Who’s Your Audience?
Before you do anything in public there’s a helpful question to ask: Who’s watching, listening, reading, observing, etc.? Everything we do has an intended audience. If you’re a student writing a paper, your teacher is the only audience you have to concern yourself with. If you’re a factory worker, your boss may be the person you concern yourself with, but your audience is the consumer. Everything we produce is to be viewed with lots of different sets of eyes. Choosing to just do something and not worry about the consumer isn’t wise.
Church signs never cease to amaze me. They continually have insider language on them, not to mention the jokes that aren’t funny even if you do go to church (exposure to the Son prevents burning…wow). People: everybody who drives by your church can see that thing. Why do you have it? Communicate with it in a way that everybody can understand.
We try to ask ourselves this question at Arrowhead a lot, and we’re not perfect at it.
We ask it about Sunday mornings. Of course, the audience of worship is God, but our music, teaching, graphics, video, welcome areas, kids ministry, and everything we do are viewed by lots of eyes. We want those things to be sensible to people who come to Arrowhead every week, but our primary audience is people who are disconnected from God. We want to help them take their next step. Church should be understandable to people because God wants to be understood. He can’t be explained, but His love can be understood.
We ask it when we advertise. We ask it when we serve in the community. We don’t always get it right, but I think it’s a helpful thing to keep in mind.
So, consider your audience for the product you make or service you provide. Better yet, ask someone from that audience what they hear. What you say isn’t nearly as important as what they hear.
