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A Field of Dreams…with Dead Grass and Box Seats, Part 1 of 4
A Field of Dreams…with Dead Grass and Box Seats
Get to the point in your communication. Quickly. Especially your written communication. Make it a habit. Now.
A Field of Dreams was the name of the movie that brought us the wishful fantasy that, “If I build it, they will come”…even if I build it in the middle of a cornfield in the middle of nowhere. So how does that work? It works if you have a Hollywood budget and you pay famous actors to show up, and then use them and the big screen to entice regular folks to be extras on the set for a couple of hours. After all, who doesn’t want to be in the movies. That is always good fodder for a resume.
As church planters and communicators, we can easily fall prey to the same thinking. It goes like this:
“If I write it, they will read it.” That is not reality. This, however, is: strike 1, 2, 3 you’re out. If you get in the habit of saying too much in your written communication, which I find to be the default mode of most planters, you will lose the ear of your audience altogether. Like a pitch count in baseball, you only get so many attempts before you are out. That means, your people will come to a conclusion after watching a few pitches. If you say too much too often, they will tune you out before you even have a chance in the future. This is not because they don’t love Jesus, or you, or the church, or the gospel. It is because they are not church planters. They are fathers and mothers and employees and husbands and wives and daughters and sons and…(you get the idea). Love them and respect them enough to get to the point quickly in your written communication. That is a wonderful way to serve your people.
Don’t build a field of dreams with dead grass and box seats when nobody is coming.
Next Time
Next time, I will share a few tips for how you can get to the point quickly in your own written communication.
Good News
If you notice a wordy tendency in your written communication, it can sometimes stem from pride (I am wonderful and I deserve your ear) or lack of discipline and love (I am too busy to care enough to edit my words). Here is the good news, Jesus was quick to listen and slow to speak. As the creator of language, he never talked just to hear himself. Every word he said was out of a love for the Father and a love for us. Our Savior, and the true Senior Pastor of your church plant, submitted every word to the Father’s will, came to communicate the Father’s heart, and gladly covers us with his loving words so that we can be free to serve others with our words instead of ourselves.
What Say You
Where do you struggle in your written communication? What do you think is at the root of your struggle? (time, skill, gifting, heart, other)
I would love to know so that we can work together to improve and love those whom we shepherd with the kind of love we have received.