Tag Archives: seth godin

Seth’s Blog: The lesson from two lemonade stands

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Some time ago I read this article by Seth Godin,  ” The lesson from two lemonade stands“.  Go read it, then come back here.

For the church – what lemonade stand are we?

  • Are we passing out tracts and telling people the “bridge” story or are we loving people and walking with them to the bridge.?
  • Is it more important to us that people attend or that people encounter?
  • Are people an audience or are they participators?
  • Does tradition trump God’s leading?
  • Does playing it safe to protect what we have trump taking a risk in faith to go where God is?
  • Are we known more for what we take than what we give?
  • Or put another, way – for what we are against than what we are for?

I’ve purposely left the “in between” unfilled in this post.  Hopefully these questions get you thinking as much as they have me and I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments!  So, what lemonade stand is the church?

The New Marketing

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StreamingFaith.com conducted this interesting interview with Seth Godin discussing how the church isn’t doing a very good job of reaching people with their message in today’s new “marketing era”.  I really like his observations on the usefulness of blogging – something that I think the church is way behind on…check out the interview at, Is Today’s Modern Church Busy Making Meatball Sundaes?

Which comes first (why faith matters)

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Can a flame exist over ice?I just read an interesting post by Seth Godin called, “Which comes first (why stories matter)“. In it, Seth points out the interesting relationship between the work we do and the story we have. Two points caught my attention:

The work is what people talk about, because it’s what we experience. In other words, the work tells a story.

Then a bit later he goes on to say,

…if you decide what the story is, you can do work that matches the story. Your decisions will match the story. The story will become true because you’re living it.

As I read this article I immediately thought of James 2,

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. – James 2:17-18 (NIV)

The Christian story is one that should have influence over everything the believer does and everything we do should flow out of the gospel narrative and how it has transformed us (the story). James articulates that faith (the story we believe in) is connected with the “works” we do and if there are no works then there really isn’t any faith.  

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