I see irrelevance all around me.

It’s trending in my sphere.

Without a doubt.

Here’s a couple of excerpts from Maurilio Amorim’s post titled Legacy Christian Organizations and the Irrelevance Spiral  (You should read the whole thing.  It’s good.):

Most legacy Christian organizations in America suffer, not from a lack of vision and mission, but most of them suffer from a communication crisis. Often they know what their missions are and, for the most part, they know whom they are trying to reach. Their failure, however, lies in communicating with their target audience in way it can receive the information. After decades of existence the tendency in these organizations is to communicate their story, purpose, and mission in the language and images of their founders. Seldom I see a legacy organization change the way they present themselves in a format that reflects new societal values and attitudes while remaining true to their calling.

While I’m not advocating changing your heart to appeal to culture, I am a big fan of contextualizing your message so it’s heard and understood by society (emphasis mine).  Every successful missionary has learned this lesson: you must speak a language your culture understands and can response to.

The focus of his post is on Christian organizations, but I think it’s bigger.

In my opinion, contextualizing = building trust.

These principles apply to leadership.  If you only relate superficially with those you are leading, don’t expect them to follow you blindly.

These principles apply to friendships and marriages.  If someone doesn’t trust you, don’t expect them to be there for you in a time of crisis.

Your message must be built on trust.

Not analysis.

Not research.

Not personal enrichment.

Not saving face.

Not impressing people.

Trust.

Do you have the personal credibility with your audience?   If you don’t have it, stop expecting to be successful.  Gone are the days of blind loyalty and successful fear-mongering.

Here’s Simon Sinek on this very subject.   Awesome.

This seems like such a novel concept.  

Why don’t we get it?   What’s holding us back?