Dealing with Elder / Minister Conflict

So you have read a few of the articles about improving your communications strategy and you realize that the church needs a new logo, name, website, welcome sign or needs to bring in an expert to give you some ideas and insight as to how to improve how you talk with your community and church. Now you have to talk to the elders and run everything past them. The sweat starts to drip as you imagine the conflict that could occur at the meeting. Your stomach starts to twinge and your head is already hurting and the meeting is in two weeks.

Hopefully, I am being a bit over dramatic. I sure hope so. I have been on the other end of the table hundreds of times as an elder for nearly twenty years. I have seen things handled well and things handled poorly. I understand it can be stressful to try to work with elders or board, especially if it is the first time or trying something totally outside of the box. Once a young youth minister thought of a new way of ministering to high school kids. He was very prepared, but I could tell he was extremely nervous. He began his verbal presentation and his voice got more strained, sweat started trickling down his furrowed brow and redness started to develop in his ears and then spread from forehead to chin. The stress was written all over his face. Hopefully, the tips below can let you know what elders are looking for in proposals and ideas and relieve some of the heartburn. Click here for the list!!!

The Real Thing

By Russ Ward

Coca Cola has made a bit of a stir when it announced that it was changing the way they are going to be marketing their products. For decades it was largely an image campaign where the logo and slogans such as "The Real Thing" or "Things Go Better With Coke" inundated the market.

They built product awareness with huge ad buys on billboards, in magazines and great product placement on grocery store shelves. They produced thirty seconds of the warm and fuzzy with TV ads such as "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony." All of this made Coca Cola seem and feel like a product that could add life or even create world peace, if only everyone could get their hands on an ice cold Coke.

But times have changed and even mighty Coca Cola has had to alter its approach to keep up. They simply had to rethink their communication strategy, retool and relaunch. This does not mean that the product will change! That would lead to rebellion against the brand they have built, need I remind you of New Coke? However, the way they are going to communicate to potential customers will change; the change moving towards content marketing. So what does all of this have to do with the way your church communicates? Hopefully, a lot. Find out how this applies to you church here.