What is Blocking the Flow?

A couple of years ago the soda companies widened the opening on their cans. If you remember, the opening on the cans used to be smaller. They said that this made it easier to drink. I never really cared and thought it was kind of silly. I had been drinking soda from a can just fine. Who cares if the opening is bigger.

Think about it for a second. It was really a great tweak they made.

It is really ingenuous whoever thought of this. With a wider mouth, pouring does not agitate the carbonated liquid as much as it allows air to flow into the can as the liquid pours out. This preserves more carbonation in the soda allowing the soda to taste as the manufacturers intended it to.

Many Churches and organizations have a great thing going on. Their content and vision are well thought out, but perhaps the way it is delivered needs to be tweaked.

Simple questions to ask...

1. Is everyone using the same verbiage? One of the hardest things to do is transfer an idea or vision in a way that can be repeated accurately by anyone. Nike did this very well. There is a reason why their slogan for years was three words: Just do it. Jesus did this, too, when he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself." He took everything that we are to pray and strive to be and put it in a sentence that we will spend our entire life working on.

2. Is there anything stopping the flow? Are your services choppy? Are there gaps of waiting while the next part of the service is getting started? There is a reason why many worship leaders do not have any dead spaces in their worship sets, going from one song seamlessly into the next. Is your webpage easy to navigate? Your website does not have to be supper fancy but should be clear. Evaluate what may be stopping the flow and make adjustments as needed.

3. Are there any conflicts that need to be resolved? If there is conflict that has not been dealt with, especially among the leaders, it will affect the flow of everything else. There are always going to be disagreements and differences in opinions. I am talking about the big elephant in the room which would make Hurricane Katrina look like a water hose.

There needs to be a constant state of evaluation, what is working what is not. Ask tough questions, listen to the tough answers.

What are somethings you have notices that block the flow of a good idea?