Posts Categorized: Church

Published on January 1, 2011 by Scott Gould

The Importance Of Being Encouraged

Meeting my friend Waqas Ali in Islamabad

Do we really know how powerful our words are? I’m not just talking about thinking and speaking positively – which has benefit and we need to do for sure – but on an even more powerful yet everyday level that can impact the world around us.

I’m talking about encouragement.

We seem as a society a discomfort with expressing encouragement and also receiving it. How often does someone praise us or communicate their thanks to us and we sidestep it and say “Well, it was nothing” or immediately returning the praise with a compliment of our own, rather than squarely receiving the thanks?

Or how often do we fail to communicate to others our own thanks, love and appreciation, not through a text or email, but by sitting someone down and telling them directly face-to-face how we value them? (And, hopefully without them squirming to sidestep the praise as above!)

The Power Of A Word

I mention this because I was recently contacted by someone from my Feedback days 5 years ago who I hadn’t seem in as many years. This young man had once been part of the Feedback youth organisation and regularly attended our church. He had, as most did, a troubled family life and struggled with insecurity, rebellion, ego, fear and the usual teenage emotional cocktail.

One night all those years ago, I was praying for him and I looked at him and told him “You’re a warrior.” Saying things like this to people isn’t something unusual for me, and really it wasn’t anything that I thought was life changing – it was just something encouraging I said to him – but what happened next is something amazing.

This young man had moved away years ago and, as I heard from someone else I happened to bump into from the Feedback days, had just moved back to Exeter. He sought me out just the other week – the first time we had seen each other for years – and we went out for lunch that week.

There, sat at the table, he told me that for all these years one of the things that he had held onto in the good times and the bad was that single word I’d said to him – warrior.

Opening Our Mouths, Closing Our Discomfort

I don’t know why we get some uncomfortable about expressing ourselves like this. But what I have found is that as we become more secure of ourselves, we become more secure about others. I can directly correlate the support and encouragement of my wife with my ability to support and encourage others.

What I have learnt through all the people that I mentor, and the interns that I praise on the last day of work, is we have to open our mouths and shut up our discomfort. The way that I learned to encourage people at first was to literally write down what I wanted to say and then find a movement to sit someone down quietly and encourage them. At first it was very uncomfortable, but having it written down meant that the discomfort didn’t stop me from saying what I needed to say.

The worst thing is when we have the encouraging words right there in our mouths, but our discomfort keeps them closed.

We Need Your Encouragement

The main point of what I want to say is that in the instance of this young man, he needed encouragement. And today, we need your encouragement. You need mine and I need yours. So let’s not let our pride or discomfort hold it back.

Equally, we need each other to speak plainly into our lives when it comes to correction, and if we haven’t developed the maturity to encourage without discomfort, we certainly can’t correct without discomfort.

So here’s to an encouraging 2011. Now, open your mouths.

Scott

Published on November 4, 2010 by Scott Gould

Something Beautiful Podcast

I was recently interviewed for the Something Beautiful Podcast, a Christian leaders podcast hosted by Jonathan Blundell.

In this episode, I’m interviewed about my work with Like Minds, how much of that is a mirror of my church, and my draw into Christian work and the subsequent way that I went into business. I’m introduced about 8 minutes or so into the podcast, so beware that the first two voices aren’t me.

Listen to the podcast here.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • What has been one of the most life changing situations in your life, similar to those I describe in the podcast?
Published on October 22, 2010 by Scott Gould

Are You Using A Fishing Rod Or A Fishing Net?

This guy has fished the sun out of the ocean

Back in 2003 when we started running Feedback (a youth charity attached to my church), our first event wasn’t the sell out that I had hoped. Serving gourmet coffee, fresh donuts, jazz performances, and me retelling something I’ve heard on a Tony Robbins tape, it wasn’t exactly the definition of “youth”.

In fact, it was the definition of me.

But over the course of a year, we changed as a team and became far more in touch with what the youth needed, resulting in a packed event with 350 people exactly one year later.

Fishing With A Rod

I tell this story because to start it is exemplifies what it is to go fishing with a fishing rod. When we take a fishing rod approach, we can only catch one fish a time and intensely hunt for the single best fish that we can. A good fishing trip bears with it a good story of catching that fish – you know – the one that you hold in the photo and is the length of your body if not more.

The trouble with fishing with a rod is that it’s only ever one at a time, and I’ve found that when we do this, we seek to find what we want as a provider, not what other’s want as an end user. This isn’t always the case, but it tends to be so in my experience.

Fishing With A Net

The alternative, as became as a team after a year, is to fishers who fish with a net. When you take a net, you trall in everything and anything that you can catch, and then sift through it after. It is an undiscriminating way to go about fishing – you don’t pick and choose – you fish. We started to do this when we changed to having coffee to having a bunch of cold drinks and hot drinks. Before it was “you have to the kind of fish that likes gourmet coffee”, but after it was “if you want a drink, we’ve got one for you.” You see the difference?

Sifting through it after means once you’ve pulled up the net, you understand that not everything will stick. This is fundamental to a volume or value based approach – no matter what, people will opt out of certain levels of participation with you, and that’s fine – it’s just where they want to be.

Your Leading Thoughts

We value your inputs – both your experience and your insights. Talking about Fishing Rods and Fishing Nets,

  • Which are you using for your current project? Can you tell us about it and how you’re dong?
  • Neither Rods or Nets are right or wrong. They are just two approaches, the second of which I find is better for community. What is your opinion here?

Photo credit.

Published on October 19, 2010 by Scott Gould

How To Humanise Campaigns

Wikipedia - GamerOn Monday 15th November 2010, I’ll be in London speaking at the Social Not For Profit Summit, organised by the most excellent Barry Furby. It’s a part of the techMAP series of events, which is a community around technology, marketing, advertising and PR.

I did say to Barry at first that I didn’t think I was a good fit, but as he reminded me, I’ve worked in small non-profits for 10 years! My work at The River Church, as well as our offshoots, like Touch Conference, He Saved The Day, others that no longer have websites, and our upcoming project To-Get-Her, which aims to double the number of rooms available for those rescued from Human Trafficking.

In the true spirit of Scott Gould and Friends, I’d like to hear from you what you would share and what you think would add value to this summit.

Humanising Campaigns

Barry has asked me to speak on two things, the first of which is about making humanistic campaigns. For me this goes down to Social Authority. Anything campaign we do at church (and with Like Minds) always profiles people of various demographics, as the number one question people ask when it comes to community is “who here is like me?”

Converting Followers to Advocates

The second topic is one that we speak about a lot here through our conversations on participation. By inviting people to be involved, and putting the kids in the show, you increase people’s emotional investment and thus they become advocates with you. Of course, this only works if you genuinely believe in them. You can’t cheat your way to this.

Leadership expert John Maxwell always says that the strongest leadership is needed in church, where people are not paid to work and cannot be threatened to work. I agree – the non-profit realm is where really leadership is needed, so I’m sure there’s some debate to be had here.

Let’s Meet

If you’re in London on Monday 15th November, then I’d love to see you there. All directions and details are on their website. If you’re wondering if it’s for you, the type of things being look at are:

What about Charities and Not for Profits?
What about those with small or no budget to capitalise on the digital and social landscape?
What about those who struggle to achieve advocacy for their cause and look to Social for a source of inspiration?
How can Social Media turn supporters into advocates?
How do you bring together your community online?

Your Leading Thoughts

As I said, I’d like to take your insights and present them.

  • How would you suggest people humanize their campaigns?
  • How do you convert followers to advocates? How much is influence and leadership a part of this?
  • Also, what are the links between both?

Photo credit

Published on October 15, 2010 by Scott Gould

Learning About Event Design From Church

We’re running the He Saved The Day Men’s Conference tonight. I wanted to share some of the thoughts behind how we’ve changed the format to make it more about learning and connecting:

A lot of this comes from what I’ve learned from Jeff Hurt and Dave Lutz at Velvet Chainsaw. It seems like common sense that an event should be about talking and learning rather than just listening, but it’s not that common because of the ego issue.

The reality is that most times speakers (in church and without) like to hear their own voices and get the promotion that comes with speaking more than they want people to learn. Or, they want people to learn but incorrectly think the key to is people listening to their wisdom, more than discuss with them. We discussed this in Let Attendees Be Participants, in which I also reference Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • How are you running events and using different formats to encourage participation? What works and what doesn’t?
  • Do you find it difficult to confront the norms when it comes to event format? I find it can be hard work as people have quite cemented expectations.
Published on October 13, 2010 by Scott Gould

Audio: Scatter, Gather, Matter – A Marketing Lesson From The Bible

Field educationI’ve always maintained that you can find everything about marketing and social media in the bible. Why? Because it’s all about human behaviour at the end of the day and the bible is a fantastic documentation of human behaviour whether you agree with it’s conclusion or not!

My ultimate framework for Social is based on ‘Scatter, Gather, Matter’, a three step proces to becoming more and more social by socialising channels (scatter), then content (gather), and then culture (matter). These are the three social strategies that I consider exist today.

What you might not know is that this framework comes from Mark 4, something that I spoke about at The River Church, Exeter earlier this year. You can listen to the podcast episode on iTunes by following this link.

Scatter

In this podcast I go through the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4, which Jesus tells as an analogy for how the gospel message is spread and also received. Scattering is the act of spreading your message without discrimination. Some seed will be eaten up, some won’t take root, and other seed will be chocked by thorns, but some seed will take root and grow, and the point is that it is dangerous to custom pick which seed you sow in which location because you don’t know what will prosper.

Most people when it comes to spreading a message like to carefully plant their seeds. They narrowly define who they want and focus on a very small number of people (normally people just like them) but expecting their message to get mass attention. It’s like fishing with a fishing rod, carefully planning which fish you want and how you want them, but then expecting to pull in a boat load.

We’ve all had times when the ones we thought who would come through for us didn’t, and the ones we didn’t expect did. In fact, this isn’t just some of the time, it’s all of the time. We have to continually readjust our expectations.

Gather

Seed becomes wheat that needs to be harvested else it will dry up, and this the act of gathering. When, out of the seed that you’ve scattered, some begins to participate back with you and bare fruit, you have to draw it to yourself.

The key here very much is to participate at the level to which you are being participated with. This is where volume becomes value. The volume play is in scattering the seed, in not limiting who follows you, in posting your content in various places, in putting your marketing where people are, in getting your organisations message slogan to become a mantra that everyone shares. The value play is then participating with those who participate with you – gathering.

The trick of gathering is that you don’t draw them to you as much as you respond to their first step towards you. You must provide a place for people to gather.

Gathering means you know who you have, and provides a way for you to increase your relationship with those people. In church we have many “gathering points” and these serve to increase the involvement of someone in church and increase their spiritual life.

Matter

What do you do with the harvest? What happens with the seed that is planted in the ground? A harvest feeds people and a tree bear fruits that feeds poeple.

The whole aim of this is tied up in mattering to people, because people matter. It’s not enough to say “add value”, we must matter to people by helping them matter for others. This is the two folds of the point – mattering to people, in order for them to matter to others. Thus the crux of this third and final stage is empowerment.

I had a very valuable conversation with Catherine White and others over the weekend about social media campaigns. It appears the end of many is just awareness. They would get far more long term return if instead they focussed on empowerment. What use is an aware person if they do not build upon that awareness and become empowered? Then, they can help themselves and help others.

Listen to this

Again, You can listen to the podcast episode for FREE on iTunes by following this link.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • How can you apply the Scatter, Gather, Matter framework to your projects?

Photo courtesy of Pandiyan

Published on October 7, 2010 by Scott Gould

The Warmth And The Light

Light might bring someone to you, but it’s warmth that keeps them. When it comes to church in particular, people don’t just want great direction – as in teaching, a well run service, professional handouts, great songs – they want connection – the warmth of friends, family, shared interest, prayer groups, etc.

Consider your blog. It might be the light and great insights that gets them to read it at first, but it’s the warmth and sense of community that will have them stay. I would certainly say that any success that I have with building this blog is because I’ve provided warmth to those who regularly contribute here.

Providing warmth in business is much the same. It might start with a Christmas card, but it becomes about caring for your clients and thinking about how you can not only provide a great product (light), but the service and care that makes it work (warmth.)

Your Leading Thoughts

  • What is more valuable, being given a bike (light), or having someone teach you how to ride it, there with you to encourage you when you fall to literally get back on the bike (warmth)?
  • How do we scale direction (light) and connection (warmth)?
Published on August 29, 2010 by Scott Gould

Video: What One Man Can Do For God

A lot. Mix faithfulness with tenacity and you see this one man did amazing things, not for himself, but for God:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdspKNEzH54

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or watch directly on YouTube.

This video convicts me as a Christian, as a marketer who understands that what should drive us is a genuine love for people, and finally as a human who wants to do the right thing, even if there’s no return. There’s no telling what someone can do when they don’t care who gets the credit.

Your Leading Thoughts

  1. Let’s crack open the discussion – we know each other well enough – how does this video inspire you? As a marketer, as a person, and what about as a believer in something?
  2. Lessons we can draw – what are they?

Photo by Leland Francisco

Published on July 6, 2010 by Scott Gould

You Lost Me At Hello?

Ever had such bad service right at the start that they had lost you from that moment on? Or perhaps it wasn’t bad service, perhaps it was bad planning?

Experience planning isn’t a simple task, because if it was, everyone would be getting it right. I think it actually takes a lot of thought to not loose someone at hello.

Lets take my church, for instance. When a visitor arrives they are subconsciously asking themselves the question ‘who here is like me’, all the time wanting to feel safe and secure, and not having to be noticed or attract attention to themselves.

As you can imagine, it doesn’t take much to knock one of those.

The trick to keeping someone at hello, I think, is to get into someone else’s shoes and really into their mind and understand what it is like to approach you for the first time.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • How have you learnt to keep someone at hello? What are your tactics?
Published on April 2, 2010 by Scott Gould

Social Means Celebration – Not Hiding

I find the Social Media world can be a contradictory one at times.

One of the virtues that is extolled in this social world that we talk about is valuing people for who they are, being relevant to them, and celebrating uniqueness. Yet I find that whenever I talk about how I am a follower of Jesus Christ and a pastor at my church, the conversation goes cold.

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