Pam Parish

I ran across a quote today that I thought was rather poignant, I don’t know the year it was said, but I like what it says…

A recent government publication on the marketing of cabbage contains, according to one report, 26,941 words. It is noteworthy in this regard that the Gettysburg Address contains a mere 279 words while the Lord’s Prayer comprises but 67.
- Norman R. Augustine

There’s not much more that I can say except that maybe sometimes, especially as communicators and marketers, we use way too many words. In saying that, I’m not necessarily talking about using images rather than words, or using media, or simplifying or any other thing you can think of…

Rather, it actually brings to mind the Crave Factor session that I recently heard. We were all challenged to focus on creating a “craving” in people rather than simply communicating the “need”…

But, really, how can you create a craving… well, it starts with knowing what the need is. This is hard work, because what people generally need is not always what we think they need. This is hard work because we have to get to know our community, the people who visit our church, people as individual and we have to get outside our church walls (boxes) and get into the hearts and minds of people.

To use fewer words, you must have greater understanding… we have to learn to ask and answer the hard questions:

• What are the people in our local community struggling with?
• What is it that they are looking for?
• What are their primary influences and how can we tap into them?
• When they come through our doors, do we really know what they’re looking for? If so, do we know what we need to do to make them comfortable and provide ways to meet their needs?

Of course, we can’t be all things to all people, but by seeking understanding, we can be more relevant, approachable and really, really care about people. We can be Christ-like.

Caring About Others,