It’s important to KNOW who you are … especially when you’re trying to communicate to others who you are. Then to have a short, condensed, “canned” version ready to go when the moment arrives.

Oftentimes we won’t have the time or occasion to give a full-fledge “marketing” proposal or pitch to someone about our church … many times it will come in the course of a conversation — a door will swing open for a brief second and then slam shut abruptly without any possibility of opening in the foreseeable future.

For occasions like this, marketers often have their “elevator speech” ready.

The “elevator speech” metaphor/scenario goes like this: If you were riding on an elevator and only had a limited amount of time [a couple of floors] to share with your fellow passengers who you were, I mean the core of what you’re about (or your company, product, church, etc.), what would be your quick pitch?

It’s a short timeframe … so it means cutting down, leaning up and getting to the essence of who you, your church, the Gospel, etc. are and have to “offer.” The essentials, basically.

Sooooo … what’s your elevator speech, quick pitch, how would you share who you are to a stranger if you had 15 or 30 seconds?

Here’s a site — called the 15 Second Pitch Wizard — that walks you through and coaches you on your elevator speech. It’s a neat exercise to help you. Take 5 minutes and develop your elevator speech, then rehearse it, and share it with your people.

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In an article titled, “Pray Ball,” a church marketing firm is using “Faith Nights” to help get people in the seats of minor league baseball parks by marketing to church groups. Here in Oklahoma, we’ve had “Baptist Night” at our NBA Hornets games.

According to the story, “Moses bobblehead dolls were given to the first 1,500 fans.” [Reference pic]. And it seems churches can use the events to provide a relaxed way to invite guests to “church.”

Here are some quotes from the story:

“Fans who attend can expect to hear a hot Christian musical group, listen to testimonials from players and — here’s the kicker — get a bobblehead figure representing one of their favorite biblical characters, from Moses to Samson to Noah.”

“Handing out Bibles at the turnstile is just asking for trouble,” said Brent High, president of Third Coast Sports. “The reason teams are doing this isn’t to spread the news of Jesus Christ. It is to put fannies in the seats. If these teams start offending their season ticket-holders, they’ve got a problem.”

“The churches are using this as an outreach for those who do not have a church home,” High said. “We have numerous examples of people who have joined congregations through these events. We are using sports and music to reach a group of people that has never been reached before.”

Other related stories here, here, and here.

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This ain’t cool … this is one purdy site. To demonstrate how shallow I am, I’d visit that church JUST because of that site.

Oh, don’t miss the Flaming Pants video.

More past “cool sites” here.

Trolling through some blog archives, I found this post from blogging pastor Steve McCoy. I like this insight into who reads newspapers …

“Pre-retirement suburbanites tend to get the city newspaper. It has better news and sports. Retired suburbanites tend to get the local, suburban or city paper. It has obituaries of people they know.”

Read the full post and subsequent comments here — all helpful points.

From a church PR standpoint, I think you still gotta milk the papers for all the free publicity you can. Those local papers are read by more people than you think. Often, I have neglected them for “newer” technologies. But my “first love” (uh, the local paper) is still hanging in there.

I wrote about this in my PDF report on “How to Get Your Name in the Newspaper.” It also seems like people are diggin’ my post on “6 PR Resources.”

Two super-cool and hipper-than-me Web designers — Jeremy Boles and Keegan Jones — have designed a free networking site for missionaries to help them keep in touch with people back home.

The site is: http://www.missionaries.in

According to the site, missionaries can: