Making an effort to understand how people perceive what you are saying when you communicate with them seems like a “no brainer”. But surprisingly, few ministries have a clear concept of how they are perceived by the people they hope to reach. They also have not taken time to outline how they wish to be perceived by the people they want to reach.
Don’t believe me? Ask the members of your church staff/team to independently write down on a slip of paper 10 words that describe your church. Also, ask them to write down 10 words that would describe what they feel people who don’t attend your church would think about the church. Not only will the list be different between what the staff thinks and what they think the community thinks, chances are high, no two staff members will have the same opinions for either list.
If you took this exercise outside the walls of your church and got a few people in the community to make a list, you might have a real awakening. This shows how random we can be in Christian communication. We rarely intentionally investigate what others are thinking, yet we are always trying to change their perceptions. Go figure!
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