The Power of the Big Idea...Continued from page 1
MORE INFORMATION = LESS CLARITY
We have bombarded our people with too many competing little ideas, and the result is a church with more information and less clarity than perhaps ever before. But the church is not alone in its predicament. Businesses also get distracted with lots of little ideas and forget the Big Idea. Many marketplace leaders are relearning the importance of the Big Idea in regard to advertising. It was a multimillion-dollar sock-puppet ad during Super Bowl XXXIV that epitomized the absurdity of the advertising during the dot-com bubble. This same era brought us commercials with cowboys herding cats, singing chimps, and a talking duck? all great entertainment, but they didn't convey a thing about the brands they represented.
Brand consultants Bill Schley and Carl Nichols Jr., in their book, Why Johnny Can't Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea, tell us this type of advertising is not effective branding. Schley and Nichols exhort companies to redefine their products in terms of a single, mesmerizing Dominant Selling Idea. They go on to explain that somewhere along the way, "Johnny" forgot the basics of revealing the Big Idea in an easy, everyday way that cements a brand as top dog in the hearts and minds of consumers without resorting to puffery and shallow glitz. What are businesses learning? That "more" results in less clarity. (And less money!)
Don't misunderstand ? this is not a rant against entertainment or churches that are entertaining. This is a rant against churches (and businesses) that don't discipline themselves to create experiences that convey and challenge people with one Big Idea at a time. Why? Because the lack of clarity that we give our people impedes the church's ability to accomplish the mission of Jesus. "More" results in less clarity.
Haddon Robinson, in his classic book Biblical Preaching, recognizes the simple truth that more is less and challenges teaching pastors to communicate with crystal clarity "a single idea." He says, "People in the pew complain almost unanimously that the sermons often contain too many ideas."1 Robinson is right on. And it is good news that people are complaining. Their complaints about too many ideas tell us that people in the pew want clarity, direction, and guidance in how to live out the mission of Jesus Christ.
We can no longer afford to waste another Sunday allowing people to leave confused about what to do next. So let the change begin! But this change can't be relegated only to the preaching. It also must happen in the teaching of children, students, adults, families and in the overall experience of church life. How? The Big Idea. And it is one Big Idea at a time that brings clarity to the confusion that comes from too many little ideas.
MORE INFORMATION = LESS ACTION