Vibrant community is the secret DNA of every church, business, or organization. It is impossible to achieve anything extraordinary without it. The good news is that the church has the ability to develop the type of community that transcends even the most popular brands like Apple, Southwest Airlines, or Zappos because of where our community is rooted. The trouble many church leaders face is knowing how to create it.

When it comes to effectively communicating with your members, there are dozens of resources and strategies a church can use. However, Tyler Braun recently shared a post that provides a much-needed reminder when it comes to effective church communication. In the post, Tyler highlighted a communication principle that is often overlooked or forgotten:

A few weeks ago, I came across this TED Talk on what consumers want. In it, Joseph Pine explains that economic value has changed over the course of history from commodities to goods to services. In the past few years, the economic value we as consumers expect no longer ends with services. Instead, our culture has added another layer to help us determine whether something is valuable — namely, authentic experiences.

Jordan is the youth pastor at a well-established church in the South. He started working at the church right out of college and has now been there five years. He loves his job and he sings (although poorly) in his car on the way to and from the church. Jordan’s heart is for the Gospel; ministering to young people and reaching out to lost, broken, and insecure teenagers with the healing power of Jesus Christ is his passion. He is blessed by the opportunity to change the trajectory of kids’ lives as his vocation. As with any gig, there are things that could be better. For Jordan, he feels like his thoughts aren’t valued by his church’s leadership and that he is often branded as a ‘typical youth pastor’. He isn’t the type to rock the boat just to give people motion sickness, but he has ideas that he feels could benefit the church go unheard.