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From http://www.5qcommunications.com/5-questions:
Creating an effective web site starts with asking the right questions. Before launching into any work for a client, we start with analysis that will help them and us discover the keys to developing a site that communicates effectively and produces the results that are needed. In summary, these important questions are:
* Who is your audience?
* What primary action do you want visitors to take?
* Does your design and text communicate effectively?
* Are your systems integrated and compliant?
* How do you measure success?
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These are the 5 questions we ask potential clients when initiating a new project in the discovery phase to build a website. Simply put, a website is a tool and these are the questions we ask to determine that tool’s effectiveness and impact.
If we are God’s instruments for His purposes, what do these questions look like when we pose them to ourselves through the lens of spiritual application?
1.) Who is my audience?
What is my vocation? Where has God put me to be a light? Who are the people that God has targeted and is specifically pointing me toward?
2.) What primary action does God want others to take when he puts them in my path?
Note that the question we ask is “what primary action do you want visitors to take?” It’s not “what primary action do you want your website to fill.” This question is focused on the people the tool impacts, not the tool itself.
We design websites to guide users toward a single primary action when they encounter that tool. What has God designed me through my standing stones to guide people to do, see or better understand?
3.) Does my person and speech exhibit Christ effectively?
I’m loaded with conviction just thinking about it.
4.) Am I actively performing my designed function in the body of Christ?
Recently, as I’ve watched the church, I’ve seen our function in the body of Christ more and more similar to a game of chess.
In the proper setting, there are several individuals on the board doing the will of a single mind that has a plan and insight of the end-goal. No piece by itself can achieve the goal and without the cooperation of each other, the goal is not attainable. At all times, the pieces are in motion, working toward the goal, each performing their specific and critical function and most vulnerable when they try to perform the function of another or when they find themselves misplaced (outside of the will of the master).
The best chess players use the pieces to protect one-another and always has a specific purpose for every move. None are wasted.
The illustration shows the critical nature of timely and absolute obedience. One can imagine how frustrated a player would become if a piece became disobedient and decided not to move or moved before it was supposed to… or to the wrong location. What if a piece refused to give up a place where another needed to be?
The consequence could be: 1.) that piece put itself in danger 2.) that piece put another in danger 3.) the master would have to use another piece to complete his will, taking up precious time to get it to that position.
5.) How do I measure success?
Because each person is designed so wonderfully differently, the measure of success will differ from person to person as to how effective a vessel they are being.
We aspire to hear the words from Matthew 25, “well done, good and faithful servant,” as illustrated in the parable of the talents.
Should we not also aspire to be like Christ in his final hours, standing boldly before God, saying, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do”? – John 17
At 5Q, we individually review our 5 questions to ourselves weekly because we believe that “creating an effective web site starts with asking the right questions.”
Maybe being an effective Christian does too.
