Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Elevator Pitch




You're in an elevator wearing one of our new Plainfield Friends T-shirts. Somebody enters the elevator, sees the T-shirt and says, "I've driven by Plainfield Friends on Highway 40. What kind of a church is it?" What will you say while the elevator makes its way to the floor you are headed to?

This is the idea of the "elevator pitch." The goal is to give a concise and clear description that is boiled down to 30 or 40 words that will leave the listener wanting to know more. The description needs to be in terms understood by the listener. It needs to be genuine. And it needs to be short enough to share between floors on an elevator.

A discussion group on "The Religious Society of Friends - Quakers" on Linked In looked at the question of what might be a good elevator pitch for Friends and got me to thinking about it.

What would an elevator pitch for Plainfield Friends sound like?

It needs to include what we are (fill in your own ideas in the blanks below), such as:
   We are a Christian church
   We are a gathering of people who worship together
   We are people who are learning to follow Jesus
   We believe that Jesus Christ has come to teach his people himself

   ________________________________

   ________________________________

It needs to include what we do, which might include:
   We sing, pray and share the Bible together
   We feed hungry people through the food pantry
   We host the Plainfield Farmers' Market
   We spend time in quiet, waiting worship
   _________________________________
 
   _________________________________

It needs to include why someone would want to be part of our group, maybe:
   We try to keep things simple
   We look for ways to serve each other and our community
   We make room for people

   ________________________________

   ________________________________

What would your elevator pitch sound like? Write it down, send or give it to me, and let me share it with others (anonymously, if you would like).

Bill