EXPOSURE VERSUS IMPACT

EXPOSURE VERSUS IMPACT

I talked with a great and wise friend on the phone yes­ter­day. We were talk­ing about expo­sure ver­sus impact. It seems the dri­ving force for many in min­istry, espe­cially for the up and com­ing, is the quest for exposure.

Here’s a few obser­va­tions I have about exposure —

  • Expo­sure is all about being known, being seen, and being accepted.
  • Expo­sure always looks for a big­ger stage than the last one.
  • Expo­sure takes pride in the who’s who in its con­tact list and can drop names like lit­tle old ladies can drop quar­ters in the slots at Vegas.
  • Expo­sure will use one rela­tion­ship as a cat­a­pult to a more advan­ta­geous relationship.
  • Expo­sure is event dri­ven — the big­ger the event, the hap­pier it is.

Now let’s look at some obser­va­tions about impact —

  • Impact is all about know­ing oth­ers, see­ing oth­ers, and accept­ing others.
  • Impact rec­og­nizes that the big­ger the stage the greater the chal­lenge to truly touch someone’s life who is in the crowd.
  • Impact isn’t into drop­ping names, but rather into remem­ber­ing people’s names.
  • Impact will use it’s rela­tion­ships to help oth­ers who need to be cat­a­pulted upward.
  • Impact is expe­ri­ence dri­ven — the great the expe­ri­ence, no mat­ter the event, the greater the impact in one’s life.

The truth about me is I am both expo­sure and impact dri­ven. Should I get a call from Pas­tor Brian Hous­ton, ask­ing me to speak at the Hill­song Con­fer­ence, I’m going to say “yes!” Or if Andy Stan­ley texts me and says he wants me to share at this year’s Cat­a­lyst Con­fer­ence, I’m there! But I rec­og­nize events like those, or even the oppor­tu­ni­ties I’ve had to be on both local and national tele­vi­sion, are all about expo­sure. There’s just too many peo­ple in those set­tings for me to truly impact lives. It’s good for me and good things are accom­plished, but by and large it will be about inspi­ra­tion rather than truly impact­ing a life. A big plat­form does not ensure impact.

On the other hand, when I’m shar­ing in a one-​​on-​​one set­ting, or men­tor­ing a small group of guys, that’s when I’m truly impact­ing lives. There is a rea­son why Jesus chose twelve in which He poured His life. Those twelve were impacted by Him and in turn impacted their world. Con­sider this pow­er­ful text about Jesus that shows His empha­sis on impact and God’s reward with exposure…I’ve added my own emphasis:

Phillip­i­ans 2:5–11 (NKJV) Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not con­sider it rob­bery to be equal with God, 7 but made Him­self of no rep­u­ta­tion, tak­ing the form of a bond­ser­vant, and com­ing in the like­ness of men. 8 And being found in appear­ance as a man, He hum­bled Him­self and became obe­di­ent to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 There­fore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should con­fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So how do we go about min­istry? I for one am going to go for max­i­mum impact and embrace the expo­sure God gives. That will work bet­ter than going for max­i­mum expo­sure and never truly impact­ing people’s lives.


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User comments

12 Responses to “EXPOSURE VERSUS IMPACT”

  • Richie July 3rd, 2010 at 6:19 am

    Wow. Great post. “There­fore, you will fully know them by their fruits.” It’s what we pro­duce in oth­ers that FULLY shows who we are. God give us max­i­mum IMPACT.

  • @BrettFJones July 3rd, 2010 at 8:52 am

    This is really deep think­ing, Bub. Both require action and energy–yet only one has impact. I agree with you and others…I want to impact.

  • Tre July 3rd, 2010 at 11:35 am

    Awe­some and on point

  • Doc July 3rd, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    Those inter­ested in impact are approach­able. Good stuff pastor

  • tchrmom July 3rd, 2010 at 8:54 pm

    Wow! Thanks for dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing expo­sure and impact…I think I’d assumed that the greater the expo­sure, the greater the impact; how enlight­en­ing this blog was!

  • facehope July 4th, 2010 at 3:37 am

    What a strong mes­sage! I really agree with you … I also want impact!

  • anonymous July 4th, 2010 at 2:46 pm

    keep up the GOOD work!!!!

  • Anonymous July 8th, 2010 at 8:23 pm

    Thank you for the impact you have had in my life. I am thank­ful that you are what you preach/​teach. Thank you Pas­tor Scott!

  • @MicahSsutton July 8th, 2010 at 11:23 pm

    Pow­er­ful. The break­down is incred­i­ble. Impact is what I desire.

  • @MicahSsutton July 10th, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    Great blog. I was won­der­ing if you think that there is any cor­re­la­tion between impact and expo­sure in our world today? Can expo­sure give oppor­tu­nity for impact?

    My thought is this: Impact with­out expo­sure requires a long term rela­tion­ship while impact can be had almost with­out rela­tion­ship if the indi­vid­ual has the right expo­sure. Obvi­ously, the first is prob­a­bly greater, but the sec­ond is very real.

    Pas­tor Brett and your­self are impact­ing my life greatly, but I have not yet met either and have just begun build­ing a rela­tion­ship with Pas­tor Brett & Global. Your impact in my life is specif­i­cally due to your expo­sure.
    Truth­fully, I desire expo­sure which in my mind would help to build the church as well as my per­sonal min­istry. It is unfor­tu­nately some­thing that I almost feel “greasy” for want­ing. I am not how­ever, for­go­ing the build­ing of rela­tion­ships with the peo­ple I am impact­ing here in Kona, Hawaii.
    This is a great topic espe­cially for those of us who are up-&-coming. Thanks for the thoughts.

  • Chisanga October 13th, 2010 at 11:37 pm

    Great arti­cle really gets you think­ing, I agree with your con­clu­sion it’s not really a mat­ter of expo­sure or impact but rather find­ing a bal­ance between the two depend­ing on your sit­u­a­tion and desired outcome.

  • Pastor Steve Coates December 9th, 2010 at 10:22 am

    Pas­tor Scott,

    Good thoughts!

    Here is some food for our Prayer lives:

    One scrip­ture came to mind while read­ing this …
    Jesus said in Luke 16:15 b … (Eng­lish Stan­dard Ver­sion)
    ”… God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abom­i­na­tion in the sight of God.”

    May God give us Grace and Favor!

    Pas­tor Steve

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