Keeping up with what's happening "out there"

In this post, Dave Winer explains how companies can and should use blogging to find out what their customers are thinking. It's not fun to be publicly criticized, but it's dumb to miss out on the conversation because failure to take legitimate customer criticism into account will open an opportunity for competitors.

Richard MacManus agrees.

I believe this thinking applies to the church as well. It resonates strongly with Adam Hamilton's ideas in his book Leading Beyond the Walls. As church leaders, we have to work very hard to keep up with what is happening outside the four walls of the church. Yet that's where the unchurched people are that we're trying to reach.