People have a desire to tap into supernatural or “super hero” powers and make a difference.
Don’t believe me? Here are some current examples of this notion entering our pop culture:
- Heroes: After a total eclipse casts its shadow across the globe, seemingly calling forth a multitude of everyday men and women with special powers. Their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world.
- Chuck: A computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government’s most vital secret agent after unwittingly downloading an entire server of sensitive data into his brain. Instead of fighting computer viruses, he must now confront assassins and international terrorists.
- Obama’s Campaign: Appealing to folks to “Join The Movement,” and “change the world.”
However, one item caught my attention recently, and I think The Church needs to take some lessons.
- Ethos Water: Bottled water with a vision committed to raising awareness of the World Water crisis and to empowering people to make a difference with every purchase.
I purchased my first bottle of Ethos Water at the airport in Cleveland last month. I had a choice between that and a well-known brand, but I chose Ethos. Here’s a breakdown of my decision:
- Cool packaging, and a different bottle shape, initially captured my attention. (I’m a sucker for cool packaging.)
- The tagline, “Helping children get clean water,” made me feel like I was contributing to the greater good, and I was OK with paying a little more for it because I knew where my money was going.
Churches and church websites should evoke these feelings and inspire folks like Ethos Water did for me and others.
Here are some quotes from EthosWater.com. Read through them and replace words with your mission statement. Asking folks to join a greater movement is answering a question they’re already asking.
“Our Mission is helping children get clean water. Join US.”
“By purchasing Ethos Water, customers can join a growing community of individuals who are committed to make a difference.”
“Ethos Water is a brand with a social mission — helping children around the world get clean water and raising awareness of the World Water crisis.”
“Today, Ethos and Starbucks are committed to raising awareness of the World Water crisis and to empowering people to make a difference with every purchase.”
“Every time you purchase an Ethos product, a portion of the price goes toward our goal of making $10 million in grant commitments toward humanitarian water programs by 2010.”
The Take Home…
People have a desire to be super heroes and change the world. There is no greater power than God’s, and his power changes lives, heals families, and gives us purpose.
Ethos Water attracted me in with its packaging and kept me by an initial practical action step of contributing to something greater.
How will your church and church website do this?
I, too, have noticed this trend in recent years. I would also add Invisible Children to the list of ones to watch.
Here’s what I think: I think people really want to make a difference. Now, one organization can’t save the entire world. What I see is a growing trend in FOCUSED endeavors. I’ve been watching Hillsong Women for a long, long time. (http://www2.hillsong.com/sisterhood2/default.asp?pid=1957) It’s been cool to see them adopt a village in Gulu and build homes for orphans. It’s been building momentum for 10 years and it’s really making a difference.
Another thing I’m captured by is what Dino Rizzo is pioneering with Servolution. (http://www.servolution.org/now/) He’s got a book coming out soon and I can’t wait to read it!! I hope this motivates churches to get out in the community and meet real needs in Jesus’ name. I really think this trend will sweep churches in the coming months.
Making a difference… leaving the comfort of the church building and making focused efforts in the community and around the globe. I’ve heard that serving is the new evangelism. That’s what stirs this heart.
So how does that fit with the web? Well, first, it needs to become a value for your church. Then the sky’s the limit for sharing what God is doing and how people are getting involved (and you can, too!).
Hope that helps!
Stacy,
Great words of wisdom here. Thanks for taking time out to share. This is good stuff. I like your quote, “serving is the new evangelism.”
Let’s go serve.
I go out of my way to buy my coffee from http://www.landof1000hills.com/
They are a company that invests $3 of $10 back into development work in Rwanda and pays the coffee growers a living wage. There are several Christian and non-Christian companies that have started doing this. If you want some of the theory behind business as development check out Muhammad Yunus’s books. He won a Nobel Peace prize a couple years ago for his Gramin bank. His autobiographical book “Banker to the Poor” is a good introduction, but his “Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism” is more of his theory behind how to create social businesses.
There is also a good discussion with the creator of Ethos water on NPR’s Speaking of Faith http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/business_of_good/
Adam,
Thanks for the feedback and good links to check out. I hope we see a lot more efforts like these take hold and change the thought process.
quick question - did you realize that $0.05 of every $2.35 purchase goes towards these projects? did you realize that at this rate if they want to raise $10,000,000 they need to sell 200,000,000 PLASTIC bottles? Did you think about the dubious link between purchasing elitist privatized water to promote public access to water (anyone else think that buying private water is dubious and reinforces the validity of private water/ water hierarchies at a time when water is not designated as a human right yet?).
Go to Starbucks. Look at the add. It will tell you some story about some adorable child in poverty who needs YOUR HELP (here is where you assume that everyone in her community is too helpless/ stupid to be supporting their children) that can be attained by BUYING WATER (though they leave out the fact that 2% of your funds go to the organization that then funnels it through several NGOs… so by the time you are done with overhead I am curious how much ends up there… see if you can find a breakdown on their website, I couldn’t).
As a Christian I am happy to hear that people from the church are willing to embrace novel communication techniques that are appealing to non-Christians - this is how we attract new people to the faith. But my problem is that, just as Ethos Water, Inivisible Children and company use flashy marketing to dumb down incredibly complex issues like civil war, child soldiers and water access; too often are similar techniques be applied to commercialize and dumb down my faith in an astoundingly complex and glorious man: Jesus Christ, the son of god.
I ask you: did you really know where you money was going and contribute to ’something greater’ by buying Ethos water? Or did you assume that because you threw money at it (like the well styled adds told you to) that you ‘did good.’ Can slick marketing and easy slogan truly connect people with such a complex faith?
Are token and empty gestures and dumbed down messages how you want to encourage people to connect with the complex and beautiful Christian faith?
Check your head dude. Fostering hero complexes in people by encouraging them with flashy marketing to feel self righteous because they threw money at complex issues [development, environment whatever] dumbs down issues like poverty and injustice; issues that can NOT be fixed by taking 20 seconds to throw money at them. However, encouraging people to learn about, to see the complex humanity that compels us to love (truly 100% live - not condescend not paternalize love like you do your father, mother, brother, sister) human beings that are struggling for survival quite possibly will (hmm what faith encourages us to see the humanity in anyone and everyone?). This is hard to do, hard to teach and just like faith it will not be attained with token gestures. But at the end of the day I want people to love the Christ that demands that you put the effort in to truly love humanity and not appease their conscience or some pseudo-god with token gestures that undermines the sense of common humanity that Christianity demands us to embrace.