Thoughts from the Thinking

One of the biggest problems with most things such as blogs, television, school, church, youth ministry…well, pretty much everything, is that often before content can be made people want numbers but those numbers don’t come without there first being content. Think about it: It is really hard to write up something unless you know people will read it but people won’t read it unless you actually write up something. No one wants to watch a television show that isn’t well written but how do you know anyone will watch it even if it is well written (eg Arrested Development)? You want numbers before you start but you can’t get numbers until after you start.

This is a huge problem in things like youth ministry and school. There are times when schools don’t want to start a program, say a major or minor in something, before they know people will be interested in it. However, people who would be interested in such a major or minor may not go to the school unless that program is available. The same can be said of youth ministry. Youth ministers and coordinators don’t always want to put the time into planning events and such until there are teenagers involved. This is a problem since teenagers are actually smarter than we often give them credit: they know when you are half-assing it. You won’t get numbers until there is content, but people don’t want to risk (waste) making content until there are numbers. We don’t want to make content without people but you can’t get people without content…

*OK, seriously, if you haven’t read Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, you should go and read it right now.