A Post in Which I Relate the Recommendation of Internet Explorer 5.5 to the Church
This is a Guest Post by Andy Darnell.
How’s that for a blog title?
The other day I was spammed. My wife was spammed. We each got an email blast from a local car dealer. I’d love a new car. In fact I’d love a new used car. I might even be in the market for a car in the near future, but for now I have no idea how the dealer got both of our email addresses.
Regardless, we both went online and “unsubscribed” from the spam that we received.
I happened to take it a step further. I wanted to dig a little to find out how they got both of our email addresses. I noticed that the unsubscribe pop up took me to a company called eleadcrm.com.
In today’s market place you can’t afford to gamble when it comes to finding the right CRM Technology for your dealership. That’s why eLEAD CRM gives you the competitive advantage that you need to sell more cars and service today.
It appears that their purpose in business is to provide auto dealers with sales leads for spammy blasts such as this. I’m not naive about how they got our information. I’ve seen the power of web analytics and know that there are some pretty savvy scripts out there that can pull a lot about a person. Then, all they have to do is query the dozens of databases that can match you up. Voila. Whether or not this is how they got our information, I don’t know.
Either way… Way to go eleadcrm. You rock.
I did get a chuckle from their lovely website though… which actually may have been worth the price of the spam blast. Upon browsing to their site (in firefox mind you) I got this pop up:
Seriously? It is Highly Recommended that I use IE5.5! Wow. Fantastic.
So, yesterday I think about it this way.I wonder how many churches exist with approach to ministry that echos this sentiment.
You know what I mean, right?
- What worked in the past is the program we support.
- We could push the envelope a little and be innovative, but then we’d have to be backwards compatible.
- We recognize that there are great applications out there that other people use, but that is for them to use… not us.
- We’re much more comfortable being status quo.
How do we challenge these sentiments? What are your thoughts?
Buzz it!
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26 Responses to “A Post in Which I Relate the Recommendation of Internet Explorer 5.5 to the Church”
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I know exactly what you mean, what I don't know is how to challenge the thoughts.
My first guess is wait until they die or get fired…but that's not very productive.
haha.
oh, i shouldn't laugh.
grumble
doh…
i intentionally go to an outdated,technology-backward church…nowhere to go but up…
Great great post here.
Never thought of it like that.
I think the main reason that they continue with the platform that the church was built on is because that is what people know.
I have talked to my mom and grandparents all the time about using IE, but they continue to use it. That is what they are comfortable with and for them they see not reason to use something different. Same with the church members. They are use to what they know and there is no reason to switch over to firefox because they do not see any value in it.
I think the church wants to change but cannot because it would mess up the congregation so much that they would not know how to operate outside of Internet Explorer world and into a firefox world.
Just to be clear, I don't have a problem supporting "old browsers" But I would like to get to the point where the "analytics/demographics" are used to drive decisions instead of the small percentage is what we're catering to.
We are trying to figure out how to do church in a way that is respectful to longterm members but also inviting and acknowledging new comers. backward compatibility is important, but future vision is maybe more important.
I totally dig this analogy.
Like you said, there are a lot of churches that try to stick with what works. They don't wanna push the envelope because they don't wanna deal with the challenges of being backward compatible. If that's what works, okay, but the people will begin to feel it. And if the church doesn't do something about it, then something more relevant (not necessarily better!) will come along. Like The Church Of Firefox or The Denomination of Chrome.
I think that some people believe when you begin to innovate, then you may make things uncomfortable for everyone. One of the big things about my church is that they (or we?) attempt to create predictable environments – predictability helps people know what to expect and feel comfortable – but that doesn't stifle innovation. Case in point.
Maybe I'm way off – I don't run a church. I just attend one. But I feel that if you wanna continue to grow and stay on the edge of what reaches people, you're going to have to stretch yourself a bit.
Or you can just use IE.
I totally dig this analogy.
Like you said, there are a lot of churches that try to stick with what works. They don't wanna push the envelope because they don't wanna deal with the challenges of being backward compatible. If that's what works, okay, but the people will begin to feel it. And if the church doesn't do something about it, then something more relevant (not necessarily better!) will come along. Like The Church Of Firefox or The Denomination of Chrome.
I think that some people believe when you begin to innovate, then you may make things uncomfortable for everyone. One of the big things about my church is that they (or we?) attempt to create predictable environments – predictability helps people know what to expect and feel comfortable – but that doesn't stifle innovation. Case in point.
Maybe I'm way off – I don't run a church. I just attend one. But I feel that if you wanna continue to grow and stay on the edge of what reaches people, you're going to have to stretch yourself a bit.
Or you can just use IE.
Great post Andy!
This mindset: "We’re much more comfortable being status quo" makes my blood boil! This is a constant battle that I face …
Thanks Kevin
I once used Internet Explorer 5.5!
A few years and $15,000 in therapy later and I think I'm over the trauma.
It's my humble opinion that churches are full of idiots. Me included. We all do the dumbest things, get stuck in the stupidest ruts and then jump off on the totally wrong track in our struggle to change.
Churches that refuse to move on, even when the membership is in steep decline are just crazy though. I really don't understand it… but I'm afraid that will be ME in 30 years!
Agreed. I've been holding on to a post for weeks. I finally hit the submit button after much prayer for who it is going to rub. "I am NOT your Demographic" http://www.andydarnell.com/?p=1449
I don't want to be that guy holding on to my way of worship or church methodology. I want to get out of God's way and let Him Reign.
In the past few months I've convinced "the powers that be" in my church to let me switch our website to a cloversite and our email to Google Apps! We are trying very hard to not just be "the status quo" (from a technology standpoint).
We're also a liturgical based Lutheran church that has worship styles which range from uber traditional to uber contemporary! We're trying very hard to not just be "the status quo".
I realize that those two things alone don't get us out of "status quo"… ahem… status. But the changes are slowly making their way into our DNA and that is a good thing.
On a personal note Andy… I'm dubbing you *Super Nerd* status in making that jump from a IE 5.5 recommendation to church ministry recommendations. But you did it successfully (hence "Super"). Kudos bro!
"Super Nerd?"
ok I agree.
One major factors for Churches maintaining the status quo is a lack of tithing. Often the older crowd that likes things “as they are” are literally footing the bill. Turn that crowd away without getting the younger crowd to tithe and you have a recipe for disaster in a lot of Churches.
yep. I think I heard Andy Stanley at Drive last year talk about this in a way that I as a lay person haven't ever considered. Those that go into full time ministry work, didn't do it so that they could raise money. Eyes on the Mission. This is why Vision and mission needs to be reminded and reminded and reminded…
I love this line: "We recognize that there are great applications out there that other people use, but that is for them to use… not us." I think you should add… "…even if we really really need it."
It's so true. I deal with that mentality all the time. The worst part is, it's people I respect greatly. These are not dumb people so the question remains: (why are they acting like it? j/k) how do we reach them? (lk dannyjbixby said…)
word.
peace | dewde
I think the reason even smart people don't want to adapt is because adapting is scary and takes a ton of work. Neither of those have anything to do with smarts.
At this point, I think all the information is out there. We need no new info. What we need is encouragement, the certainty, to work hard without fear. Without that encouragement, like you said, even the most brilliant people will stay with IE 5.5 mindset.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
I happen to work directly with healthcare marketers on a day to day basis. I hear this same line day in and day out. That is why I love this community so much, because I get some positive reinforcement that the ideas that I want to push are ok.
Andy, this has to be one your top 5 posts. Great analogy as well as thought provoking. What's very interesting is I'm in my 30s, consider myself contemporary (culturally) and I find myself saying "what are these kids doing these days, what are they wearing and what is this fire cracker knucks all about?"). I may not be IE 5.5, but I will say it's an easy pattern for all of us to fall in to. I'm a late 90s early 2000s church person for the most part…which is starting to make me outdated. What a challenge.