Oh, the mission statement. It’s the statement that tells the world the role of your company. It’s a statement that illustrates goals, purpose, and practice.

The problem is most mission statements don’t define the company at all. Too many mission statements contain general, undefined words. They often contain those church words that people don’t actually understand. They are safe, but yet meaningless.

Below are two examples of bad mission statement:

• By creating value for our customers, we create value for our shareholders. We use our expertise to create transport-related products and services of superior quality, safety and environmental care for demanding customers in selected segments. We work with energy, passion and respect for the individual. – Volvo
• Sony is committed to developing a wide range of innovative products and multimedia services that challenge the way consumers access and enjoy digital entertainment. By ensuring synergy between businesses within the organization, Sony is constantly striving to create exciting new worlds of entertainment that can be experienced on a variety of different products. – Sony

Seth Godin has his own take on mission statements:
“Mission statements used to have a purpose. The purpose was to force management to make hard decisions about what the company stood for. A hard decision means giving up one thing to get another. Along the way, when faced with something difficult, many managers just punted.” – http://sethgodin.typepad.com

How does the church deal with mission statements?

Well, some are just as bad as businesses. However, many do it well, because they have a well defined purpose. The church knows who they are. They know their purpose, unlike many businesses.

Rick Warren, author and founding pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, California, delves deeper in church creations. In his book, Purpose Driven Church, Warren takes on the steps of defining a church in four questions.

1. Why does the church exist?
2. What are we to be as a church?
3. What are we to do as a church?
4. How are we to do it?

Through the practice of answering the questions above, a church defines its purpose. In essence, it’s mission statement. A clearly defined mission statement provides a purpose that can be used to initiate and refine a company’s plans.

In Made to Stick, authors Chip and Dan Heath, touch on the mission statements and their common problems.

“We must explain our ideas in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information. This is where so much business communication goes awry. Mission statements, synergies, strategies, visions — they are often ambiguous to the point of being meaningless.”

Taking the Warren steps above can easily be translated into any business’s mission statement:

• Why does the church exist? – Why does the company exist?
• What are we to be as a church? – What are the long-term goals?
• What are we to do as a church? – What are the short-term goals?
• How are we to do it? – How do we accomplish those goals?

The best mission statements are clear and concise. I know there are awful mission statements out there. Share your best and worst with me.

In a Midwestern state that was known for severe storms, lived a farmer who had a herd of cattle which provided for his living. He wasn’t able to pay large wages and found it difficult to keep trusty work hands. He found himself in need of a competent worker to properly care for the animals.

One afternoon, a young man arrived looking for a job. The farmer looked him over and thought he looked a bit young to have the qualification for the job, but he needed someone badly and decided to interview him.

The first question to the young man was, “What are your qualifications for this job?” The young man handed the farmer a letter of recommendation. It reads simply “He sleeps in a storm.”

This puzzled the farmer, but he was desperate for work. He hired him.

A few days later, the farmer and his wife were awakened in the night by a violent storm. He calls for his new hired hand, but the young man was sleeping soundly.

The farmer and his wife quickly began to check things out to see if all was secure. They found that the shutters of the farmhouse had been securely fastened. A good supply of logs had been set next to the fireplace. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, the doors were barred, the shutters were tightly secured, and everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away.

The young man slept soundly.

The farmer then understood the meaning of phrase, “He sleeps in a storm.” Because the farmhand did his work loyally and faithfully when the skies were clear, he was prepared for the storm when it broke. When the wind blew, he was not afraid. He could sleep in peace.

–
Storms are inevitable. When you’re prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? Through your business?

I belong to a small group at church, a Sunday school group. Not only do we meet every Sunday, but we have family outings, dinners, and other fun events. We chose this class because of the commonalities we have. There were many other classes to choose from, but the members specifically chose this class because of similar interest. We essentially grouped ourselves together, because of who we are.

We come to depend on the group for support, but the church also depends on us. Like any relationship, it goes both ways. Churches need all of its small groups. Without small groups, like ours, the church struggles with changes and listening.

Churches depend on the congregation for survival. Listening to key members can take surviving to thriving. Of course, with every new member, new opinions arise. How does a church take criticism and opinions from members, when the opinions vary? Listening and acting on every opinion would be a logistical nightmare. Plus, it would cause an identity crisis within a church.

The same goes for businesses. Sure, it’s great to listen to your customers, but only to a point. As we discussed in the Gap logo incident, listening and acting on customer opinions should only go so far. A company has to establish its identity and stick with it, but change is inevitable. Knowing when to make changes is a constant battle, from church to business.

Well-established churches often resolve this issue through small groups. Churches encourage small groups. Whether it’s a men’s study, mom’s night-out, youth group or any other structure, it helps all involved.

As a member of the congregation, groups allow a personal connection. It strips away the intimidation of churches. By being in small groups, people are able to make friends, share stores and confess. It creates bonds that large congregations cannot form. Members attend church to listen and learn, but they join groups to share and expose.

Small groups often benefit the church missions as well as the congregation members. By placing members into segments, issues are often filtered and funneled through channels. The groups discuss the issues before bringing them to the forefront of church discussions. Through discussions and venting processes, groups are able to define a clear message. Often times those problems resolve themselves before reaching the masses.

The same group philosophy can be applied to business. Be allowing your customers to connect to each other, they can share stories and frustrations. It’s often too common that marketing wants to exclude conversation. “What if they say things we don’t like”, is a common thread.

This is another area where your business can learn from the church. The church thrives on connections. It needs users to reach out to each other. It needs users to form small groups. Many businesses, however, fight this. They want to be a silo. They don’t want to connect or be personal with users.

“What if we offend them? What if we are too personal?” It’s a fear of scaring customers away. The church does not have that fear of offending. They embrace it. The church embraces communication through groups.

By allowing your customers to connect, which is essentially putting them small groups, they can communicate and often resolve issues. Below are three examples a company can use for connecting customers to each other.

1. Conferences & Meet-Ups
2. Community Message Boards
3. Encouraging social media conversation

Add to the list. How have you allowed your customers to connect to each other? What groups have they formed?

In an earlier post, Gavin discussed the church as a flash mob. That led us to wonder why people participate in flash mobs.

The creation of flash mobs is widely credited to Bill Wasik, senior editor at Harper’s Magazine. In May of 2003, Wasik began a social experiment by creating an anonymous email account and sending himself (to his known address) a mob-related email. Part of the email read as follows:

You are invited to take part in MOB, the project that creates an inexplicable mob of people in New York City for ten minutes or less. Please forward this to other people you know who might like to join.

From there he forwarded it to over 60 friends. The email included details and questions about the event. The key part of the email was a question within the FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) section. It read:

Q. Why would I want to join an inexplicable mob?
A. Tons of other people are doing it.

The email audience consisted of grad students, writers, poets, musicians, actors and other “hipsters” between their early twenties to the middle thirties. The assumption was this was a core group of people who would not let be left out of the crowd. They wanted to be seen. Be early-adapters. Be popular.

The initial experiment failed, because the NYPD had been alerted. Apparently the word “mob” does not sit well with the police. However, with a few tweaks Wasik was able to succeed on a second attempt a few weeks later.

The second attempt assigned participates to four specified bars in New York City. They arrived minutes before knowing when and where the actual mob would take place. Once given the details, 200 people headed to Macy’s. It was a success.

Wired Magazine picked up the phenomenon and posted “E-Mail Mob Takes Manhattan”.

The mob that gathered in Manhattan on Tuesday night was looking for something they referred to (without explanation) as a “Love Rug.” Or at least that’s what the couple of hundred people who gathered in Macy’s department store told a bemused salesman, who may or may not have believed he was dealing with a commune of carpet-craving eccentrics.

Wasik went on to create multiple “flash mobs” of different sizes and missions. The success of these events led to Wasik receiving requests from major cities around the country. They started local mob chapters and Wasik, although anonymously, gladly agreed to assist and answer questions to get them started.

Bill Wasik eventually came clean in Harper’s Magazine in 2006. Through his research, Wasik is quick to point out technology, although it helped, it certainly was not a key component. Wasik stated, “one could have passed around flyers on the street, I think, to roughly similar effect.”

Wasik’s initial experiment may have been designed to make fun of “hipsters”. However, it took on a life of its own. The success of flash mobs depends on conformity. People want to be part of something bigger. They want to be on the ground floor of a new “in-crowd”.

The idea of flash mobs can easily transferred in to something bigger. How can you create a sense of belonging in your community? Imagine if you can get your customers to want to belong. In upcoming posts, we will show examples of companies and churches that have created this sense of urgency.

People want to be associated with this need. They want to be part of the “in-crowd”.

Mass marketing gained success, if not born, from the launch of televisions across America. In the mid 20th century, a perfect storm in marketing allowed for mass marketing to work. Smaller selections of brands were in the market place and a smaller number of television channels led to the success of mass marketing. It was relatively easy for large companies to compete. During this time, it was also easy for consumers to weigh the options and make decisions. Consumer influence was easily captured.

In 1941, Bulova created the first television commercial in America. The watchmaker paid a total of nine dollars to WNBT to air a message before a Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game. “America runs on Bulova time”, was the simple message.

It quickly became clear, mass marketing worked. This one Bulova commercial started a chain reaction of advertisers jumping on the mass marketing ship. There were more advertisers than channels.

Marketers saw the numbers. Increased advertising led to increase sales. They wanted to spend more. The demand increased. Television channels looked for more revenue streams. This caused the birth of more television channels.

Mass marketing became a simple formula. More exposure led to more revenue. However, the constant bombarding of advertising eventually led to consumer confusion and frustration. Mass marketing turned into noise, irrelevant noise. Now, we are exposed to thousands of advertisements per day. It’s a safe bet that you cannot name all of the advertisements you saw yesterday. In fact, try to name 20. 10? 5?

History told us the more we spent the more revenue we generated. That has changed. Consumers went from enjoying commercials to hating them. There is a cynicism toward advertising. Not only does mass marketing have to sell a message, but it also has to fight an uphill battle of negativity. In fact, many marketing efforts have turned consumers against them. How many commercials have you found annoying? Because of that annoyance, when you see that brand in a store you actually have a negative view and move toward another brand.

Consumers now have limited attention. Marketers face tough competition trying to get noticed in the noise. A new approach is required. With the advancement of analytics, search and social media, marketers are able to target better than they could sixty years ago. The idea of sending messages out to everyone is costly and foolish marketing. Today’s marketing is dependent on word of mouth, segmentation, transparency, and connectivity.

This is where these Sticky Sheep principles come into play. Through the success of mass media over a 30 year period, many basic principles of sales and marketing have been let go. We hope to bring some of those back to the forefront of marketers mind. In many cases, these basic principles of marketing are thousands of years old. Ideas like community, storytelling and crowdsourcing are not new. They just took a break for awhile to allow for the rise and fall of mass marketing. It’s time to get back to the basics of marketing.

How are you targeting consumers? What precision marketing techniques are working for you?

In an earlier post, we mentioned “Listen” as one of the major components in creating a Disciple Exchange. By listening you create a relationship, not a one-way broadcast system.

However, listening to customers may not always be the best approach. Let’s take the Gap logo “incident” as an example. After a few months and settling of voices, the perspective slightly changes.

In early October 2010, Gap introduced their brand new logo. Clearly, the new logo was a mistake. Even I, with my admittedly horrible graphic design eye, had to agree with the masses. There was a backlash in the social media world about the bad decision of the new logo. It was mocked across the country, day and night. It was plain and simple, an ugly logo. Criticism like “boring”, “corporate power point”, “poorly designed”, and “clip art”, were some of the nice comments.

So, what’s a company to do? Gap took three steps.

1. Acknowledge
   On October 7, Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, posted a response on HuffingtonPost.com.
   • “It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward.”
   • From their Facebook page: “we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding”

   Those statements clearly indicate that they were not actually listening. “Passionate debates”? What debate? It’s not like there was another passionate group who liked the new logo. This was clearly a large population telling them they did not like the new logo.

2. Crowdsource
   Gap went on to say “we’re asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we’d like to… see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.”

   Crowdsourcing a corporate logo? This was not for a small, low-funded start-up. This was not a church or other non-profit group. This was a well established brand, a brand with lots of history.

   This caused the design community to bark louder. If there is one thing designers and graphic artist are more passionate about then bad logos, its crowdsourcing. Having “the masses” design your logo, can go wrong in multiple directions. Not only is it bad from a design standpoint, it shows lack of decision-making skills from Gap.

3. Give In
   After finally “listening” to the masses, Gap turned back. On October 11, Gap announced, “after much thought, Gap will keep its classic blue box logo.” Hansen goes on to say, “It wasn’t the right project for crowd sourcing.“

In the last sentence, Gap finally got something right. Crowdsourcing can have its value, but not when it comes to company branding. The new logo was horrible, but changing the branding (within 4 days) based on the crowd, showed uncertainty.

I am not going to dare say Gap is better off with the new logo. In the end, the right decision was made. However, there were many wrong decisions made along the way to get them to that point. The first mistake was in changing logos, especially to that logo. Another mistake was showing “fear”. Gap showed uncertainty. They showed they lost control. They showed they had no idea which direction to go. How does Gap ever gain leadership back in their communities now?

Gap lost their voice. Without a voice, it’s hard to lead a flock.

“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” - John 10:3 – 5

Yes, listening to customers is important, but only to a certain point. Gap listened to customers when they told Gap they did not like the logo. They attempted to extend that listening to hear customers’ logo ideas. This was too far. By adding the crowdsourcing element in the discussion, they became spineless. Instead of seeing Gap for making a bad logo decision, they are now seen as indecisive, uncertain, and clueless.

Ultimately, they lost the voice they needed to gather flock. Gap changed. They went from becoming a comfortable voice that sheep recognized, to a stranger. Sheep do not follow strangers.

The church is constantly faced with a content dilemma: Market the church or market the church message?

Those are uniquely two different audiences, messages, techniques, and deliverables. There is a line between evangelism and marketing. In fact, because of modern commercial cynicism, the well-intended evangelistic message may often be looked at as marketing. Churches struggle having conversation with non-church members (potential customers) without sounding like a commercial.

This is not unlike the struggles of any other business. The content may be different, but the problem is the same. How does a company have conversation, in this new social media world, minus commercialism? Consumers are cynical. If you say “How was your weekend?” they want to know why you are asking.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:9

In either of those cases, business or church, the audience quickly turns away when the content becomes too commercial. In fact, they have seen the message before. It’s the equivalent of a politician calling the same 10 voters. The customer knows the message already and “there is nothing new under the sun”. The odds are if you want content on a topic, it’s been done before.

The merging of the message, the conversation, and the evangelism into a content strategy plan becomes the Holy Grail.

Content strategy is more than writing copy, although, that is certainly part of it. It’s developing plans and practices to implement the content. As web solutions and the user experience becomes more interactive and complex, the need for more complex content solutions arises. Writing sticky copy, although essential, is not enough.

Content includes the text, graphics, media that make up an online presence. Content is anything that appears on a website, including words, pictures, video, sounds, icons, and logos. In essence, content is everything, but yet it becomes secondary.

Content is often taken for granted at the planning stages of an online marketing campaign and website. A web project will include designers, developers, marketers, but seldom are content strategists added to the project. Instead, content becomes an afterthought. The end result of a lack of content strategy is customers (or potential customers) will not find the answers to their questions.

The lack of content strategy often leaves the separation between brand, messaging, (evangelism) and conversation. Instead of one seamless message, it becomes disjointed. The result is customers will see the commercial in the content.

Content strategy is essentially the roadmap for a successful web presence. In turn, content strategists are needed to develop content plans based on statistics, user behavior and potential behavior. Not only do marketers need to react to consumers’ content needs, they need to anticipate future needs. Content strategy defines the what, the how, the when, and the why of content.

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. – 1 Corinthians 9:22

Often marketers are forced to present content to a user that has seen it thousands of times. Presenting data in a comparative, or metaphorical, way allows editors to show the same data to users in a new light. Metaphors help readers reconnect with old data.

By adding a comparative story or analogy, marketers can attach to emotion. Consumers will react more to a brand if they have an emotional connection. Stories, and parables, can allow content to be all things to all people.

Sticky Sheep, among many things, is one big metaphor. You can say we “eat our own dog food”. We have an emotional connection to many of the topics we share, so we hope that connects with many of our readers. We also invite other writers to contribute to our blog in hopes that they will bring a new connection and new angle to our stories.

Like you, we have seen the latest marketing books and we are fans of many of them. However, the ones that are the stickiest are the ones that present old ideas in a new light. It’s the emergence of content (evangelistic, marketing, social, and more) into a new vision that leaves customers with inspiration.

I would love to know more about your message. How are you delivering unique content? Better yet, how are you delivering the same content in a unique way?

Only a few more hours until the clock strikes midnight and we find ourselves in another year. Do you know what you want to accomplish in 2011? And I’m not talking about your year-after-year resolution to “get in shape” or make a few extra bucks. Have you taken the time to sit down and truly figure out what you want to achieve for you and your business?

If you’re serious about building a strong, sustainable business, you understand the importance of planning. However, that’s often easier said than done. Hectic schedules and day-to-day business tend to get in the way.

Have no fear! Even if you haven’t put a strategic marketing plan in place for 2011, it’s not too late to get started now. So, what are you waiting for? Here are simple five steps to kick you into high gear and help you develop a marketing plan that will generate results for your business.

1. Start with goals
   Before you can put a plan in action, you need to know which direction you’re headed. Although this may seem like an obvious step, it can be often overlooked.

   Take the time to write down specific, measureable goals for your business. Start with the larger goal in mind. Then, take it down into bite-sized chunks and look at what benchmarks you need to achieve on a monthly basis to accomplish the overall goal.

   Not only will this exercise help you determine the best marketing strategy, but it will help hold you accountable along the way.

2. Look in the mirror
   The best marketing strategies in the world can’t help a business that doesn’t have a killer product or service. Before you do anything else, make sure you’ve got something spectacular to offer your customers.

   I know, I know – we all think our own business is the best thing since sliced bread. But, ask your customers. Do they feel the same way? Does your product or service solve their problems or give them the results they’re after? Do your customers receive top-notch service?

   If you’re not sure about the answers, talk to your employees and your customers. Getting their honest feedback will likely highlight some ways you can improve your offerings and make your business shine.

3. Master the basics
   There are a couple of marketing basics that are so essential, it’s like milk and bread. Branding and a websites fall into that category. If you want to move the needle for your business this year, you must have these in place.

   A rock solid brand is an integral to a successful business. More than just a logo, a brand is the personality of your business. In other words, your brand communicates who you are and what makes you different from the competition. If you haven’t nailed down your brand message, now is the time. Don’t wait another year to get this right.

   In today’s digital world, an amateur website just won’t cut it anymore. A well-written, user-friendly website is a must for businesses. In a world that’s constantly competing for eyeballs, make sure your site hits the mark and doesn’t leave them quickly moving on to the next one.

4. Turn up the volume
   Social media is definitely the new kid on the block. But before you rush off to sign up for a Twitter account, take a look at your current marketing efforts and determine what is working well for you.

   For instance, if word of mouth is your top business generator, build a referral strategy that rewards your biggest fans for spreading the word. Or, if your email list responds well to your campaigns, look for ways to grow your list by encouraging your readers to share it with their friends.

   Whatever it is, continue to focus your energy in this area and look for ways to amplify it.
   Oftentimes, the most profitable marketing effort we can employ is by taking a strategy that is working really well and turning up the volume.

5. Stretch yourself
   Once you’ve hammered out ways to improve already successful strategies, you can begin to venture into uncharted territory. Social media is the considered marketing frontier for small business and it can be a great way to engage customers, generate leads and provide customer service.

   But, before you take the plunge, do your research. Determine what you want to accomplish through social media. Find out where your customers hang out and look at what is working well for other businesses in your niche. A misguided social media effort will suck up a lot of time and produce little in return.

If you’re not sure where to start, employ some help. Talk to trusted colleagues or hire a consultant to assist you. They can help point you in the right direction to make sure you don’t waste time or money.

Do you have a marketing plan in place? What’s your biggest marketing challenge for 2011? Share your thoughts or questions and we’ll discuss it in the comments. The floor is all yours!

If 1 horse can pull 2,000 pounds, how many pounds can 4 horses pull?

The obvious answer above is 8,000 pounds. Simple math would tell you that 4 X 2,000 equals 8,000. However, that math does not take into account synergy (synergism).

Synergism is defined:

• Merriam-webster.com – “interaction of discrete agencies, agents, or conditions such that the total effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects.”
• Dictionary.com – “the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc.”

The common theme in the above definitions is that simple math does not work. The effect of synergism is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergism dictates that a team is better than one. If a team comes together you can expect a greater outcome.

The team concept took place years ago, over 2,000 years ago. Jesus knew that building a team would be the best way to spread his message. In fact, it was so crucial to pick the right team that he prayed about it before hand:

Now it was during this time that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent all night in prayer to God. When morning came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles. - Luke 6:12-13.

However, too many churches often bring in corporate leadership and team structure, forgetting they have the ultimate guide to team building at their fingertips. This adoption often results in a supreme church head, power egos, and a misguided approach to leadership.

Jesus recruited special men for specific purposes. This may have been the original “A-Team”. They were a team of specialist all recruited with a goal in mind. Like the Apostles, the way to spread a message is to invest in the right people. Below are some rules for building a great team.

1. Find Specialists
   I know it sounds obvious to hire the best, but it is more than just hiring the best. It’s hiring the best at a specific task. Establish what that task will be before bringing them on board and let them focus on that task. That means it’s important for you, as a leader, to establish objectives, goals, and targets before bringing in this specialist. Just brining in someone, because you need help, is not enough. You need to establish a role.
2. Trust Your team
   By trusting your team and your specialist, you have to remove micro- managing. If you constantly have to manage your team members, then you failed as a recruiter. Trust yourself that you brought in the right person for the job. Step back and let them go. Let your specialist try things, try NEW things, and let them fail.
3. Celebrate Difference
   The Disciples consisted of tax collectors, doubters, fishermen, and other strong personalities. It’s the uniqueness of all of them that was valued. Picking 12 identical people would not have served the purpose. Not only should a leader cherish the difference in the team, but they should also be celebrated. Those differences will help deliver a unique message to the brand.
4. Team Training
   There is a difference between micro-managing and training. It’s important to provide your specialist with the proper training, goals and objectives. By giving them guidance and support, you lead them to the proper goals. The goals are the important part of training, not the path. Respecting their path and route the goal, is essential, as long as the end results are clear.

I would love to know your thoughts on recruiting and building a team. What rules am I missing above?

I’ve been reading this article by a Jewish Rabbi about social media, its impact on youth culture, and what the bible has to teach us about participation in social media.

(I read)”..much of the narrative element of the Tanakh as a series of facebook or twitter posts. Frequently, the biblical narratives come not in long flowing prose but in short burst – often, dare I say of less than 140 characters a passuk. One of the great joys of the brevity of the biblical narrative is that it leaves much room for commentary. We are left to guess at the motivations at the contexts. And we do.”

A couple of things I’ve gleaned from this Rabbi’s thoughts.

1. Never thought of the bible as a mass of Tweets and Facebook Status Updates strung together, but when you do string that stuff together you can get a glimpse into the life of that person.
2. There is an embarrassing side to sharing everything. Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder doesn’t get into the fear factor thing of, employers are going to look at your drinking pictures and assume you are bad, type of thing. But instead takes a bit of a higher ground in suggesting, David’s story was a bit of an over share.. Same with Abraham. Surprised didn’t mention Amnon.. <Awkward!>
3. The short ‘missives’ leave a lot of room for interpretation. Sometimes we do that intentionally. But when we want to truly be understood. Or when others, more importantly, want to be understood we need to know we operate in this short text world. Instead of interpreting what the story is from folks, take that extra moment to listen more deeply and understand more clearly. That is remarkable
4. Apparently this guy wasted his time.. God already did it.

“History is written by the winners” or so that quote is said. In today’s world, we might as well change that as “History is written by the players” (or those who play social media).

Makes one think of how people perceive us through our social media interactions (or the lack of interactions). We are able to write our story, but it ultimately is rewritten by those others we might call critics, customers, congregations, friends, family, & more.

Now I’m wondering what the bible has to say about texting?…