Recently, Tony Morgan brought his Killing Cockroaches Road Tour to Houston and it happened to be right around the corner from my house.  I met up with a bunch of my former colleagues at my church and took in the morning event.  Tony has posted his notes from the day on his blog.  It was a great morning to pull back out of the granular monotony and look at the big picture from 30-thousand feet.

While Tony didn’t provide anything earth-shattering that wasn’t previously revealed in his excellent book, the second half of the day provided some great support for some of the communications principles I have long championed.  Here are some of the quotes I collected that stood out to me to ponder as we face new communication & leadership challenges everyday:

• “In church in America, we think more options leads to more devoted followers of Christ. But more options simply confuse.  Where there are fewer options the easier it is to make decisions.”
• “Fewer programs means less competition for dollars, energy, and volunteers.”
• “We see all the people sitting in our pews and blame them for not getting involved.  Finger should be pointed at ourselves.”
• “When analyzing what communication should be presented, we need to determine what event or announcement requires the entire church to hear it? What would you do if we were not on staff? Does the program reach outside the church walls?”
• “What would happen if resources were poured into ministries that were most effective?”
• “The church spams people with all of our messaging.  And what happens to the spam you receive?”
• “The Giant Inflatable Monkey Syndrome is a fascinating but lousy concept that churches seem to be following.  Instead of Giant Inflatable Monkey for visitors we should worry about engaging relationships.”
• “What is the clear vision that God is calling us to & what is it going to take be intentional about that?”
• “If there is going to be a change it has to be purposeful based on agreed up vision. Otherwise it will be cause for alarm.”
• “Sometimes we have to make tough decisions for common good. Leaders should be satisfied with that.”
• “Without right leaders its not possible to make hard decisions.”