Chris Elrod

The Truth About Outreach Magazine

Several friends have emailed me about my "letter" to Outreach Magazine that appears in the "Readers Write" section of the March/April 2007 issue.  It is entitled "Where Are The Little Guys" and...through their "creative editing"....Outreach Magazine butchered my original blog post from which they stole the "letter" from. 

Let me set the record straight....I NEVER WROTE A LETTER TO OUTREACH MAGAZINE!!!

On January 8, 2007 I posted a blog entry entitled "Outreach's List Of Crap-O-La" in which I took Outreach Magazine to task for their list of America's Most Innovative Churches.  Soon after my blog post came out somebody over at Squidoo picked up on it and other bloggers began to link to it.  Over a week's time I was generating thousands of hits to the post...not to mention countless emails.

At the end of January I was contacted through email by Outreach Magazine.  They expressed their feelings about my blog post (not too good, as you could imagine), but felt that "their readers needed to hear what I had to say".  They offered for me to write a letter to their editor, which would be printed in the "Readers Write" section of the magazine.  I turned down the offer.  I felt that everything I needed to say about the subject was in my original blog post.  To write a more toned down version for publication would be a waste of time and...dishonest.  I did offer for Outreach Magazine to reprint my original post...as is...without any editing...as an article...not a letter to the editor thing.  I made sure that I spelled out in my email that the reprint of my blog post had to be "as is without any editing".

This brings us to today...with the current Outreach Magazine having a "letter" printed in it from Chris Elrod.  After receiving emails from people letting me know it was in there (I'm not a subscriber anymore) I stopped by the church my mother is on staff at (she's a subscriber) so I could read what I "wrote".  Let me just say...it's edited...it's not the original post...it's butchered...it sucks!!!  It is not my thoughts or my writing.  It is Outreach Magazine's edited take on what they wanted their readers to see...or not see.

I am completely disturbed...and disappointed by all of this...for several reasons:

1) Outreach Marketing was never granted permission to print the edited version they did.

2) Outreach Marketing showed a complete lack of integrity in editing out what they did from my original post.

3) Most importantly, Outreach Marketing violated copyright laws by reprinting my blog post in violation of what I had given them permission for.

4) The editors of Outreach Magazine totally misrepresented themselves is what they said they wanted their readers to see and what they wanted to do with my thoughts.

5) Through their editing I was misrepresented to the readers of Outreach Magazine.  What appears in the "letter" is only about 25% of what I actually wrote.

So the question becomes...what I am going to do about it?  The answer is...what I just did...blog about it.

Now you know the truth about my "letter" in Outreach Magazine.

Apologies To Some Friends

Over the last several days I've been getting quite a bit of private email about my SEX! post.  Most of it has been flaming, some of it has been cool, but there are a few folks out there that thought I was taking shots at Jonathan Herron or Gary Lamb.  I think because Jonathan's church is doing a message series on sexuality and Gary's church just had a bunch of press over a "controversial" video, the assumption was that I was posting about them.  This couldn't be further from the truth!

I've communicated with both of these guys in the past and love them dearly.  I would never dream of publicly slighting them , their ministries or their churches.  I apologize to both guys...or anyone in their churches...if they think I was taking shots at them.  I can assure you, I was not!

The purpose of the post was to point out how absurd it is to preach a sermon series just because it's controversial enough to get press.  It was also to point out that most of the churches that were doing it were just copying Granger in hopes of seeing the same kind of success in their own towns.  If there is one thing that chaps my shorts the most, it's unimaginative, non-creative, copy cat churches just doing what they see successful in other churches because they have no vision of their own.  Well, that and heretics.  :-)

There is nothing more desperate looking...or pitiful...than a church trying to be relevant.  Either you are or you aren't.  A lump of crap is still a lump of crap...even if you put it in a pretty box.  Relevance is not about window dressing, it's about the substance of the DNA of the church body...and leadership.  If you have to try to be relevant...or copy verbatim what others do in order to look relevant...then you really aren't relevant!!!

The SEX! post was written over several days - neither Gary nor Jonathan were on my mind during the process.  The "rapping Santa" video that Gary and Ridgestone put out was strictly to communicate to their own folks in an intentionally cheesy way about an upcoming event.  The Ridgestone Church body thought it was crazy enough to tell their friends about it and post it on YouTube.  It took on a life of it's own without specific marketing by Gary or his staff.  Now that's relevant!!!

Jonathan's church reaches younger 20-somethings.  They have a pretty warped view of the differences in the roles of men and women.  They are also pretty ...um...well...um...sex driven at their age.  The message series he is doing is both relevant and needed for his flock.  He's not copying anyone or purposely using a controversial subject to gain press...he's just spiritually meeting the needs of the Catalyst congregation.

Obviously, there were specific churches and/or pastors I was thinking about when I wrote the SEX! post.  Those will remain nameless now and forever.  However, I realize that sometimes my writing can be more of a shotgun approach (hitting many targets) when I need to zero in with a rifle shot on occasion.   I'll try to do better with that in the future.

PLEASE NOTE - At no time did Gary or Jonathan contact me about the post.  Chances are they never even knew about it since they are pretty busy guys.  I just felt I needed to clear the air for the folks that did email in.

Let's Talk About SEX!!!

That's it...I've had it with trying to be myself or doing things differently.   I'm tired of never being the "in" church around town that everyone goes to.  I want more people, so I'm going to do what all of those church leadership conference speakers and mega-church bloggers said to do...I'm going to be just like them!!!

With that in mind, Compass Point is going to jump on the bandwagon and launch a series about SEX!  Our hope is that we - like the dozen or so other churches that copied Granger Community Church and did a SEX! series - will create a buzz in the community by using the cheap tactic of promoting a controversial subject.

According to most of the church growth experts, marketing is the key.  I found out that people are not looking for spiritual answers at church these days, they are looking to be taken in by gimmicks (no wonder our attendance hasn't been exploding).  With that in mind, here is the marketing plan for our SEX! series:

1. We'll use a really suggestive advertisement on billboards, flyers and postcards like the one above (click on the thumbnail to see a larger version).

2. We'll give out tacky gifts to our guests that play along with the theme of SEX!  We're thinking about using condoms with the "Prayer Of Jabez" printed on the side.  You know...the "enlarge my territory" prayer.  It'll be kind of like a Christian Viagra.

3. We've worked out a deal with Hef and his team to give out free Playboy Magazines throughout downtown Lakeland with our own customized "from your friends at Compass Point" cover.  There's even a possibility that they may do a special layout for it entitled, "Girls Of The SBC".  Of course, we won't call them Playmates or Bunnies.  This is church, so we'll call them "Love Offering"!

4. To really create a buzz, we're going to use a celebrity on the first day of the series like Fellowship is doing with Hulk Hogan.  We're planning on using either Dr. Ruth or that chick that Hugh Grant got busted with!!!

5. We're going to include video clips during the message that are relevant to today's culture and creatively visualize the subject of SEX!  We're thinking about using classics like "Debbie Does Dallas", "Deepthroat" and "Behind The Green Door".  However, we won't use "The Devil In Mrs. Jones" because that talks about Satan...and Osteen said that's a negative subject to talk about in church.

6. The worship band will wear latex each week and start each service with a Snoop Dog tune.

7. We are going to have a special free seminar about SEX! for couples in our community.  We're so excited to be bringing in Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson to speak at that!  Compass Point really lucked up as they both had a break in their shooting schedules!

8. For the next twelve weeks every piece of advertising, email or stationary from Compass Point will feature the word SEX! spelled in all caps, bold print, underlined and followed by an exclamation point.

9. We'll endlessly blog about the series to other church leaders in the attempt to look like we're relevant and cutting-edge!

10. Last but not least, we'll write a book about SEX!, shamelessly self-promote it, package the whole thing (graphics, Bible studies, video clips, message notes, etc.) and sell it for hundreds of dollars to other churches that also lack imagination or creativity.

The entire Compass Point staff and leadership is pumped about SEX!  I'm so glad we stopped listening to what God wanted us to do and starting stealing what worked at every other church out there.  Now we'll finally see the growth that really matters on all those "end-of-the-year" top church lists...numerical growth!

NOTE TO THE HUMOR IMPAIRED - Granger did it first and did it the best.  Word of wisdom...when you're only ambition is to follow the lead dog, the view will always look like ass.  There's enough copycats in the world of churches...be your own dog!!!

NOTE TO THE TERMINALLY CLUELESS - No, Compass Point isn't really going to do a message series about SEX! or use the marketing ideas listed above.  It was a joke to make a point.  It's called satire!  Now go back to your deacon's meeting.