Summer’s going on a business trip in July. I wanted to go with her since the hotel and car are free. But it cost so much and now airlines are charging for everything. I found this ad.
This ran as part of a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Pure brilliance.
Underneath what’s pictured above were these sentences:
No 1st or 2nd Checked Bag Fees
No Change Fees
No Fuel Surcharges
No Snack Fees
No Aisle or Window Seat Fees
No Curbside Checkin Fees
No Phone Reservation Fees
Yes, there are plenty of good reasons why Southwest trounces the competition in customer satisfaction surveys, but this ad sums the main one up nicely. I know what I pay for a ticket is the final price and, to borrow their language, they won’t #$*!% me over.
Now if only they flew to Atlanta…
If you know me ~ you know I love music. I don’t often suggest music here on my blog, but I think I want to. Here is my first attempt. If you looking for a free album with no strings attached. Check this group.
Picture Shop
I also think they have one of the best websites active.
A new question has interrupted my theology (smile). Can a church do everything with excellence? I’ve grown up in the paradigm of church growth and multiplication – its always strongly suggested that “church” be done with excellence. It’s the mindset you empower every aspect of your church toward quality from the vendors you use, staff you hire, and volunteers you train. God is excellent and we do everything as if it is unto Him – so we too do church with excellence.
Disclaimer: I completely agree a church should be mindful of chipped paint on the wall or the unevenly folded bulletin or the lack of directional signs. I want to discuss the cost of excellence and how effective it is in whole.
Maybe you can relate? I was thirteen and attending my first Bar Mitzvah. The temple was beautiful and every detail addressed, of course I arrived with jeans and a button up shirt (huge no-no). Lucky enough they had a box full of yarmulkes to borrow because I left mine at home (smile ~ maybe you can’t relate). Here is the issue – everything was done with excellence and grandeur – maybe a little too much because at thirteen I didn’t feel adequate. Everything was so clean and I was more messy. I knew my friends at school and they were messy too. The temple they attended was not authentic to who they were, and since it was my Jewish friend who introduce me to his dads porn, neither was it authentic to their family. For me excellence comes to down to authenticity.
I think excellence is a great thing, because the Church for decades had grown lazy at excellence and we had old run-down, unclean buildings and programming and materials that were riddled with mistakes and errors. Many people had no desire to visit a church let alone leave their kids in those environments. And this problem still challenges many churches, but can excellence go too far? I think the emerging problem in some places is too much excellence. Excellence is significant but not as important as effectiveness.
Maybe my view is squid because I’ve served in church plants for nine years. But sometimes too much money or too many things cause people to feel like the church has abundance and needs less of their time and less of their money. . “My church has a lot of money, so they don’t need me to give.” “My church has a lot of staff, so they don’t need me to serve.”
Too much excellence can cause people to feel out of place, inadequate, and inferior. If everything looks and programs well people feel less needed and as a consequence, they may end up less engaged and committed. This brings a whole new perspective; sometimes the quest for more excellence does not just have the potential to be more wasteful, but possibly less effective.
I want what I do to be excellent, but more than that…I want it to be effective.
Let me first say I haven’t read Launch yet, it’s sitting on my bookshelf in waiting. However, for months I’ve wrestled with the thought of the big launch of a church. Maybe I see too many marketing pieces in my mail box or the nominal response to the grand opening of big box stores. I think grand openings are severely overrated.
Think about successful businesses – most of them didn’t start big. I don’t remember when the Honda Accord came on the market, but its huge now. MySpace didn’t see Facebook coming, no one did. JetBlue is taking over the skies while others are scrabbling to survive – they didn’t start big either. Success doesn’t happen over night – ask Apple.
Many churches in America are dealing with a huge issue – limited attention span. This is the reason we are starting more churches, but seeing fewer disciples. And the huge church launch is a symptom of this problem. The launch forces churches to spend their time and money at exactly the wrong time, and worse, it leads to a lack of patience that damages the new disciple of the community and growth opportunity. Churches start to make disciples and discipleship takes time. Would it better our church to spend the time and money building actual relationships than going for the big numerical launch?
Marketers say the best time to promote something is after it has fans, after you’ve discovered that it works, after it has the outpouring of support. I think the early church did it best. They promoted the gospel, community, and love consistently and persistently and for a long time.
Just thinking out loud.
