Should I write blog posts that increase my traffic or that help change the way (a few) people think?
That’s the question mega-blogger Seth Godin honestly grapples with in Drive-by culture and the endless search for wow. When he is writing content, should he aim for more clicks on his blog, or more change by his blog?
Is this not a question we can transfer to our preaching? Are we aiming for more people through our church doors or more change in our people. To put it another way, are we trying to create a momentary and increasingly elusive “Wow!” or a lasting and influential “Whoa!”? Godin illustrates his point both with Time Magazine and The Huffington Post:The Huffington Post has downgraded itself, pushing thoughtful stories down the page in exchange for linkbait and sensational celebrity riffs. This strategy gets page views, but does it generate thought or change?
Could he have easily used our sermons to illustrate his point? Are we substituting substantial and thoughtful Gospel sermons for “linkbait” and the “sensational,” generating piles of “new vistor” cards but little “thought or change?”
Godin concludes by describing the race between “who” and “how many,” and urges us to back the former rather than the latter – if action is our goal.Find the right people, those that are willing to listen to what you have to say, and ignore the masses that are just going to race on, unchanged.
Obviously, as Christians who love the souls of the perishing, we don’t want to “ignore the masses,” but I think you get Godin’s point.
I don’t want to preach “Wow…drive-by” sermons. I want to preach “Whoa…rest-stop” sermons.