More Da Vinci Code Conspiracy Theories

Yahoo News says Davinci Code author Dan Brown is being accused of plagarizing parts of his book. The book says that the Roman Catholic Church has been keeping secrets over the years. I guess they are not the only ones.

How Do You Spell GOD?

Hope International University is putting on a production of Godspell. According to the producers "Godspell is a dynamic presentation of the Gospel of Matthew told through pantomime, dance, parable and song. Follow the journey of Christ as he teaches his followers to trust him and brings them together in community."

Putting the Gospel in a modern context is a terrific idea. Putting the Gospel in a 1960's context I'm not so sure about. I saw a production of this play put on by a group from my church. It seems a little dated to me, for example the term Godspell iself is not contemporary parlance. I think it would be cool to do the same thing for 2006, but I guess that would be a lot harder.

Da Vinci Outreach

The Da Vinci Code book, and soon to be released film, slam the Roman Catholic Church with conspiracy theories. If you are looking for a rebuttal, this new site by the Da Vinci Outreach has some resources.

Local Church Does Good

Here's a press release by a local church letting people know about their house building effort for Katrina victims. This lets people know that churches do more than just talk about service and also invites volunteers to get involved. (Note: it is the second article down on the page.)

Megachurches emphasize welcoming atmosphere

Here's an interesting article on the approach of Megachurches. They have done their homework to find out what people are looking for in Church. They are not looking for highly ritualistic, boring or negative services. Surprise!

Telling the Story

In the movie Stripes, Bill Murray explains why guys in the Army always get the girl, "it's the stories they tell." The Olympics are doing the same thing. NBC told the story of speed skater Chad Hedrick the other night. I wanted to see some hockey action, but instead they started telling this guy's story of how he grew up at roller skating at his Dad's rink and his many years of rollerblading. I got caught up in the story and wanted to see him win. The next thing I know I'm watching the long track races and I realized these races are like 6 minutes a piece and I am watching them. A few minutes ago I could care less.

By creating a compelling story I was converted from disinterested to engaged. Marketing Guru Seth Godin's new book called All Marketers are Liars is about this very topic. Jesus did the same thing when he spoke to the crowds. Our job as marketers of the Church is to do the same- communicate the message through great story telling.

How to Plan a Website

Take a look at this Conversion Funnel Design by Alex Harris. If nothing else, this is a well thought out design strategy.

Copy Feedburner's Copy

Feedburner is an incredible free service that lets you create RSS feeds, set up email subscriptions, create headline banners and much more (you can see the tools in use on this site).

Besides these cool features, they can show you a thing or two about writing copy with an authentic voice. Their site covers some fairly technical information, but it is written in a friendly, easy to understand conversational style that makes a novice like me feel like giving it a try. On the other hand when I looked at the explanation for AdWords and other tools on Google, I felt like I was in over my head and would do something wrong.

Regardless of what your site is communicating, people respond to a real voice and conversational tones. Thanks for another great tool Feedburner!

How Not to Give a Presentation

Add this to the collection of posts about people being bored by PowerPoint presentations. If you give presentations using PPT please read this for the sake of you and your audience. How Not to Give a Presentation

What Ministers Want

This survey done by HOPE International University asked 505 respondents how best to meet the needs of ministers in the current and emerging Church.

What challenges do you face that you would like to see part of a degree in ministry?

A swoosh by any other name... - Feb. 6, 2006

Check out this 5 minute clinic on the importance of logo design from the experts at Fortune Magazine. They rate the 4 latest big business logo changes.

What do you think about these latest logo makeovers by the big boys?

What People Really Want From Church

The team at Church Marketing Sucks asked what people would really like to see given away by churches to improve attendance. See the results here.

Marketing Madonna

Is there an art to Madonna's marketing prowess? Are there things we can learn from her approach? Do you consider her famous or infamous?

Madonna-Genius of Marketing

Join Bode

If nothing else, this Nike site featuring Bode Miller is original. What do YOU think about this site? Join Bode

Corporation's New Logo Changes Everything

Logo design is an inside out approach, not the other way around. Most companies want a new logo, brochure or web design to improve business, but are unwilling to examine the deeper issues or make changes where they are needed. This parody from the Onion captures the idea perfectly.

Corporation's New Logo Changes Everything The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Cheap Pizza

Looking on the website it says "If Your Pizza Box Doesn't Say 'Cecil Whittaker's' You Paid Too Much For Your Pizza! " Is this the best thing they can say about their product? Not really a competitive advantage- nor what most people want to think about when eating.

But wait it gets better- I just tried to order the $2.99 Tuesday night Customer Appreciation Pizza. After calling about 25 times to a busy line I got through. I felt like I won a radio contest. But then I was put on hold. My wife was going to pick it up in half an hour (they take about 6 minutes to make, I know as a former Domino's Pizza driver), but she said it would take 45 minutes- no exceptions. So I decided to spring for the extra delivery fee, but that would take around 90 minutes to deliver. I guess cheap pizza tastes good too when you have to wait an hour past dinner time.

So instead of gaining a new customer (I had not ordered from here before), they just annoyed the Dickens out of me and wasted 2o minutes of my time. And I am still hungry! Where's that #for Domino's?

Athletes4Pizza?

Commmercials aired in St. Louis (and maybe other cities) during the Superbowl directing people to the Athletes4Jesus website. This is one of the worst websites I have ever seen. I wonder how much they spent sending people to this site. They should have spent some of that money on web design. Not only does this purple and teal page look cheesy, complete with rotating 3D Jesus fish/cross, the first place it asks you to click is on a Domino's pizza ad.

Contrast this with another site (the link is on the Athletes4Jesus page which is one redeeming quality) for the Pujols Foundation. The opening Flash on this site almost had me crying (I said almost).

If I seem to be too harsh, you may be right, but I explain my distaste for these sub par displays of Christianity in more detail in the preview to my book (read it free). Christians should be leading the way in excellence, not representing God as second class or lame. Usually the producers of this type of inferior content cry poverty, which is a valid argument, but since these guys were advertising during the Superbowl they can not make that claim. Maybe they borrowed the money and need to sell Domino's pizza to pay for it.

Create A Killer Brochure: 9 Steps to the Perfect Piece

This killer brochure shows you how to create a killer brochure. Very clever isn't it? Free download from the marketingenious Marketing Toolbox.