Lostobstacles

by Tyler Zach

What are some obstacles that keep the lost away from our movement?

Having visitors raise their hands or asking them to speak could embarrass them.

No explanation/introduction of the movement leaves students in the dark.

Inside jokes: Hearing these just reminds visitors that they are outsiders.

Challenging members on issues that visitors should not hear, such as not inviting enough visitors or not volunteering enough, isolates visitors.

Unpredictability: If members are not completely secure as to what the ministry topics are or who the speaker will be, they cannot invite accordingly.

Variance in length of the meeting or gathering can pose obstacles to visitors’ schedules or expectations.

Visitors may be unable to find nuggets of value for their life. Even though truth may be taught, it may be too heavy for some students – making the meeting irrelevant to them.

Boring delivery: If visitors are not captivated, they probably won’t return.

Nothing life-changing: If there is no call to growth towards a new level, why go?

Speaking in “Christianese,” or words that have no meaning or different meaning outside of church, leaves visitors thoroughly confused (Eucharist, atonement, sacrificial covenant, anointing, grace, blood of Jesus, etc.).

Too much too fast: Demanding seasoned-believer performance for everyone.

If things uncommon to a visitor (raising hands, tongues, communion, singing with instruments, etc.) take place without proper explanation, you run the risk of alienating.


If a student can answer these six questions positively, then you can be sure that they will want to invite their friends to your gathering:

1) Will my friend feel welcomed?
2) Will my friend fit in?
3) Can I feel confident that I know how the meeting will turn out?
4) Will my friend get something out of it?
5) Will my friend understand it?
6) Will anything that could seem strange to the lost be explained through Scripture?


*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101

Levels of Commitment

by Tyler Zach

Are our movements relevant to each level of commitment within our community?

Continuing on the baseball story analogy from the previous article, there are four levels of commitment: Outsiders, Upper-Deckers, Lower-Deckers, and Players on the Field.

OUTSIDERS
These are students on campus who are not involved in our movement. Our goal should be to connect with them and give them a glimpse of what they might value in our movement.

UPPER-DECKERS
These are first-time visitors who may be seekers, spiritually curious, etc. Our goal should be to make them feel comfortable with the people and the atmosphere. Relating to them where they are at is the key.

LOWER-DECKERS
These are the students who have made a decision for Christ and are committed to being a part of our movement. Our goal should be to provide them with spiritual training and authentic relationships.

PLAYERS ON THE FIELD
These are the students who have accepted the challenge to serve and invest in the lives of other students. Our goal should be to provide them with various levels of volunteer opportunities and to help them to recognize their strengths.

Do our movements effectively speak to all of these audiences?

For most of us, we probably tailor our communication to reach the lower-deckers and the players on the field. We use “Christianese” language and do church things that make no sense to a first-time visitor. We just cross our fingers and hope that they will get used to it. If they don’t come back, then we may pass it off as just another student who isn’t ready to follow Christ yet.

Do I dare ask, “Could our movements be serving as stumbling blocks for the lost?”

Richard Reising says that we should communicate using an outside-in approach. Make sure we are speaking to the outsiders first. Then we can start working our way in. This may mean that your campus will either have to create multiple gatherings for your students or do a complete re-engineering of your current gathering. Whatever you do, think of the lost first.

In the next article, I’ll cover some of the obstacles that may be hindering lost students from staying around.

*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101

Virginia Tech Shooting: LIVE Interview with student

Last night, at our Greek Endeavor meeting, we got the chance to do a live phone interview with Steve Biederman. Steve is a sophomore at Virginia Tech in the College of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Mathematics.

Note: because we had him on a loud speaker, hearing him may be a little difficult

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW (Mp3)

Perceiving Their Perception

by Tyler Zach

How do the lost really view our movements on campus?

Chances are, the lost students on our campuses do not view our movements the way we view our movements. Richard Reising says, “They do not know our hearts; even worse, they often distrust us and are skeptical of us from the beginning. A million personal experiences have shaped their perception of us as Christians... We will have to work hard to change those perceptions.”

FCA. Navigators. Campus Crusade. Christian Student Fellowship. Intervarsity. It may all look the same to a lost student on campus. If they’ve been to one meeting, it is probably easy to judge them all. That is why it is going to take a lot of work for us to undo the misconceptions that they have about us – that is, if their misconceptions are false! If you are not a lost-centered community, then you’ll never be able to promote your movement to students who are at different places on the spiritual journey.

Here is a fantastic story (that I shortened a little) from Church Marketing 101 that puts all of this in perspective. Trust me, reading it is worth your time.

“Let’s suppose you and I are good buddies, and you are the world’s biggest baseball fan. I, on the other hand, find baseball to be mind-numbingly boring. After all, how much fun can you have watching a sport that has only three variables: the batter misses it, kind of hits it, or hits it right? Not enough options for me. I’ve never been to a game before, but I am sure that I will not like it. You beg me all the time to come with you. I really wish you would stop asking, but one day, I am weak and decide to give in to your request. If I am going to this game with you, you had better be sure that you’re buying my $2 nosebleed tickets and my hot dog. Together we sit in the upper deck on a hot afternoon – you in bliss and me in a sort of bewildered agony. I’m eating a hot dog and slurping a soft drink when all of a sudden the home team hits a home run. We jump to our feet together and high-five each other. I’m caught off guard. The hit inspired me. Maybe I like baseball after all. Am I actually enjoying a baseball game? This is not what I expected. You ask me to go again and I commit. This time, I am buying my own cheap upper deck tickets and my own hot dog. I am willing to spend a little bit, but not enough to sit down in the lower deck with those $80/seat baseball freaks. They are a little too committed for me at this point. I think I like baseball, but my commitment level is low… [but] each step along the way I commit more. I was skeptical at first, but now I am committed to give all. I did not get here overnight. I got here in baby steps.”

This is a great story, which parallels our spiritual journey. During the course of our life, we might have seen a few small impressive plays and then eventually a home run or even a grad slam. We became sold-out for Christ and his mission. For some students, it might be hearing a simple presentation of the gospel and saying, “Yes. That’s it. I believe.” But in my experience, it is usually not that easy. Students today are more skeptical than ever before. Their perception of who we actually are has been fogged up. So what do we do?

In the next article, I’ll talk about how students have different levels of commitment within our movements and what we need to do to communicate to each level.

*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101

Movement Marketing

by Tyler Zach

Is your campus movement connecting with the lost? After all, “turning lost students into Christ-centered laborers” is at the very core of our mission.

Big Idea: We are teaching our students to connect with lost on an individual basis (in different pockets of the campus), but what would it look like for our movement as a whole to do the same?

I’ve been reading the book Church Marketing 101 and to my surprise it is not what I expected. The author states, “Most churches fail at marketing because they do not grasp that it encompasses every aspect of church life. They assume it is about things like passing out flyers, but it is much greater than that… Some assume marketing is sending out direct mail pieces or placing door hangers throughout the neighborhood… In reality, marketing deals on less superficial levels than we think.” He goes on to give his simple definition of marketing: the management of perception.

At the very core of movement marketing is (1) the ability to understand how the lost perceive you today; (2) to have a vision for how you would like them to perceive you (within their own frame of reference); and (3) to make decisive strides and adjustments in your way of doing and communicating things to ensure that the lost ultimately learn to perceive you as you desire.

How does your campus “perceive” your movement? Do the students and administration respect you? Do they care about your survival or growth? Do they talk to you? Do they give you money? If they visit, would they want to come back? These are all great questions to help you evaluate how well your movement as a whole is connecting with the lost.

Sometimes, I think that our movements are trying to get the lost to be relevant to us rather than us trying to be relevant to them. Richard Reising says, “There are over thirty references to Jesus perceiving people’s perception and changing His ministry direction, re-communicating, or deciding to halt communications altogether.” He was relevant to everyone because He saw what they saw and adjusted everything He did to meet them where they were at.

I think that our mindset has unintentionally been to invite the lost into our movement - hoping that they will get used to the way we do things. What if it is more complicated than that? What if there are more steps to the process? What if we haven’t been thinking very deeply about how we come across to the lost?

What would it look like to take a step back for a minute, look through the lens of the lost on campus, see what they see, and take the necessary steps to meet them in the middle?

In the next article, I’ll discuss how we as movement leaders can start to understand others’ perception of us.

*content was gleaned and contextualized from Church Marketing 101