Protecting the Gift

Last week I went to a training event put on by Granger Community Church (www.gccwired.com) and I attended the seminar by Kem Myers on Communication.  Some very good stuff.  The bottom line for me was the idea to keep it simple.  It used to be that we thought that the more choices we gave people, the better so churches started offering everything under the sun.  There seems to be a shift going on now to the simple church idea.  Somewhere in the middle, there is a balance to be found.

Anyway, the idea of simple needs to permeate everything that we present.  When we print a Sunday program or an invitation or a website and people see too much info, they just check out because of the overload.  Identify what is most important and focus on that.  Direct people clearly where they can get more info if needed but KEEP IT SIMPLE!  

You know, not a bad lesson for life, huh?  Figure out what is most important and focus on that.  Don't let the fullness of life crowd out the best of life.

During the training event, Kem showed a video clip that really caught my attention.  It was done by Dove (you know, the soap people) and they have started this thing called "Campaign for Real Beauty."  To get it through our heads about the message being pushed toward women in our culture about what beauty is, they developed some short video clips. They are great clips to illustrate Romans 12.1-2 (don't be pushed into the world's mold but be transformed) and 1 Peter 3.3-4 (defining what true beauty is by contrasting the world's perspective).  I have to warn you, the "Onslaught" clip is pretty provocative but (unfortunately) not much worse than standing in line at the grocery store and being assaulted by the magazine racks.  This is a soap company communicating a biblical perspective!  You can find the clip and info on the campaign at http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef07/t5.aspx?id=7373&filmno=1

If you have a daughter - the message is a good one.  YOU teach what true beauty is because the Beauty industry wants to tell her a lie.  But really, should we leave the formation of our daughter's character in the hands of a soap company?