.com

8. Mark Driscoll www.theresurgence.com/md_blog

9. Pyromarketing Greg Stielstra www.pyromarketing.typepad.com

10. How to change the world: Guy Kawasaki blog.guykawasaki.com

Let us know some of your favorite sites. We are always looking for innovative blogs to read. 

Team IML

so.. have I mentioned how amazing God is yet?

It’s been extremely difficult not to get discouraged with everything right now, and as usual… i end up taking my frustration out on God (probably not the brightest Idea in the world, just fyi).

but even so… God’s still sticking with me. I finally set aside all disctractions and a semi-generous piece of time (albeit in the middle of the night) for prayer and just venting my fears that I’ve held secret. Feeling of overwhelming sadness and heartache and feeling so exhausted for constantly trying to keep other people afloat in this cruel, unjust world, and the isolation i’ve been keeping myself to, to the point where I i’m completely stale and nothing brings light to my day. to the point that its a struggle to smile, even. talk about exhausting. after i had finished praying, I open my bible…. and boom, God’s there. Psalm 37 (after the first 10 verses or so it starts getting repetitive, but man!) problem 1-reassured.

Then,
this morning, i log into gmail, and the first thing in my inbox is an email from Church Marketing Sucks. Usually I don’t have time to browse, but I opened it anyways, and the story that caught my eye was this one. (see the church’s blog on what happened for hilarious list.)

Basically, a church plant got their church trailer stolen, so they posted billboards talking directly to the thieves, and made a youtube video, too. Hilarious!!!

the popular favorite:
CHURCH TRAILER STOLEN
Stealing from God…Ballsy

my favorites:
DEAR CHURCH TRAILER THIEVES
Be careful with the snakes inside…just kidding.

CHURCH TRAILER THIEVES:
You just robbed God. I wouldn’t worry about the cops.