I’m reading Chris Gethard’s new book Lose Well. In one chapter he gives the three questions he asks himself whenever starting a new creative venture.
WHY THIS?
WHY HERE?
WHY NOW?
If he’s able to come up with clear and specific answers to all three, he trusts that it must be thought through enough to pursue.
If I can’t explain why a thing is necessary in this time and place as its creator, I assume anyone asked to consume it will be confused as well.
The same is true with church events. Do you want people to come on board as volunteers and help make it happen? Do you want people to attend the event and invite people to join them? You need to have strong answers to those 3 questions.
If you’re not there yet, that’s ok. It doesn’t mean you scrap the idea all together. Maybe you just need to flesh it out or move some elements around until it fully clicks for you.
You’re the first person you have to convince that the event is going to be worth it.
Some times I’m afraid we’re too easy on our ideas. It’s not enough to think to yourself “Yeah. Sure. I guess that could be good. We need something on the calendar and I can’t think of anything else. Let’s go with that.”
We need to answer those questions. And when things get hard and we reach those moments where we realize just how much work it’s going to take to pull it off, we can look back at our answers to motivate us to keep going. “This is worth it. This is worth it.”
I’ve also answered these questions about my 3 night comedy outreach event.