Michael Staires

Senior Pictures

I was in the park yesterday doing some much-needed thinking and writing after a Your One Degree seminar. It was a beautiful, but windy, day and noticed that there was a girl having her senior portrait made in the park instead of in the studio. There was the photographer, the senior and a girl holding a reflector to capture the natural light for the photo.

They were too far away for me to hear conversation but as they moved into my field of view, the photographer, to demonstrate how she wanted the girl to pose, laid down on the ground in the exact same pose as this in this photo. I got to thinking…

I’m sure in most cases the seniors take complete direction from the photographer. After all, that’s their business. But I wonder how many photographers first ask the seniors, “How would you like to pose? What is the best way for people to see the real you?”

Are we to believe that lying on the ground or standing against a stone wall or leaning through a Y in a tree is natural? “Oh, I love that pose! It looks just like something they’d do!”

I don’t want to accuse, but it’s as if this photographer was posing this senior girl just like all the other senior girls she’d shot in her career. If you enter “senior portrait” into almost any image search engine you’ll see an amazing lack of creativity.

One size definitely does not fit all. We’re all different and the perfect pose for me is just not going to fit for you. And for a photographer to assume so is being short-sighted at best and conceited at worst. I guess it was just a reminder to me that whether you are marketing your business, your church, or yourself you can’t afford to treat everyone the same.

Anything but Jesus

Last night we continued the family tradition of sitting down and watching The Ten Commandments. While watching, it occurred to me (not for the first time) that, although this has been an Easter tradition in my family for quite awhile, the movie actually has nothing to do with Easter at all.

When I was a kid, I remember the Easter movie was always Ben Hur, another Biblical epic drama starring Charlton Heston. But Ben Hur actually covers the Easter story with Judah Ben Hur (Heston) actually carrying the cross of Christ to Calvary after Christ’s collapse.

So, what’s the difference? Why start showing The Ten Commandments instead of Ben Hur? Same style of movie…same star…same Biblical theme. Well, I think it’s the same reason that at you can put a huge inflatable Easter bunny on your lawn but if you put up a big wooden cross, you’re going to be in trouble with the neighborhood association. Or at Christmas time you can publicly display almost anything except a Nativity Scene and at school you can put on almost any type of play except a play about Jesus.

God alone has become okay because it’s He’s been watered down to merely a generic title having to do with any perceived higher power. But anything to do with Jesus is definitely not politically correct. He’s offensive. He’s controversial. He’s polarizing. Some things never change. What was true of Jesus 2000 years ago, is still true today.

Although I believe that the Antichrist spoken about in Revelation is an actual person, there’s no denying that the spirit of Antichrist (literally, anything but Jesus) is alive and well in our culture today.

Almost any spiritual topic can be covered without comment, but the minute you say the name of Jesus, the controversy begins. That’s the power of a name…the power of a person. 2000 years ago no one left Jesus unchanged. Your life was changed. You left Him indebted and in love or you left confronted, uncomfortable and angry. Jesus was always going to leave change in His wide wake.

Again, what was true then is true today. The presence of Jesus still makes many uncomfortable. He still confronts evil and apathy. He still challenges. He still continues to encourage us to take the next step out of our comfort zones—to follow Him.

Today, we celebrate Easter—the day Christ rose from the dead. Even death could not hold Him. We are here to continue to bring Jesus out of the tomb our culture wants to keep Him in. He’s easier to handle when you don’t see Him…out of sight out of mind. That’s why the Nativity scene and Ben Hur bother so many people—it’s all about Him.

So Easter is not about the Bunny or about The Ten Commandments or even about the Masters Golf Tournament (not that there’s anything wrong with those things). It’s about Jesus, His power over death, and His victory over evil. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Jesus says "Come"

With this being Easter Weekend, I thought I'd share with you a message I spoke last Sunday at Bread of Life in Tulsa. Here's the link from the Bread of Life site:

Challenge, Change and Growth

Edison 2, Bixby 1

Just in case you were wondering Edison beat Bixby tonight in a fiercely contested soccer match 2-1. Yes, it was cold...35 degrees. Yes it was raining (mixed with a bit of snow). And yes, if it weren't for Stan Goodchild's sleeping bag, I would've frozen. What'd you do this evening?

It's all in the packaging

I went to Home Depot the other day to pick up a repair kit to fix a runny toilet. On my way in this trailer caught my eye.

Now, I happen to be more of a Lowe’s guy but on this day, Home Depot was closer so I chose the big orange. I was impressed. They had this trailer sitting right out front with a sign that said, “Get Started! Everything you see for $137/month.”

The trailer was loaded with a beautiful riding mower, a weed-eater, a gas can, and a small chain saw. It was all there together in one nice, neat little package.

I have never even considered starting my own landscaping/mowing business but that display had me thinking. Maybe I could do this. Was that more powerful than just a sign telling me what they could do to help me get started? You bet.

I was thinking about this great marketing and it reminded me of my good friend Matt, who is one of the managers at Restoration Hardware. What a great store…full of great products. But Matt tells me it’s not odd at all to have someone walk into his store with the Restoration Catalog in their hand. They find a picture from the catalog, maybe a beautiful room furnished with sofas, lamps, rugs, shelving and lighting from RH. They just hold out the picture and say, “I want that!”

It’s all in the packaging. Good marketers know that most people do not connect the dots. Most people will not imagine all the possibilities and go through the effort of putting the package together themselves. That’s not their job. That’s your job if you are the store owner or manager. You must fill their minds with possibilities.

But what about the church? I believe that in these days, fewer and fewer people are going to continue to go to a church that is continually irrelevant and out of step. At one time in our culture, people would continue to attend a church that wasn’t meeting needs merely out of a sense of duty and politeness. Those days are gone.

I believe that churches must begin to do a much better job of packaging the services they have to offer in such a way that people can see the possibilities much more clearly. It seems to me that most churches offer what they offer…the sing, they pray, they preach, they teach. Whatever you get…or fail to get is all on your own.

How much furniture would Restoration Hardware sell at that price if they displayed their wares like Sam’s? On shelves that stretch up to the ceiling? What Home Depot and RH have learned is that good packaging sells. What’s true in retail, I believe, is true in the church.

Churches who have learned to stay relevant have already learned this lesson. They’ve put together messages and music to meet specific needs of the body they are ministering to. They’ve done a better job of thinking outside the walls of the church and meeting needs “out there.” They’ve put together teachers and curriculum designed to reach a much more specific group of needs. And they’ve been able to say, “Get Started!” to the hurting people coming to their churches for help.