Are you part of a movement?

Seth Godin has written a great little book called Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.  I posted Godin’s TED Talk on the material here.  Among Godin’s many challenges, he exhorts his readers to start a movement.  Here is what Godin says concerning the anatomy of a movement:

 

Senator Billy Bradley defines a movement as having three elements:

1. A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we’re trying to build.
2. A connection between and among the leader and the tribe.
3. Something to do–the fewer limits, the better.

Too often, organizations fail to do anything but the third (bold emphasis mine).

I have friends who read this blog who are part of large church denominations.  For them, that third statement really stings.  But it doesn’t have to, because movements can begin locally and expand from there.

Tribes is a book that is worthy of a quick read followed by lengthy, thoughtful consideration.  I picked up my copy from the public library for free and read it over two days.  Godin’s ideas are very simple.  To have a tribe, you only need two things: 1) a shared interest and 2) a way to communicate.  From humble beginnings, a movement can build.

If you are a church leader, what are you passionate about?  What is your narrative?  What is the future that God has enabled you, by grace, to envision?  And how do you communicate with those around you?  Are others compelled by the same story?  And if so, how do you band together to begin working toward that shared future, with the fewer limits, the better?

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Seth Godin :: Tribes

If you are leading anyone, anywhere, watch this talk.  If you’re not leading, we need you to lead.  Especially all of those Christian-leader types that I know read my blog.  Or the students who are dreaming about a better world.  Or the chronic complainers who can tell you everything that is wrong with the world but refuse to create an alternative.

Start something.  Connect with others.  Make a difference.  Watch this talk.

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Remarkable? That Should Come (Super)Naturally.

I’ve been reading some odd stuff lately.  Not odd as in strange, odd as in outside my norm.  Mostly I read theology and Bible.  My friends know that I read Hauerwas.  Some say I’ve picked up some of his habits.  However, I don’t really curse and I have remained somewhat likable.  I guess I’m still on my way to perfection.

Among the books I’ve read recently that fall outside my norm: Seth Godin’s Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable.  It is another short offering from Godin, which is nice for those of us who like to cherry pick ideas and attempt to run with them.  Godin’s argument in Purple Cow is pretty simple.  The book is about marketing.  Marketing, as a field, is changing.  The old methods aren’t working as well anymore.  Television advertising doesn’t affect audiences the same way.  Godin is offering a different way to think about marketing in hopes of spurring his readers on to greatness in product development and design over and against shockingly obscene or (seemingly) compelling mundane advertising.  If you have a quality product and are able to see that product adopted by the right people, then the product will, in effect, sell itself.

Here are some of the terms Godin lists as being essential in traditional forms of marketing:

• Product
• Pricing
• Promotion
• Positioning
• Publicity
• Packaging
• Pass-along
• Permission

Godin thinks all of these are great, but he suggests adding a new P to the equation: Purple Cow.  The concept is simple, and he uses a parable to illustrate it.  Imagine driving through a countryside in beautiful France.  There are cows on every hillside, grazing, and the beauty is captivating.  At first, you are in awe, but after a while, the awe fades.  But a Purple Cow?  That would catch your attention.  And be interesting (for a while).

A Purple Cow would catch our attention because it would be remarkable.  Godin even says he would simply list “remarkable” as a marketing concept, but it doesn’t start with P.  So he went with Purple Cow instead.

When it comes to being the church, we’re not in the marketing business.  But we are called to be remarkable.  The beauty of our calling to be remarkable is that it is a gift of divine grace that is spurred along by our willingness to undertake certain disciplines that transform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  Salvation is in itself quite remarkable.  Unfortunately, we have allowed it to become boring (after a while).

The challenge for followers of Jesus is to recapture the awe that comes with knowing Jesus and following him.  Then we have the opportunity to creatively discern ways to communicate that to others.

Though this has been said in other places in similar ways, this remark from Godin challenged me in how I think about ministry:

Challenge your people to start with a blank sheet of paper and figure out what they’d do if they could do just about anything.  If they weren’t afraid of failing, what’s the most audacious thing they’d try?

If you’re in church leadership, take risks, and challenge your people to do the same.  I hope that the church would not only be known as a peculiar people, but a remarkable people, who offer the eternal life that begins in this life and extends into the next.  In the process of living this kind of life, I pray that we would creatively act as agents of God’s Kingdom, living an outrageously compelling discipleship to the God we worship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

By grace, we can be remarkable.  And the glory should be given to the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift.

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When to Lean and When to Quit

This past week I read a small book by Seth Godin called The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick).  You can check out Godin’s blog here.  Godin is a marketing guru with a number of great, simple ideas that are both challenging and remarkably easy to grasp.  I subscribe to his blog and every once in a while discover something there that is helpful for my professional and personal life.

In this small book Godin defines The Dip as “the long slog between starting and mastery,” and I can think back over the course of my life and recognize those points where I’ve found myself in The Dip.  It’s that point in ministry (or any activity) where carrying out the job becomes incredibly difficult–you don’t know the existing systems well enough, who to contact, where to turn, you’re incredibly exhausted, and wonder if your best will be good enough.  I’ve had these feelings every time I’ve entered a new setting.  In most instances I’ve struggled past the temptation to walk away and found success.  At other times I’ve quit–sometimes this has been a good decision, other times not so much.

In the book Godin explains how The Dip is something you can either lean into and reach new levels of being the best in the world, or it is something that forces you to quit and move on to something else.  Going against common wisdom, however, Godin argues that quitting isn’t always a bad thing.  In fact, those who become the best in the world know when to quit so that they can pursue their passions and reach new levels of excellence.  We all know this to be true.  Anyone who has held a job has quit one position in order to move onto something more satisfying and fulfilling.  If this wasn’t true in my life, I’d still be cutting grass.

If you find yourself in The Dip, is it time to lean?  Or is it time to quit?  It might be the case you need to push on through in order to accomplish your dream.  But it might be the case that you need to strategically quit.  As Godin observes, “If you realize you’re at a dead end compared with what you could be investing in, quitting is not only a reasonable choice, it’s a smart one.”

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