Thursday, January 12, 2006

A Day of Dialogue

Today I participated in an all-day staff retreat to go over the upcoming ministry calendar and the next budget for 2006/2007. It was a long day. How well it was spent will be determined by the outcomes of our planning.

Throughout the day the most significant moments for me were those in which the dialogue moved beyond the details of event planning to those unlying priniciples which guide our decisions. Ive increasingly found myself dissatisified with anything not done with intention. If you are going to do something, then really do it. If you dont have the capacity to do something with significance, then focus your efforts on those things which you can.

As the media director at my church, Im continually presented with information in which to communicate to the masses. It is amazing how much of my communication theory background and formal education keeps coming back to my awareness. The entire communication process from them sender to the reciever is truly an amazing thing. Today, the act of communication has only been complicated in the last decade by the increasing number of channels in which one can use to communicate a message.

Several months ago I gave the staff a quick and broad picture of the various channels of communication available to transmit a message to others. Youve got print, video, television, email, websites, flyers, posters, billboards, direct-mail, press releases, t-shirts, buttons, pens, etc., (add others that come to your mind), and the king of them all word of mouth. Im not sure Ive ever seen any organization able to afford to transmit a message through every possible channel. Would it even be possible? In a non-profit organization I believe our best and most effective channel of communication is through the network of individuals which makes up our organization. The challange is to get that network of people to communicate the message you want transmitted to those who need to hear.

One strategy Ive encourage the staff to use is to intentionally communicate one message, through multiple channels, in a short duration of time. If we can communicate a message 3-5 different ways on a Sunday morning, then I believe that message will have a greater chance of successful transmission. Relying on only one avenue of communication is always a recipe for disappointment.

I do have all sort of ideas related to this issue, but I think those can be left for another day. Ive done quite a bit of thinking today already.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

My First Blog

Just loaded by first piece of blog software onto my website last night. So far things seem to be working.

The last several months Ive been thinking about how to add information to our website to keep our friends and family in the loop. Weve got two young boys who are growing like crazy. I think it would be neat to share some of that.

I did a little searching for WordPress plugins last night. Being able to easily add photos to my blog would be pretty neat. I may experiment with adding gallary to my website but the blog may be easier for me to implement at first.

I probably should start thinking about what catagories to use in my blog. There will be stuff from home to talk about, probably work related items, and I might even venture into a little politics. Im sortta a talk radio junkie. I dont listen to it at work, but whenever Im in the car that is typically what Im listening to.

For several years I used to journal quite a bit so my blog may end up being my place to keep all my thoughts together in one place. I may have to censor some of the ideas between the ears, but Im fairly honest. I dont keep that many secrets nor do I try to keep a tight lid on whats going on in my heart. My wife would probably like me to verbalize it a bit more. But that is for another day.

Im pretty new to this blog thing. So if you have any comments or suggestions Im wide open. It might be nice to know someone out there is checking in on me from time to time.

For a while I am sure blog of mine will be my little corner in the world few if any will know about.