Ryan McLean : Slightly Unconventional

I’m Not Listening To Your 40 Minute Sermon (…sorry)

Those who know me know I can get very passionate about the church. Lately my passion has been laser focused at ways we can improve the way we communicate the message of the gospel.

I truly feel that, in a lot of ways, the world has moved on. While we do some things really well, I think we are missing out on loads of opportunities to connect with people and add value to people’s lives.

With a lot of recent developments in social media we now have a lot of platforms that seem a little bit strange.

A perfect example is Vine. Vine is a 6 second video platform where the maximum length a video can be is 6 seconds.

Vine is something I have really been getting into lately as the videos are hilarious. I started reading bible verses in 6 seconds and posting them to Vine as well and I’ve seen some pretty good engagement

The Argument Most People Use

When I discuss the length of a sermon, or the way we communicate the argument I almost always get back is:

“What would I use that platform? There are so many other ways I could communicate that message better”

Let’s rephrase it for Vine:

“Why would I post a 6 second video when I can post a 10 minute video on YouTube and I’m able to discuss a topic in detail. 6 seconds is just not an effective way to communicate the gospel”

A valid point and on the surface it is completely accurate.

But today I realised something

You Can’t Communicate With Me Any Other Way

Let me explain:

When I am on Vine looking at videos you cannot communicate with me through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Your Website or any other method.

Why? Because I am in the Vine app and my attention is on Vine.

Even though you may be able to communicate with me better through email or YouTube, or a sermon on Sunday at that point in time you don’t get the chance to communicate with me at all.

The same goes for the Sunday sermon

Just because you think you need to speak for 40 minutes to convey a topic effectively makes no difference…why?

Because I’m on Instagram, reading blog posts and checking my email while you are speaking.

You can’t communicate with me the way you want because I have the opportunity to be communicated with the way I want

When you’re preaching I can look at my phone. When you’re making YouTube videos I can look at Vine. When you’re sending email newsletters I can Snapchat my friends.

It is no longer up to the communicator how they want to communicate their message.

What is more important is finding out where people are directing their attention and communicate in that way.

If that means 6 second videos then do it. If that means messages that disappear after 10 seconds do it.

Why? Because you don’t have a choice anymore

 



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