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Friday, September 23, 2011

Repeat Yourself to be Heard

I don't remember my mom ever saying this, but it's a cliché mom thing to say: "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times..." I think this has something to do with the innate ability that moms have to know how communication needs to work.

If you're trying to communicate something to a large group of people, you need to repeat it at least once every 30 days for the message to stick. The more central the concept to the vision of the group, the more often it needs to be repeated.

So, if you want to change the core vision of your group. You have to repeat it every time you meet. Especially if you have a membership that fluctuates. Now, you probably shouldn't say exactly the same words every time, but you should focus on the same message.

Say, for example, that your church has a brand new vision and you're wanting to get everyone on board with it. You need to share that vision every week. Every meeting. But you don't need to just repeat it, you need to say it in a new way. So, if your vision is: "New churches in new places for new people." (this is the vision of Kairos Church Planting with whom I've worked extensively). You would say the basic vision every week, but then on one week you might tell a story about what "new churches" means, the next week you would highlight "new places" and then you could have a video clip of a new person for the third week. Just keep saying the same thing in different ways.

What message do you want your people to hear?