The Monday Morning Debrief: New Ideas

This past week, Maytag (the washing machine company) launched a new ad campaign.  Normally this is not a big deal for most companies.  However, considering that Maytag has had the same ad theme for over 100 years it is a big deal!  Maytag’s “Ol’ Lonely” Repair man has been a fixture for the company’s ads until this past week.  Click here to read more about this and see one of the original Maytag ads.

Even though the Maytag Repair man ad campaign worked well, 100 years to do anything is a long time.  Now, to their credit, even though the “Ol’ Lonely” Maytag Repair man remained a fixture for over 100 years, Maytag did do a good job and refreshed the idea numerous times to keep up with the times and the culture of the day.  For instance, when the campaign ended, he didn’t look or speak like the same guy in the original Maytag ads.  They changed with the times and made a lasting impression. In fact, I am willing to bet that if you can recall a Maytag ad, you would be able to remember the Ol Lonely Maytag Repair man.

So what does this have to do with ministry?  As times change, so does strategy and ideas.  As you look at what you are doing and your ministry, how fresh are the ideas you are coming up with?  Are they new ideas with fresh looks or are they the same old ideas with the same old look and feel?  I really believe that if you and your ministry are doing the same things you were doing 5, 10, 15 years ago, you are doing a diservice to newcomers, your regular attenders and to the Lord.  As times change, so does your strategy and ideas.  We need to be evolving, changing and adapting so that we can be reaching as many people for Christ as possible.

With that being said, here are a few things I have learned along the way that you could do to get some fresh ideas (and this is coming from a guy with little creativeness or originality in his body):

1. Eliminate the old and outdated. Carefully evaluate what is going well and what is lagging.  How do you know what is good and bad?  The amount of people coming to an event/activity is one way but also not the only way.  Another way to judge the effectiveness is whether or not your activity is still in line with the vision and direction of your ministry.  If it is not in line, you might want to eliminate it.  Bottom line is that you have to find out what is going well and what is not and eliminate those poor performing areas.
2. Invite some fresh blood into the mix. No, don’t do any sacrificing of people, but start inviting some younger people (or new people) who might have some new, fresh ideas into your planning sessions.  “Outsiders” who have never been included in these meetings usually bring a fresh perspective to the room that is needed.  Listen to their ideas and carefully evaluate to see what ideas stick and are worth trying out.
3. Rebrand. Rebranding is an excellent way to promote a newness and freshness to an event or activity.  When you replace an old design with a new one, it can communicate a new edgier activity.  Now, I will caution, if you rebrand your logo, you also need to rebrand the activity.  If the logo presents a new, trendier look, the activity has to follow.  You can’t present the same activity with a different idea.  It has to change as well.

So, with all this being said, what are your thoughts?  TAKE A MINUTE and think through this and offer up your thoughts or ideas. Even take some time to present what you have done to get new ideas out and some lessons learned when you did that so that we can all benefit.