Be assured, if you are reading an entry and you think it is about you, it most likely is not.
Though I need to share true stories and examples to make the material on this site practical, I do not want to embarrass or make any member of the body of Christ, or any church communicator who is doing the best they can, to feel badly by my use of something they did to show what not to do.
So here is what I try to do:
- I tell true stories. I share true examples. If they are not true, I will stay something like "imagine if....."
- Even though an example may be true, I will try to disguise details so that the story will not point to any specific church or embarrass any one person. Sometimes in my efforts to change details I inadvertently mistakes. Once I changed the name of the church to what I considered an extremely generic one and got a scathing email from someone who thought I was intentionally critiquing her church. I apologized and assured her I wasn't—I hadn't even heard of her church.
- I often start negative examples with "sad, but true" because I don't think anyone intentionally tries to create ineffective communications.
Do remember I traveled all over North America teaching seminars for over 20 years, looked at thousands of examples and continue to look at communications from churches of every size and location all over the world. It is amazing how similar they are both in what they do well and in many similar errors. Every somewhat negative example I give always has the purpose to help all of us be more effective communicators of the gospel message.
Let me repeat the most important thing here: if you are reading an entry and you think it is about you, it most likely is not. If it really bothers you or you think I'm too harsh, please email me: yvon@effectivechurchcom.com or leave a comment.
