In this fourth post on Take Seth Godin to Church I want to focus on Tribal Movement. Consider using the questions in these posts for staff or volunteer meetings in the month of December. Use the Advent season to see Jesus as the coming founder of a redemptive tribe called The Church. The previous two posts dealt with tribal passion and tribal leadership.
Today I want to apply Godin’s perspective about leading a tribe, to Jesus. As we do, I invite you to allow the life of Jesus shape your own identity as a leader.
You may wonder why Godin’s perspective is so valuable here. Although he doesn’t sit in the academy or carry credentials of a theologian, he is a language artist who knows people and knows the times.
My three favorite Seth Godin quotes pertaining to tribal passion lead to 5 questions for you to consider about the passion of your tribe.
You’ve probably been exposed to Seth Godin’s book, Tribes. But have you integrated his ideas into your thinking and leadership at church?
Before developing a tagline, it is important for a leadership team to know, agree on and articulate the primary strength of your ministry (I call this the Kingdom Concept) and to articulate the Vision Frame. Think of the Vision Frame of “knowing who you are” before you decide to “get dressed” to present yourself to people in the world.
By now you are ready to pull the trigger.
Use your external ranked list as a very serious perspective for input, but not necessarily the final basis. If there is a clear favorite from the external audience, I would highly recommend using it, unless there is a compelling reason otherwise.
There are many ways to test your top five taglines. The most important thing is that you DO test it. It will be tempting to feel the excitement of your internal process and just skip this step.
Now its time to identify your top five ideas.
I recommend a two step process. Make sure you have had at least two weeks to reflect on your list of 100 or more ideas. The team should have a copy of all of these. This is important as the creative blitz may produce excitement around ideas that won’t last. A great tagline will get even better in the first few weeks after some reflection.
Before you begin reducing your brainstormed list, you want to know what’s happening around you so you can differentiate your “voice” and messaging. If you use a tagline similar to another ministry it may create confusion.
The key here is, as you might have guessed, quantity. Most teams don’t spend enough time creating a high quantity of ideas. Remember in brainstorming, no idea is a bad idea and half-baked ideas might lead to break-through ideas!
