The essence of communication is to understand your product, your audience and to present your product in a way your audience can understand it. Simple, right? Well, not in my experience with legacy Christian organizations. First, let me define legacy organizations: movements, groups and churches that are in their second or third generations of existence.

Some critics have accused these legacy organizations of becoming irrelevant thus finding themselves in trouble trying to recruit new followers, fund their programs and budgets and survive, much less thrive, in current economic challenges. But that’s not what I see happening in the American Christian landscape. While some might be out of touch, most of these ministries are led by godly men and women who are passionate about evangelism and discipleship and are trying very hard to advance the cause of the Gospel.

So, what gives? Most legacy Christian organizations in America suffer, not from a lack of vision and mission, but most of them suffer from a communication crisis. Often they know what their missions are and, for the most part, they know whom they are trying to reach. Their failure, however, lies in communicating with their target audience in way it can receive the information. After decades of existence the tendency in these organizations is to communicate their story, purpose, and mission in the language and images of their founders. Seldom I see a legacy organization change the way they present themselves in a format that reflects new societal values and attitudes while remaining true to their calling.

After decades of existence the tendency is to communicate their story, purpose, and mission in the language and images of their founders.

While I’m not advocating changing your heart to appeal to culture, I am a big fan of contextualizing your message so it’s heard and understood by society. Every successful missionary has learned this lesson: you must speak a language your culture understands and can response to. Don’t wasted time arguing how people should think and behave. Whether you and I like it or not our culture is changing and some of those changes are difficult to understand–for example, how children who are born in Christian homes, attend Christian schools and when asked about if there’s such a thing as absolute truth, profess their belief in situation ethics: “my parents’ truth is not necessarily my truth.” I don’t like it, but I can’t ignore this trend if my job is to communicate with them. I need to craft my message with that reality in mind.

How do you know if you’re communicating your message properly? Go outside your bubble and tap into people who will tell you the truth. Find those whom you are trying to reach who are not insiders and ask them their honest opinion of how you’re doing. Ask them “how would you describe our organization to someone who never heard of us?” Or, “what do you think we’re all about?” You’ll be surprise by the answers if you’re brave enough to ask the right people.

Are you a part of an organization that needs to rethink its message? I’d love to hear your thoughts.