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A deep unrest has risen up in the collective soul at Fishhook. It’s driven by our mission to help the local church CATCH MORE. If anything, this unrest is even more closely aligned with that mission than anything in our history. This unrest prepares us to make an honest confession: the way we’ve been collaborating and leading church leaders in the past 12 years will fundamentally not be enough to help them accomplish their mission if Fishhook doesn’t change its ways - if we don’t lead the way. And that is because everything has freaking changed!

When we say “everything” we’re focused on buyer behavior. When we say “freaking” it’s because we’re worked up. Look at the changes in buyer behavior - the process by which people search for, select, purchase, use and dispose of goods and services …

Technology and the incredible new ways we can shop, explore, move and engage are rewiring us all - you and me and the people we desperately want to reach. We text, search and click where we used to chat, walk and push a cart. We text our kids that we’re three minutes away. We check the flight in real time while we drive to the airport. And truthfully, we’re frustrated in nanoseconds when the experience is not flawless.

And to be clear, I’m not talking about a killer church website (we’ve made a bunch and God willing we’ll make more) and I’m not talking about an app (we love them and partner with these great people to deploy them). I’m talking about an earth moving shift in communication strategy that places the local church at the intersection of people’s angst.

For real. If church leaders owned a business in this environment, they’d be fighting survival by swiftly investing in this gold rush change in buyer behavior. Or, they would be on a slow, uncomfortable, perplexing slide that finds their enterprise moving to its end. Adapt or die.

Here’s some field recon from a recent trip to Boston. Multiple taxi and Uber drivers shared that local officials have told the taxi association, we won’t keep Uber out, it’s up to the taxi industry to figure out your own survival. Is it the same for the local church?

Fishhook asks because our team stands face to face with an unrest we can’t ignore. As our own Aimee Cottle said, “If we don’t run at this, I feel like I’m running from God ... and I’m not in the business of running from God!”

We are ready to link arms with church leaders who feel the buyer behavior gap is widening and feel a call that the local church must respond. It’s time to communicate like it’s 2015 to close that gap.

Is there unrest in your soul? If so, let’s talk.