Catablog

Blue Ocean Faith - Part 1

July 16, 2007


Check out this article by Mike Metzger from the Clapham Institute. Rather than competing within the confines of the existing industry or trying to steal customers from rivals, Metzger highlights businesses that have reinvented the wheel and created what some are calling a "blue ocean." Metzger says, "Businesses that keep using the same language are fishing in red oceans - where the market space gets more crowded, the lines get tangled and the competition turns the water bloody." He goes on to say, "Over the last two hundred years there has been a long-term decline in how Europeans and Americans imagine Christianity. This does not mean people no longer attend churches and Bible studies. They do. But Christianity is relegated to a day called Sunday and a place called church. It's pretty much incoherent and inconsequential Monday through Friday." He says, "Talking about Jesus, church and faith in the same old way and expecting things to get better is a red ocean faith." Metzger goes on to say, "Curves, Southwest Airlines and Cirque du Soleil all saw the wisdom in reframing an all-too-familiar message. How about Christianity? In the blue ocean, we reframe the historic gospel in language that connects Sunday to Monday."