Proclaim & Promote....

I have attended like many of you numerous corporate strategic planning events, marketing rollouts, sales meetings, training and product knowledge workshops. We hear of a phrase that often the "sizzle is what is promoted and not the steak", which is the actual product. This is to say that where the sizzle is promoted then often the product is mostly fluff and the marketing creatively makes more of the product than it actually is. There is some deception.




In Community of Christ, we know the reality of the Living Christ in our lives. If there is fluff, we have failed our customer and the intent of the product designer. In reality there is a real danger of our product being called fluff if we individually do not believe in and apply the product we are marketing. In fact, if I do not believe in it, I become a source of doubt to the customer that contrasts with the product's credibility and reduces its saleability. My lack of belief impacts the perception of validity of our whole community and its acceptance, value and trustworthiness to the customer. 

To live what we say, to be believable to our customer, we need to demonstrate what our product is with "knowing confidence." Only then will customers be prepared to invest their lives in the product we offer. Only then will our customers discover fulfillment in the product they acquire from us. Only then will these words be made flesh in us and them.....

       “We proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love and peace!”

That short, easily memorized statement summarizes our Identity, our Mission, our Message and our Belief. The "we" as the first word, depicts what the user of the product receives! In looking at us, the customer knows if the product is worthwhile acquiring. The statement says exactly who we are! We, are the embodiment of this proclamation. When people encounter you, that's you.... the joy you exude expresses the eternal. A vision of contagious Hope resides within you. Love for others shows in your caring, compassionate, sensitive listening and giving of self.  Peace that surpasses logical understanding, enables you to be present, mindful, setting others at ease and providing confident leadership in difficult situations. Then, sacred community extends, blesses and enfolds others in a fuller reality of our proclamation. We are the sizzle of the product we promote! But there is no fluff! We together are Community of Christ and we express through our lives the validity of these words.

     “We proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love and peace!"

The source of such inner joy, hope, love and peace is not from knowledge about our faith or our product, but from the moments of eternity experienced and made real within us. Time with Divine impels us to be the essence of our proclamation which is our identity as Community of Christ Christians.

Then, beyond this sacred statement, enduring principles, beliefs and mission speak to the substance, character, virtues and actions of our evident life expressions of grace and generosity with and towards others. We are believable because we intentionally care, because we discerningly search out and respond, because we empathetically are compassionate to and with the hurting and dismissed of society about us.

Communities that create joy out of ashes, hope out of despair, love out of rejection, and peace out of blind reaction, are only possible through the indwelling presence of Christ who we proclaim as “Lord and God”. We know the product; we know the envisioned outcome is made real in the life of sacred community. Our role, our calling is to embody joy, hope, love and peace within and without our person. Discover and continue to embrace Christ in your life and those expressions will live abundantly in you and the product will be credible, believable and saleable!

Submitted by Kerry Richards