Are you ready to go fishing for your community? Is your church more interested in "cleaning" fish or catching them? If it is the later, make sure you have the right bait.

There are dozens of posts on the internet that will give you hints to best utilize these 7 seconds when going to a job interview or making a sales call. But the same principle applies to the guests at our churches. Have you ever thought that your guests are looking at their experience in much the same way they might evaluate a "buying" decision? They are the "buyer" and they are interviewing/investigating you...your church....you ability to meet their needs...you ability to fill a role in their life

In the blog, he was referencing Drucker and made the following statement - "Peter always told me that predictions were perilous and inevitably surprising. I have some drink coasters on my desk quoting Peter that say, 'The best way to predict the future is to create it.' Peter was usually 20 years or so ahead of events. This is the way he explained it to me, 'You look out the window to see what is happening today and build your picture of the future by extending the implications of the present.'"

The design of a facility and campus are far more critical in telling your story than most people realize. Road appeal matters. Aesthetics matter. I am not saying that your facility needs to be opulent or look like the Chrystal Cathedral, but it is going to make a “statement” and tell a story to those in your community. It can also be the catalyst to suck people in or repel them.

Did you that Disney studied and learned that the maximum amount of steps a person will walk to get to a trash can is 30 paces. In order to promote the cleanliness of the park, trash cans are placed no farther than 27 paces away from each other. Wow...that will keep things clean. And not only that...they are not just trash cans...they are props and part of the story.

However, what I do not like is when I think I am observing or participating in a story to learn that it is actually only a fairy tale. I feel betrayed, tricked or misled. Have you ever read a story and were fully engulfed in a theme to only find out that it was not true or relevant or congruent? Bummer! I hate "bate and switch" experiences.