I’m thinking Bono might be one of the most effective communicators of our day. Better than most preachers, actually. 

More than a few musicians stand for something, but is there anyone who has gotten the message out more widely and clearly than Bono? 

So why is Bono effective?  Three primary reasons catch me:

1. The themes he uses have universal appeal. There is a God-given core longing in each of us for love, unity, peace and an unselfish use of power.

2. He always communicates the same message.  Through his words and actions, Bono continues to leverage four themes:  love, unity, peace and using power to benefit those without power.

3. Bono uses many media to repeat the message.  Words, video clips, press conferences, talks and (of course) music combine to get the message home.

What’s the lesson for preachers?  

1. Communicate what matters to everyone.  What scares me is that you could go to many churches for a month and not hear anyone talk about love, unity, peace or the selfless use of power.  Bono may have actually taken what continues to attract non-Christians to Jesus and made them his core message.  Lots of people who would never go to church are intrigued by Jesus.  They love who he was, what he stood for, and Jesus’ message resonates with the image of God inside each of us. Why can’t we cooperate with that and find some bridges in the story?  Not saying we can’t touch hard subjects (I preached on demonization yesterday), but I am saying there is a core that resonates with everyone.  Find it.  Preach it.

2. Don’t be afraid to repeat the same theme.  The temptation I feel is the temptation you feel: to be relevant we need to say something new.  Most people don’t remember what we said last week.  Live out your core convictions (if you got ‘em).

3. Remember that everything you do in a service communicates, not just the message.  At Connexus, we’ve learned to pick our music to reflect the message and structure the entire service to back up the bottom line.

 What have you learned from Bono or other effective communicators?  Why do you think his message is so sticky?  What can we learn as leaders from Bono?

On U2′s current tour, it would be easy to get lost in the sheer size of the spectacle.  The sense that what we’re dealing with is huge is very real. 

It’s also why people get hung up on God.  I have conversations every day with people who think of God as an idea – as a force – as something so large and impersonal that there’s no immediate or direct connect.  Lots of us grew up in church with that concept of God.

But Bono also did something else.  He made this huge show personal.

He talked about being in Toronto a lot.  True, musicians do that in every city.  But he also told some personal stories.  He shouted out to the people in condos next to the Rogers Center and asked them to flick their lights off and on if they were listening.  They did. (That was sweet).

In one extraordinary moment, while the intro to City of Blinding Lights played, he hoisted a twelve year old boy on stage.  He ran around the perimeter of the stage with him holding the boy’s hand.  During the first verse, Bono got down on his knee and sang the verse looking straight into his eyes.  Later in the song, Bono took off his glasses and put them on the boy’s face.  When it was over, he handed the boy back to security and to his parents.  Extraordinary.  Check out the photo from that night.

The biggest show in the world got personal.  Very personal.  Theologians call that imminence.  God is both transcendent (large) and imminent (personal).

Is that a key to briding the gap between believers and non-believers in church?  Rather than debate worship v. performance music (we use both at Connexus), maybe a key learning is that our service ‘style’ ought to reflect both the transcendence of God (being part of something bigger than ourselves) and the personal side (God is so close, so personal, and so interested in each of us).

How can we do this? Do we do this?  What could we do to better reflect this?  What do you think?

A constant discussion at the leadership table at Connexus Church is how to engage Christians and people with no church background during the same service.

Musically, it’s tricky.  We have a fantastic music team.  Andy Walker, our director of music, has done an unbelievable job of crafting what I think is one of the best church music environments in Canada. (Yep, I’m biased, but you should hear our team.)

The tension is Christians always want to sing more music.  People who grew up out of the church generally want less. Where else in the culture, after all, do you sing out loud in public?  People with little church background generally love great music, they just don’t want to be asked to stand for 30 minutes to participate in songs they don’t know to sing lyrics they don’t yet believe with their friends standing next to them.  That’s why we rarely do more than 3 participatory songs in a service.

We ask: how do you bridge the gap? I had the chance to see U2 last month in Toronto and watched Bono do something powerful. It was a huge life-highlight for me.  Broke down and cried a few times, actually.

He blended transcendence, imminence and a universal message masterfully together in a way that drew 63,000 people at the Rogers Center in Toronto together. And he did it much better than I’ve seen in most churches.

I wonder if there’s a blueprint in that for those of us who are committed to doing church in a way that constantly includes new friends.

That’s what I’m blogging about this week. 

In the meantime, anyone else at the U2 concert?  What did you see or learn?