One of Orange’s key strategies is to refine the message to really amplify what’s important. Stories are a powerful tool in carrying a listener through a message, introducing and persuading change.

Check out “Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion,” an article from PSYBLOG, and learn tips for crafting better stories by making them more engaging and persuasive.

WHY STORIES SELL: TRANSPORTATION LEADS TO PERSUASION

Marketers have known for years that stories are a powerful tool for persuading people. That’s partly because stories (unlike statistics) are easy to understand.

That’s why politicians try to persuade us by telling stories about their vision of the world. They do spout statistics as well, but normally only in support of some kind of grand narrative.

We instinctively understand that people resist being told what to do, but will respond to the moral of a story. So we try to persuade each other with little stories about ‘someone we know’. Then we simplify and embellish them to make the moral clear. (MORE)

Did they pay attention? Did you engage them? It’s something to consider when you are communicating to kids and students. You have a limited amount of time, so it’s important to make the most of it. You may have heard people say, “But it’s not our job to entertain kids.” No, but we are called to teach them, and the word teach means “to cause to learn.” So, how do you make the most of the time you are teaching your kids? Are you constantly evaluating what’s being presented, and coming up with ways to be more effective?

This month, we’re challenging you to think about engaging presentations. Whether we communicate from the stage, or in front of one person, it’s important that we remain authentic, creative and relevant.

In this month’s video, we are going to change it up a bit, instead of watching a video where someone tells us how to create an engaging presentation we are going to watch and learn from a great talk. If you have heard Reggie speak, then you know that he is an engaging speaker, and there’s a lot we can learn from him!

September YouLead Webcast: Reggie Joiner

We pray you have a richly blessed Easter weekend remembering our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®
Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of
Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Title from “Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Chap Clark is vice provost for regional campuses and masters programs, and professor of youth, family and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. Today, listen in as Chap speaks about Strategic Service.

Strategic Service, Chap Clark

Interested in hearing more about Strategic Service? Check out YouLead, our leadership development curriculum!

A Warning

Let me start by saying I really hope you don’t fall down and have some sort of heart attack in front of me and my wife when we’re out on a date. You might think, man, that’s selfish, but you’d be wrong. The reason I hope this doesn’t happen to you is because last night at dinner we were talking about our CPR training. You know the kind I’m talking about, right? You pack eight hours of training into some sort of “re-cert” and they remind you of everything you need to know to save a life, and then you’re off and running. So there we were, talking about our training, and neither of us could remember how many compressions and how many breaths. We couldn’t remember how long to wait between each. Frankly, we couldn’t remember a thing. She guessed it was five compressions and two breaths. I said three compressions and one breath. We were both way off: 30 compressions and two breaths (we found out when we googled it).

So What?

What does this have to do with you? Other than suggesting you stay clear of Melissa and I when you feel chest pain? If you think about that training we received, it has everything a good training should have: it is critical information; it uses visual and multimedia aids; it is passionate talk about life-saving; and it’s even interactive. Sometimes we wish our own training or messages had that much info, media and interaction, right?

So why couldn’t we remember what we’d learned?

I think there are two simple things we often forget, when we’re communicating with others:

1. People don’t learn much in a single sitting. Packing a lot of information just isn’t all that helpful.
2. Without practice, people will forget everything they heard.

In the Gospel of Mark (Mark 4:25), Jesus tells his disciples, “For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” It’s one of those statements you can spend a lifetime trying to figure out. But I think it comes down to this: If you work with the little nuggets of truth that you do understand, you’ll be given more nuggets to chew on. If you don’t work with what you have, you’ll forget even what you’ve heard before. Sound about right? Does it ring true with training or messages you’ve received that you never put into practice? It does for me—I can’t remember anything I learned, at all.

Less is More

So instead of packing your messages or trainings with tons of information, maybe you should deliver less content. Less information. Less facts. Less of everything. And just help people put it to use. Help people obey. Help people digest the smallest amount of truth so that they can count it as something they “have” and now “more will be given” to them.

In the Orange Leader Handbook, Reggie sums it up better than I: “Instead of standing up in front of an audience and giving a list of seven things to do with a biblical passage, we like to narrow it down to one primary truth,” (p.72).

Last night my wife and I ended our discussion by quizzing each other on what to do if we were on fire. We both remembered the single line that we learned as kids, “Stop, drop and roll.” One thing. One action. And so simple that the real test isn’t if we know it in the greek or some other obscure fact about it. It’s that we know how to obey it and we can even remember practicing it. It’s not easy, but it’s true: Less is more.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’d admit that we want to be great at something that few people find success. While many of us would like to be great at dancing, most of us end up looking like this instead:

Too many times we have people look at us like Hitch looked at his pupil and they say, “Don’t ever do that again!” Of course, Hitch goes on to explain how to dance. His major point is to keep it simple: Go side to side, arms in, elbows tight, and don’t try anything fancy.

This month we’ve been looking at the concept of teaching one point for the most impact. When we try teaching too many things at once to any age group, it simply isn’t effective. We end up looking like we don’t know what we’re talking about and the message doesn’t come across well.

Lesson learned here is this: If you want to dance or teach, keep things focused. Don’t try spin moves or theological gymnastics; because you may just end up looking silly in the end.

One of the biggest stories and biggest business deals in the past 15 years has to be the announcement this past Sunday that AT&T plans to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion. Yes, $39 Billion is a lot of money, and there has to be a strategy behind this type of decision. We must be able to look at this decision and learn from it. Whether our reaction is “YES!” or “NOOOOOOO!!!!” the information that we take from this decision needs to be examined.

Believe it or not, I believe some of the same principles that are found in the Orange Strategy can be found in this huge deal. What are the principles I see in both?

1. Combining two influences is greater than two individual influences.
-Orange combines the influence of the home and the Church.
-AT&T combined the influence of their current towers with the towers of T-Mobile.

2. Refine the Message
-Orange is always updating lessons, websites, conferences and anything else that we do for that matter.
-AT&T needed to update its image. They could not simply hope to build enough infrastructure or market better. Their message had to go to the core or their problem. Even if they had to overpay, the message had to be sent that they believe in their customers.

3. Integrate Strategy
-Orange sees this as aligning church leaders and parents to lead with the same end in mind.
-AT&T sees this as integrating calls, 3G, 4G, and all other data that could be coming in the future. The end in mind here is all about data going to mobile devices.

4. Utilize Influence
-Orange sees this as creating consistent opportunities for students to experience personal ministry.
-AT&T has to see this as creating consistent opportunities to make calls whether you are in San Fransisco or New York, which is where they have huge issues. These two cities just happen to have a huge influence, as well, on all things technology in the U.S.

5. Elevate Community
-Orange sees this as connecting everyone to a caring leader and a consistent group of peers.
-AT&T of course wants to connect everyone to their network and make the most money. They will do this by elevating every community in the U.S.

Now these are just some of the similarities that I see in Orange and in the AT&T deal. I also see a lot of similarities between this deal and what needs to happen at a lot of churches across the U.S. What do I mean?

1. Students, Children, Preschool and Senior Leadership need to look at doing a merger in their own church that will increase their power to reach the next generation.

2. Some churches need to do an infrastructure overhaul. They need to look at their systems and see what needs to be improved in a way that is drastic.

3. This process of AT&T taking over T-Mobile is going to take at least a year and go through a ton of meetings. Change is not an easy process and it will take your church a long time and a lot of meetings to get on the same page.

4. This deal is a global effort, even though its effects will mostly be felt in the U.S. Churches need to think globally as well as locally. Even if most of your efforts may be felt in your community, don’t forget about the global initiative to which we’ve all been called.

5. Some people hate this decision and others love it. The same will be true when your church tries anything new. Don’t listen to your greatest fans or your greatest critics.

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the similarities that I see. What are some that you see? Do you think it is going to be a good thing that AT&T bought T-Mobile? We want to hear your opinion.

This is going to be a treat. Chris Wiersma is the senior pastor of Westside King’s Church in Calgary, Alberta, and he’s an incredible communicator. Chris Brogan is the president of New Marketing Labs and a leader in social media strategy. Eavesdropping on a conversation between these two communication experts is going to be good!

Check out part one!

Chris Wiersma and Chris Brogan

Interested in hearing more of what these two have to say? Check out YouLead, our leadership development curriculum!

The Message…the Journey to Finding my Voice

Orange Leaders gave me a challenge: describe your own personal journey on your brand—the message you want to be sending with your life.

Growing up I wanted to be everything from a performer to a jock (for like a day), a lawyer to a teacher. I wanted to be famous and important, make lots of money so I could afford a slammin’ wardrobe. Even when I started working in the church, I kept looking for stepping stones to what could be next for me—worship arts, small groups, senior pastor? Because of this occupational ADD, I had no idea who I was or who I wanted to be. I was probably sending a message to the world that I only cared about me. And for the most part, that was true.

I don’t have to tell you. This is not the message anyone should broadcast with their life.

Somewhere along my journey of faith, the Spirit turned a light on. I’m thankful for my wife and some amazing friends whose words brought me to my knees and helped begin a new journey of discovery. This time the question was not “Who do I want to be?” The question was “Who has God made me to be?”

One day after a conversation with another kid’s pastor, it hit me square in the face. This is who I am. I am that guy who loves kids and families, the guy who loves watching them connect with God and His church. I love helping leaders across the world win in ministry. This is how God has made me, and it is good.

From that moment on, I was free to live as God created me. I didn’t have to hide behind any false pretenses. A weight had been lifted. In many ways, I felt comfortable in my skin for the first time. I had found my voice.

We’re all on a journey of self-discovery. When we follow the call to serve the church, more often than not, this journey is out there for many people to see. I want to send the message that I’m real, that what you see is what you get. I’m going to do my best to love God and love others, but I’m not always going to get that right. I want other leaders to know that we’re all in this together. That we share in each other’s wins and failures. We will laugh and cry together. We will encourage each other along this journey of faith.

And so I live my life out loud. I write about it all from the good to the bad and even the ugly (Yes, I put Santa on stage once!). If we can’t be real with whom we serve, what are we doing here?

My challenge to the Orange Leaders out there is to find people in your life who will call you on your inconsistencies. Find mentors who will speak truth into your life and shape you into the person God desires. As a result, you will find your voice, hone your message, and speak volumes of the grace of God working in your life.

To read more of what Dan has to say, check out his blog. Dan is also a regular contributor to our Orangeapedia and Orange Exchange, a free resource to help equip leaders.

Did you know that Gallup researchers estimate that we are exposed (more like bombarded) with 5000 different advertising messages a day? We hear them, we read them—we are surrounded with messages telling us what to do and what to believe and what to buy.

That means there’s an awful lot of competing noise out there. It can easily drown out what’s most important. When there are so many different messages, they tend to cancel each other out. If you don’t believe me….

Try this activity at home with your family or friends. Watch a favorite TV show but don’t fast forward through the commercials. Let them all play. When the show finishes, turn it off and ask your family or friends to tell you about all the commercials they just watched. They will have trouble remembering them all. If one does stick, ask them why it stands out from the rest?

So how do we as leaders work on not saying TOO MUCH in the limited amount of time we have with kids and teens each week? It’s hard to not jump from point to point or hurry to ask all the questions when there’s so much we want them to know. How can we focus and zero in on the most important thing that might resonate with something they’re going through or something that brings out strong emotions and feeling– like the Super Bowl commercial you remember the next day? Basically, how do we share specific, key truths in ways that really stick and stand out?

We want to emphasize one thing over everything else each week. We want to say it and display it and talk about it from as many angles as possible– so that this truth can’t be missed or lost in a lot of other competing messages.

What do you do to narrow the focus and spotlight just one of God’s principles or truths so they stick in the minds and hearts of the ones we serve and love?