Sticky Sheep

The natural tendency in today’s church culture is to apply business and marketing practices to its own efforts. After all, ministry costs money, money comes from donors, and your donors are primarily members of the church. If you don’t put on the right kind of show, you’re not going to attract the right kind of people and you’re not going to hit your membership and budget goals.

Today, we’re going to flip that concept around. Instead of asking what the Church can learn from today’s business practices, we’re going to ask what today’s business can learn from the Church.

1. How to Be an Attentive Listener

Pull your pastor aside and have a conversation with him sometime this Sunday. Pay attention to the way in which he interacts with you.

• How much talking does he do as opposed to listening?
• Do his eyes ever stray from yours?
• Does he seem distracted, or rather thoroughly engaged?

Effective pastors, counselors, and most other caring church staff members will floor you with their ability to be still and listen. Church leaders are fantastic at making their church members and staff feel like the most important people in the world. That’s not a product of talking too much. It comes from careful and attentive listening.

As a business leader, you’ve got to make your employees and your customers feel like they are truly respected and their opinions are cherished.

How do you accomplish this?

By respecting them and cherishing their opinions. Be attentive. Dig in to customer feedback and diligently tackle the issues. Implement customer suggestions when practical.

Don’t forget to pay attention to your own people. Take the time to address their needs. Really focus on developing your staff. You’ll be pleasantly surprised when your team drastically increases its output and the culture in your place of business gets a lot “friendlier.”

2. Why Authenticity is Paramount

Authenticity is the willingness to stand in front of a crowd of people and tell them you’re not perfect. It means mustering up the courage to put your brokenness on display for the world to see. When you do this, people see that you’re human and they connect to your very real experience.

The tendency of big business has always been to project perfection; to pretend that they’ve got it all figured out. In our age of social media and chronic over-sharing, every minor flaw in your business can and will be put on display for the world to see.

Don’t be afraid to get messy. Own the problems as they come up. Address your critics openly on social media and web channels. Be graceful and admit that you make mistakes and are not perfect. Make the problem right. Take care of your customers and find a way to tell that story. People will appreciate your raw honesty and your ability to make good. After all, nobody’s perfect.

If you can’t learn this lesson from your church, it’s time for a new church.

3. Connection Leads to Relationship

How do church leaders get us to really connect with them? First, by listening to our needs, cares, and concerns attentively. Next, by being authentic enough to share their brokenness so that we can connect on a common level of human experience.

Have you ever been to a church where your pastor or priest would have you believe that he is the perfect person?

I assure you they’re wrong on that point and in the process of putting on this front, they’ve completely missed they’re chance to meet church members on their level and connect with them.

Is that what you do? Is your business too busy looking a certain way or communicating in a specific manner that fails to connect?

In order to have any influence over your market, you’ve got to strip it down and meet your customers where they are at. Take the lessons you’ve learned in listening and being authentic to create relationships. These connections will create real stories and loyal fans who are ready to champion your brand or your product to the masses.

4. How to be an Amazing Communicator

You can never influence a group, per se, but you can influence a group of individuals. Especially if you have relationships with them.

To really rally the troops, you’ve got to have effective communication to go with those relationships. You need to cast vision, inspire, and motivate your people to get out do the important work that you need them to do. This is not a one-shot deal, either. You’ve got to do it day in and day out.

Granted, your mission statement probably wasn’t written by the Almighty Creator of the universe, so you’re at a bit of a disadvantage. Still, take the time to observe and learn from your pastor’s style and approach. Maybe download a few video podcasts and start to study the delivery of a variety of pastors.

The numerous aspects of communicating in a corporate setting are beyond the scope of this article, but I promise you that you’ll pick up some great practices for communicating by just paying a little more attention in church this Sunday. I guarantee that your pastor follows a pretty consistent routine for preparing his sermon/message.

There you have it. A few practical lessons that you can pick up by just being a little more observant in and around your church this weekend.

What else can you learn from your church this Sunday?

Written by Kenny Silva

Kenny Silva owns and runs The Silva Group, a residential real estate business focused on helping you move forward. Kenny is an active member of the Nashville business community. You can read more of Kenny’s thoughts on leadership, business, church, and social media at his blog, Kenny Silva | Faith in Leadership.

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