The Purple Ink Buzz

I recently led a seminar in Mentoring in which the discussion eventually got around to church involvement.  It seems like we're all always looking for the latest gadget, newest idea, or magic pill to get our members involved and engaged in church activities.

I mentioned to the group that I could still remember the days of mimeograph.  (For those of you under the age of 30, look it up.)  Mimeograph was a way of producing duplicates or copies of documents.  It used purple ink.  It was messy.  And a deep breath of the still-wet ink would give a third grader the greatest buzz known to man (or at least third graders.)

Mimeograph was how we communicated at the time.  We used it for making copies of tests in school, copies of church newsletters, and copies of flyers announcing meetings, dinners and special events.  (There's a scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High with the ink-sniffing thing.  If you've never seen the movie, stop what you're doing right now, and go watch it.  We'll wait for you...)

Back already?  Wipe that popcorn off your shirt.

Anyway, mimeograph was eventually replaced by the copy machine, once it was made affordable to the general public.  Now we had a faster, more efficient, less messy way of communicating with the rest of the world regarding our meetings, dinners and special events.

And guess what happened next?  We discovered that if you used colored paper, even more people would pay attention to your flyers.  

"Pure genius!"

"It's so crazy, it just might work!"

And work, it did.  For a while, anyway.

Next came butcher paper and the huge paintbrush markers.  Then we all ran out and bought poster machines and button makers.  Soon after, along came email.  Blinking LED message boards.  Vinyl banners.  T-shirts that said, "Ask me about my church!"  MySpace.  FaceBook.  Blogs.  V-blogs.  Text messages.

And the list goes on.

And we still wonder why there are empty seats at our services and events.

You see, I think we've come full circle in this whole how-can-I-get-your-attention thing.  The best way I know to put hineys in seats is by sending myself on a mission.

The mission?  Meet people.  Shake hands.  Personally invite them.

We've come full circle and landed right back at relationships.

There’s an old leadership formula that says:  Leadership = Relationship + Influence.  Personally, I think Relationship = Influence.  If you want to influence someone, you’d better have a relationship with them.  But somewhere along the way, we were distracted by colored paper, vinyl banners and blinking lights.

Skip's Challenge of the Week:

Take the time to forge relationships and invest in other people, especially when it comes to helping others have a relationship with Christ.  It’s called discipling.

It'll pay off in the long run.

And what do you have to lose?

Only a purple ink buzz.

Blessings -

Skip

A Camping We Will Go...

Mention church camp to me now (as an adult,) and it has an entirely different meaning than when I was a kid.  Back then, my parents would ship me off to a Baptist camp in Oklahoma, and we weren’t even Baptists.

I remember the long, hot summer hours we spent each night in the “tabernacle” as a visiting evangelist called for “every head bowed and every eye closed” as we sang 27 verses of Just As I Am.  One night, my buddies and I drew straws and the loser had to go forward, just so we could get out of there.  I lost.

I still feel a twinge of guilt when I think about that night, and the fact that my coming forward during the altar call wasn’t quite sincere.  I think I even feel more guilt when I think about all the times we held hands in a prayer circle at camp.  Someone would pray, and when they had said about all they could say, they would squeeze the hand of the next person, then that person would pray.  Every time they squeezed my hand, I would say, “Pass.”

Oh well.  I guess we all have regrets.

One thing I will never regret, however, is taking the kids to camp as an adult.  I L-O-V-E- it.  And I wouldn’t miss it for all the tea in... wherever they keep tea.  To be honest, I don’t even really think about the kids.  I think about me.  Me, me, me.  And all the fun I’m going to have with the other pastors and youth pastors.

But don’t tell my youth group.  They think I’m sacrificing just for them.  It’ll be our little secret.

Please keep our youth (and me) in your prayers.  We head to camp in Kansas City July 8 - 13.

While you’re at it, specifically pray for no “altar call fake-outs” and no “passing.”

Mucho blessings -

Skip