Rebuilding Church Communications (Pt.1)

Posted by Jim Henry in communications, new | 0 comments

I love church communications. I love hearing about creative and innovative ways to speak to the masses. I love hearing about ways to simplify, clarify and specify the message. I love hearing how great church communication strategies have been developed. But, what if your communication system is a pile of rubble? What if you want to get “there”, but “here” is so bad, you’re not certain you can climb your way out of it? That’s been my journey for the last 12 months.

For me and my team, we knew from the beginning, we were in a rebuilding faze. We knew we had a broken communication structure and it wasn’t going to be resolved overnight. So, I thought I’d share a bit of our rebuilding journey with you, along with the simple steps we took to being about change.

-We found an easy win. We found a simple communication vehicle we could overhaul, reinvent and make great without causing congregational drama or draining our team. For us it was a complete redesign of our weekly program. We removed the endless clutter, streamlined the design and document size, simplified production and made a much more functional piece. Win for us, win for the congregation…change enacted without any bloodshed!

-Wait…don’t scrap the website! As we progressed, we knew we wanted to steer everyone towards our website…the problem was our site was about as functional and practical as cloth diapers. It may have looked good, but it was a leaky mess! As we toyed around with starting from scratch, we realized we really didn’t know what we needed yet. It was too early in the process to make such a major change. So we fixed what we had. We completely reworked our navigation structure, got rid of outdated or unimportant information, made updating a priority and provided simple homepage links to the things our congregation needed the most. The goal was to have our people get where they needed to go in no more than 2 clicks…and for the most part, we’re there. In the near future we will have a new site and it will be creating using the lessons learned from restructuring our old one.

This was just the beginning…the difficult stuff came next…more tomorrow!

If I Could Do It All Over Again

Posted by Jim Henry in growth, life, ministry, new | 0 comments

How often do we say it? “If I could do it all over again I’d…”

- Really?

-Would you?

-Do something different I mean…

The reality is, most of the time, we have to live with our decisions. And as much as we’d like to have a “do over”, for the most part, we’re out of luck. But God is the redeemer of the bad decision. God has this way of taking our choices, our failings, our shortcoming and molding them into something amazing. The key is, what do we do with the “amazing”? -

I’ve fallen on my face more than my fair share of times in my life. I’ve made choices I regret and had to live with the consequences of those choices. But, one of the great joys in my journey has been watching God take my failures and leverage them into something He could use. If I had stayed mired in my shame or to prideful to acknowledge my failings, I would have completely missed the amazing.

Life isn’t about wishing we could do it all over again, it’s about letting God redeem the journey.

From the Vault: “Ideas” (8/8/08)

Posted by Jim Henry in creativity, ministry, new, sunday, the vault | 0 comments

What’s the best idea you’ve come up with lately? What inspired it? If it was inspired by something or someone, how did you make it your own? Now that it’s your own, what is the purpose of the idea? How will it inspire people? How will it change lives, hearts, actions, reactions? Is your idea meant to do that? Should all ideas be meant to do that? What was the creative process that lead to your idea? Was there a process, or did it just come to you in a flash? How do you know it’s a good idea? If it’s a bad idea, how do you recognize it as such?

In the end…it’s all about the idea isn’t it? It’s all about thought, vision, innovation, creativity and motion coming together in just the right way to create a spark. Now, view that in light of the greatness of God. From that wonderful perspective, the idea takes on an even greater significance doesn’t it? It’s in His hands that our simplistic naive creative moments can be transformed into God breathed, God inspired, God centered…ideas.

From The Vault: “The Experience” (10/18/08)

Posted by Jim Henry in creativity, ministry, new, sunday, the vault, worship | 0 comments

People often ask me what I love most about being in ministry. My answer is simple…I love creating the experience. The great thing about an experience (Sunday morning, Wednesday night or otherwise) is that it is constantly changing. One week, the experience may be very upbeat, visual and “in your face”…whereas the next, it may be intimate, introspective and filled with pause.

It’s through the experience that people are introduced to Jesus. It’s through the experience that people who already know Him come to know Him in a deeper way. It’s through the experience that hearts are moved and lives are altered. The experience is an incredible tool…and when it’s surrendered to the leading of the Holy Spirit, it is limitless.

I’ve come to look at the experience as a blank canvas waiting to be painted. The central theme of the painting is the message. The mission of the experience is to amplify the message…to find a way, from the moment people walk in to the moment they walk out, to bring their focus to the message. Songs, sets, visuals, video, scripture, interviews, testimonies, lighting, effects…it all ties together and, if used effectively, can drive home the message in a way that is unforgettable…

THAT, is the experience…and THAT is what I love most about my job

Reminders

Posted by Jim Henry in life, ministry, new | 0 comments

God has an amazing way of reminding us of things. Several years ago, shortly after moving from Seattle to Illinois, I was sitting on the porch with my Wife. We we’re missing home a bit. Full-time ministry was a new adventure for us and life in the Midwest was completely different than life on the West Coast. That afternoon, we looked up in the sky and the clouds were shaped as mountains. One, in particular, looked just like Mt. Rainier. I remember tearing up at the sight. We were exactly where God wanted us to be, yet He still found a way to remind us of home and remind us of His presence on our new journey.

The other day, we were in the Wal-Mart checkout line, when I noticed a man walking passed our line towards the restroom. Nothing unusual there, except the man was missing his right leg. He walked using crutches and had his right pant leg tucked up behind him. The single most influential man in my life was my Grandfather. He was an amazing, Godly man, who never wavered from his faith no matter the circumstance. In the 50′s, my Grandfather lost his right leg in an accident. I never new him without his trademark crutches and his right pant leg tucked neatly into the back of his pants. That moment was a reminder to me of the people God has placed in my life. People who have helped shape me and teach me…people who have walked with me through struggles and victories…people who were the hand of God in my life.

God put these reminders around us for a reason. He never wants us to forget how He has influenced our steps, guided our circumstances and carried us where He wants us to be. All we need to do, is stop long enough to notice.

Melody

Posted by Jim Henry in church, ministry, programming, worship | 1 comment

Have you ever had a melody stuck in your head? You spend your entire day humming the same tune over and over again. When I was growing up, we used to sing this old song called; “In My Heart There Rings a Melody” – I remember Old Russ Howard playing the organ and the song leader leading the congregation from behind the pulpit. I remember always singing that song as loud as I could…I loved that song, it resounded deep within me, even at a young age.

Today, I have that old melody stuck in my head. It’s bringing back some wonderful memories of going to church and sitting next to my Grandfather. It makes me think of hymn books and 90 minute sermons. It reminds me of after church social time consisting of jelly donuts cut in half and dixie cups filled with juice.

Church is quite a bit different over 30 years later. Today, I spend a lot of time trying to create moments and environments which will resonate with people. The truth is, however, without that melody none of it matters. If we, as church leaders, can’t find a way to consistently make the simple melody of Jesus resonate in the hearts of people, then we’re missing the mark.

As you and your team plan you’re next series or your next Sunday, ask yourselves one simple question. How can we make the melody of Jesus stick in the hearts of people? If everything we do, plan, program and create could point toward answering that question, the life change would be overwhelming.

“DRIVE” Series Bumper

Posted by Jim Henry in church, creativity, ministry, programming, sunday, sunnybrook, video, worship | 0 comments

Here’s the bumper video for our upcoming sermon series “Drive” at Sunnybrook Community Church.

“DRIVE” Sermon Series Bumper from Jim Henry on Vimeo.