Excellent article about change in Fast Company

Here’s the link…

Here’s an excerpt:

The conventional wisdom says that crisis is a powerful motivator for change. But severe heart disease is among the most serious of personal crises, and it doesn’t motivate — at least not nearly enough. Nor does giving people accurate analyses and factual information about their situations. What works? Why, in general, is change so incredibly difficult for people? What is it about how our brains are wired that resists change so tenaciously? Why do we fight even what we know to be in our own vital interests?

Kotter has hit on a crucial insight. “Behavior change happens mostly by speaking to people’s feelings,” he says. “This is true even in organizations that are very focused on analysis and quantitative measurement, even among people who think of themselves as smart in an MBA sense. In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.”

Changing behavior is not the result of more and more information. It’s a result of getting to the person’s - or organization’s - heart.

Here’s another excerpt:

Steve Jobs’s turnaround at Apple shows the impact of reframing and telling a new narrative that’s simple, positive, and emotional. When he returned to the company after a long exile, he recast its image among employees and customers alike from a marginalized player vanquished in the battle for market share to the home of a small but enviable elite: the creative innovators who dared to “Think different.”

It’s a positive message that is simple and emotional. And it’s a story.

So how does that affect our preaching? We too often give people too much information in our preaching. I am seeing it in my own preaching. Get to the heart of the matter. Don’t go off on too much teaching and background unless it’s necessary for the understanding the of the point.

It also affects our style. Narrative, not so much expositional. We’ve known that for a while, but people doing change analysis are now being heard about the impact of narrative on organizational and personal change. But our schools turn out 3 points and a poem kind of preaching, meaning that much of our narrative style has to be developed on our own - through our own study.

Is it worth it? If lives are changed, it is absolutely worth it.

I was disappointed

I was scheduled to go - had my ticket and everything to head to Boston thinking Jimmy Draper and other SBC reps would be there. But physical therapy for a torn ACL and meniscus damage kept me from going. I’m glad I didn’t make the trip. I would have been greatly disappointed.

I’m back

I’ve been swamped and out of the loop the last couple of weeks.

Interesting article about men and worship…

This comes from the May 3, 2005 PreachingNow newsletter, the newsletter of Preaching Magazine:

Men respond to images more than words

In his fascinating book Why Men Hate Going to Church (Nelson Books), David Murrow discusses a variety of ways in which today’s worship is oriented toward the way women learn, not men. He explains that it’s a problem rooted in the brain:

“The regions of a female’s brain that are devoted to language are larger than their equivalent in the male. Girls outperform boys by huge margins on tests of verbal fluency. Studies reveal that women use more of their brains during speech, which makes them much better at expressing themselves verbally. Other studies show that a typical woman speaks 20,000 to 25,000 words a day, while a typical man speaks just 7,000 to 10,000. . . .

“Brain differences play out in the entertainment men and women choose. Women buy romance novels; men buy pornographic magazines. She’s stimulated by words; he’s stimulated by images. Women watch TV shows where people talk about their problems; men watch sports and crime shows where words are secondary to the action. . . .

“Yet today’s church has become an almost entirely verbal experience. . . . Sermons put men in an impossible situation: they must remain alert as a flood of words rushes forth from the pastor’s mouth. Men must not only comprehend those words but also, using the other side of the brain, respond emotionally to the pastor’s appeal. Very few men are physiologically capable of this feat. Their brains are simply not wired this way. Men find sermons boring not so much because of their content but because of their format. . . . When the church returns to the visual, hands-on style favored by Jesus, men, young people and women will all respond.”

In a Pastors.com article, they summarize much of what Morrow says and gives a few principles to help establish male attendance in worship:

Principle one: Cultivate a healthy masculine spirit in your church. A man must sense, from the moment he walks in, that church is not just for Grandma, it’s something for him. It can’t feel like a ladies’ club. The quilted banners, fresh flowers, and boxes of Kleenex in our sanctuaries make a statement. So do practices such as holding hands with your neighbor, “prayer and share� times, or highly emotional displays. Our goal is not to get men to cry; it’s to get them walking with God, however that may look.

Principle two: Make men feel needed and wanted. Encourage men to use their gifts, even if they don’t fit traditional models of Christian service. Encourage them to serve the poor by working on cars or fixing up houses. Let men plan adventures and do “guy things� together.

Principle three: Present Christ’s masculine side. Pastors often focus on Jesus’ tenderness and empathy. This is a good thing, but presenting soft Jesus week after week runs the risk of turning men off. What man wants to follow Mr. Rogers? Even more bewildering are today’s praise songs – many of which feature lovey-dovey lyrics set to a romantic tune. Guys may feel unnatural singing romantic words to another man. Men want a leader, not a love object.

Principle four: Avoid feminine terminology. Christian men use terms such as precious, share, and relationship — words you’d never hear on the lips of a typical man. We talk a lot about the saved and the lost; men don’t want to be either. And here’s a term that puzzles a lot of guys: a personal relationship with Jesus. Christ’s bold, masculine command, “Follow Me!â€? is now, “Have a relationship with Me.â€? We’ve recast Jesus’ offer in feminine terms.

Principle five: Preach shorter sermons. I know pastors will hate this principle, but men say that “long, boring sermons� are the #1 reason they avoid church. Thanks to TV, today’s men have an attention span of six to eight minutes (the length between commercials). Why not use this to your advantage? Break your sermon into six- to eight-minute segments with a song, drama, video clip, or object lesson in between. Remember, Jesus’ most beloved lessons were his parables, none of which takes more than two minutes to teach. His parables survive today because men remembered them.

Principle six: Become students of men. Although most pastors are male, few truly understand men. Women keep the ministry machine going, so pastors focus on keeping females happy and volunteering. This must change. I challenge every pastor in America to study men. A good place to start: read John Eldredge’s bestseller, Wild at Heart.

Principle seven: Create a culture of person-to-person challenge. In many a church, the pastor challenges from the pulpit, but the people don’t challenge each other. Person-to-person discipleship, in small teams, is the only way to bring men to maturity in Christ. Where do you start? Choose a handful of men and personally disciple them, with the understanding that each man will recruit his own small group after one year. Continue to disciple these men as they become disciplers of others. This is the model Jesus left us, and it is awakening men in churches across the nation.

So how to you reach men in worship?

Overwhelmed…

We’re trying to find space to worship in instead of an old theatre where our children’s area is in disrepair - and they won’t let us fix it up.

I’m struggling with a completely torn ACL, damaged meniscus, arthritis and heavy swelling in my left knee. I’m doing physical therapy now to try to hold off on knee reconstruction.

My ministry leaders are swamped at work. More that I have to take on.

Our band leader is unable to due to a really bad back and heavy work schedule to do any planning.

We’re launching a new small group that I committed to lead so we could reach more in discipleship.

More meetings than time to plan sermons…

Sometimes ministry just gets the best of you. And you feel overwhelmed. It happens to us all. It’s not something to be ashamed of nor something to beat ourselves up over. It just happens. As much as you say “No” to things, some things you just can’t neglect. Someone has to do them, or they just don’t get done and it’s not a matter of “it’s ok that they don’t get done”…they have to get done.

A buddy of mine that I had lunch with last week gave me some really good advice. He told me that he - a co-pastor of a church in Maryland - has been seening a Christian counselor every month for almost 8 years. He told me it helps keep him grounded. So I took the plunge. I’m off at the end of the month to spend an hour or so just chatting with a former pastor turned Christian Counselor. I have to tell you I’m looking forward to it.

I’ll let you know how it goes. I suspect it’ll be quite liberating…

And who knows…maybe at times in your ministry it might be a help to you as well.