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By Richard Hamilton, October 30, 2009 11:41 am

I have formulated a new mission statement for epicdialogue.com:

Our mission is to globally facilitate leading-edge collaboration and idea-sharing in order to create ‘outside the box’ thinking with 100% on-time delivery.

Okay…actually I didn’t. I was playing with a free app on my iPhone called “Mission Statement Generator” by A2rt. This app helps get the “creative” ball rolling for those writing organizational mission statements. Here is another one I generated with the app:

We have committed to holistically create alternative catalysts for change and continue to promote ‘outside the box’ thinking while maintaining the highest standards.

I’m sure many of us are involved with organizations (i.e. churches) that have developed a missions statement strangely reminiscent to the ones above. Most I have read (or written for that matter) are are poor copies of the trendy church of the month and shed little light on the actual identity of the organization in question.

This makes sense in some ways. The cards are stacked against the statement writer. It is a daunting, dare I say impossible, task to sum up a community, organization, or movement in a few short phrases. Words are woefully inadequate. Add to this the fact that people’s expectations are so bland and formulaic.

So, why do we do it? Partially, because it was all the rage in businesses 25+ years ago. But also because people want to know what they are getting into. We want to know what to expect of our churches, organizations, employees and the like. And of course, what they expect of us.

This makes the mission statement dangerous territory. If we say we are a community that loves, we sure better love. Or, if we say we exist to serve our community, that should be something we actually do. We are tempted to express our goals and ideals in these type of statements, but they must be tempered with a dose if reality. Unfortunately, many organizations have a skewed self image.

How does your church (or whatever) approach the “all important” mission statement?

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By Richard Hamilton, October 1, 2009 11:34 pm

The 75+ videos from The Nines are now available for viewing. Check them out here.

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By Richard Hamilton, September 16, 2009 2:14 pm

I know I’m late to the game, but I wanted to throw in my “two cents” about the Nines. For those of you unaware, The Nines was a series of 75 – 9 minute videos by christian leaders, hosted online as a massive video conference by Leadership Network and Catalyst. By most accounts, the Nines was well received. Their site reports, “During the day of 09/09/09, there were over 20,000 total IP addresses that connected at one time or another to watch part of the conference. There were over 60,000 hits to our video servers throughout the day. We used 8.7 TB (terrabytes) of data to stream the more than 1,685 days of viewing time. THE NINES was the most tweeted topic on Twitter for about three hours on 09/09/09. In fact, over 6,000 tweets contained the hashtag #thenines.” I watch a great deal (but not all) of the videos.

A lot of people have chimed in (both during and following the event), but there were a least two presentations on a topic that I have not seem people responding to. (Admittedly, my circle of friends does not encompass the thousands who watched.) That topic is ethnic diversity.

Many of you know, the church I work with here in San Antonio is bilingual; I am keenly aware of the issues and struggles in blending cultures into one faith community. (Not to mention my experiences and struggles growing up and working in the South or my ministry time on the outskirts of Dayton.) There is something beautiful and mysterious though when people develop a bond and share life together despite (or even because of) their difference. I believe this is too important to be pushed aside.

So, back to the Nines. Scott Williams of LifeChurch.tv and bigisthenewsmall.com made his video available, but it seems to have been taken down already. I guess that’s what I get for waiting a week to post this. I’m hoping they plan to make all the videos available soon.

Mark DeYmaz of Mosaic Church also addressed diversity during the Nines. As a followup, he posted 25 FAQs re. the Multi-ethnic Church. There, he defines “ethnic diversity” and how it exists as a movement of churches:

I intend it as general and inclusive of ethnic, economic, educational and generational diversity within a local church. In fact, I believe that ethnic and economic diversity are two sides of the same coin and that educational privilege is most often a factor of economics. So when I’m talking about a multi-ethnic church, I’m thinking of one that reflects diversity in a variety of forms beyond ethnicity.

I have my reservations about some of the specifics he lays out, and really don’t understand his concerns over churches being reflective of their communities (as opposed to meeting his percentage goals), but the issue of churches being so homogeneous (and I believe often intentionally so) is important enough to me that I am willing to consider his points.

So what’s the deal? Why are churches so divided? Why is Sunday the most segregated day of the week (to paraphrase MLK)? Seriously. Look around you. The American landscape has changed. I doubted I would see an African American elected as President of the US in my lifetime and am proud to live in time when that is possible (and I’m only 29). It seems like our society has come so far, but as is so often the case, churches are decades behind. And I believe this is an area where followers of Jesus should have been leading the charge.

So I guess I’m left with a few questions. First, why is this even still an issue? And Second, what can we be doing to fix it? If we could just skip trite answers, cop-outs and finger pointing usually associated with this topic, that would be great.

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By Richard Hamilton, March 18, 2009 11:55 pm

Let me point you to an article written by my friend Aaron Saufley called “Bible College or Church?”. Aaron is a church planter, blogger, and all around decent guy. In his typical, atypical perspective of church and christian spirituality, Aaron questions if there may be a better way to prepare people for ministry than what we typically do.

“I’m wondering why we insist on sending guys who want to be preachers and church planters off to Bible college and seminary for four years (or more). Would it not be more beneficial for a guy to be mentored and coached by the staff of his local church? He could learn the ins and outs of ministry on the field instead of in the abstract theories of the classroom. And he wouldn’t amass a huge amount of college debt that will take him at least a decade to pay off… and the chances are high that he’ll be out of “professional ministry” a few years before he gets his education paid for.”

It seems to have drawn out some helpful conversation and has got me thinking. If there were no limits, traditions, or built in assumptions, what would be the best way to train people to do ministry? I will try to wrap words around my initial thoughts in a few posts over the next week or so. In the mean time, show Aaron some love.

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By Richard Hamilton, March 9, 2009 5:59 pm

Churches and the way they do (or don’t) use social medial has been the topic of a few posts recently (Facebook, Angry Whoppers, and the Future of Social Media on January 23, and The Spiritual Discipline of Twittering). Social media is a big part of my life and I have invested much of my life/career in the Christian experience.

Collide Magazine recently asked people to respond how their church was utilizing texting and twittering. @mikeyanderson let Collide know that Mars Hills Church in Seattle had recently been featured on a local news broadcast because of their use of Twitter. You can check out the news video at www.king5.com

Mars Hills is not just using Twitter to send information and promotional material. Mars Hill encourages their people to twitter about the Mars Hill experience. Some Sunday Morning, you should do a Twitter search for #MHC and see what comes up.

What do you think? How could your church benefit from encouraging your people to twitter? Would your church even be open to this?

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By Richard Hamilton, March 3, 2009 7:46 pm

If you don’t know Seth, you should. Seth Godin is a business and communications guru. I read his blog daily. Yesterday, he posted an article called “Looking for Yes”. It is an open critique of companies who aren’t interested in finding a way to get things done. “Why is it okay to have employees in any organization who look for a no?”

Is it just me, or is this typically the way things are run in any group of Christians, whether it be a church, para-church organization, youth group, men’s group, small group, or whatever other two or more type gathering you can dream of. Christians should be the most positive, creative people. There is unlimited potential there. Don’t get me wrong, we can all use a little realism, but…as fast as our world is changing, we need people who are willing to find a way to say “yes”.

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By Richard Hamilton, January 23, 2009 12:22 pm

Businesses are constantly blurring the lines between advertising and social media. I have despised a lot of these campaigns. Think Dr. Pepper and Chocolate Rain. I don’t mind advertising through social media and I certainly don’t think it hurts the authenticity of the medium. Myspace did that.

One that recently caught my attention was the Angry Whopper Facebook App. Users boot 10 friends and get a free Angry Whopper. I thought it was genius. Facebook did not. They axed the app saying it was inconsistent with Facebook’s values. I thought the idea was genius.

Social media is a constantly changing beast with virtually limitless potential for good.

How is your church using social media? (Maybe I should ask, is your church.) Some churches have opted for rip-off christianized versions of social media, like GodTube.com or GodSpace.com. Others have come to the game late. I remember starting up a xanga site for my youth group months after all my students had started their xangas (which happened to be right around the time myspace took off). The tragedy of being late is that you end up chasing every trendy format around the web 2.0 (2.5, 3.0, whatever) with limited results.

Twitter is still strong. It just passed Digg in popularity. I just downloaded the e-book “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter” and am planning to review soon. I twitter. A lot of my friends twitter. But if your church is just now figuring out twitter, it may be too late. By the time you get the hang of it, it may not be the social media giant it is today.

So, where does the church fit into the social media scene?

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By Richard Hamilton,

Darren Hoyt (not a church marketer) recently published an amazing article on church marketing. He address major issues, like is the tendency of churches to go with trendy design (and for designers to let them) and the difficulty of offering an authentic identity. This is a good read for anyone concerned with a church’s public image. Check it out here.

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By Richard Hamilton, November 25, 2008 3:48 pm

Grace Community Church in Noblesville Indiana closed it’s doors the weekend of November 1 & 2. Not permanently. Just for one weekend. What caused this? A snowstorm? A broken water-main? A major sporting event? Nope. They closed for the weekend so their members could serve in the community. Keep in mind, this is not a small church. GCC has over 3,000 attendees a week.

Dave Rodriguez, preacher at GCC wrote this about the experience on his blog: “What a weekend we experienced together. 3000+ people engaged in 77 projects all over the metro area. The stories are rolling in of life change and remarkable moments of service. As I said at the commissioning we would be entering sacred space and for sure we did.”

It could be argued that these church-goers should be in the habit of serving throughout the week in addition to coming together with other Christians, but I think what GCC did speaks volumes about priorities and values. So many churches have become self-serving and inbred. I think at very least it is refreshing to see people get out of the building and serve their community.

What would it look like at your church if you did this?

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By Richard Hamilton, November 7, 2008 10:33 pm

Amazing, funny (in a sad-but-way-too-true kinda way) video from Richard Reising’s beyondrelevance.com.

Not personally a huge fan of Starbucks. Something about mediocre burnt coffee served in a cookie cutter environment that doesn’t do it for me. But, it’s hard to argue with their market share, and the point still proves true. Christians have a long way to go in their way they present package their faith. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the “product”.