I saw a commercial this morning for AT&T’s Yellow Pages where they called their book: The "Real" Yellow Pages. This slogan effectively compares AT&T’s book against all the other yellow pages books out there. It seems like they think they’re competing against the other yellow pages. Let me ask you: When was the last time you used the yellow pages? Not for propping something up or sitting on, but for actually looking up a business phone number. I don’t use it for anything. I use the internet. I use my phone. The yellow pages aren’t competing with other phone books, but with other ways of finding information. They can be the best phone book out there, but still not be meeting the needs of their customers.
This is true of churches who think they’re competing against other churches. When people don’t like something we’re doing, I think, "Oh, yeah, just try such-and-such church, then you’ll see." But the fact is, they’re probably not going to try the church down the street. They’re going to stay home, go see a movie, or do something other than attend a church. We can’t simply be the "best" church out there. We’ve got to understand that we are people’s best opportunity for life-change in our region. To know that it’s not enough to be the best church. We are competing with the culture, with the media. This means we’ve got to make sure we’re at the top of our game. The good news is, we do have the best message in the world. We have what people really need. Let’s present it in the best way possible!