What Jerry Seinfeld Has To Say About Your Church, Ministry, or Business
“Everything has changed.”
If you are like me, you’ve heard that statement many times since March 15, 2020, the day the pandemic shutdown began. This statement has been applied to churches, Young Life, para-church ministries, and businesses over the last two and a half years regarding attendance or numbers.
Maybe that was the case for a period of time, but I would argue that that change was not permanent, even though I keep hearing “everything has changed” repeated as a reason people are not showing up.
And yet, as I watched the Cowboys and Giants play on Monday night football last night, the stands looked full to me. My wife, son, and I will be at an Elton John concert Friday night in a sold-out stadium.
Maybe it’s time to stop saying, “everything has changed,” when it comes to our numbers.
I read this column in the New York Times written by Jerry Seinfeld as he reacted to an editorial that basically said, “New York is dead” as a result of the pandemic. I think Jerry’s reaction applies to our churches, Young Life, and other ministries, along with businesses, as much as it does New York... so I took the liberty of inserting us into the story. Enjoy.
“There’s some other stupid thing in the article about ‘bandwidth’ and how New York (Church, Young Life, your business) is over because everybody will “remote everything.” Guess what: Everyone hates to do this. Everyone. Hates.
You know why? There’s no energy.
Energy, attitude, and personality cannot be “remoted” through even the best fiber optic lines. That’s the whole reason many of us moved to New York (go to Church, Young Life, your business) in the first place.
Do you ever wonder why Silicon Valley even exists? I have always wondered why these people all live and work in that location. They have all this insane technology; why don’t they all just spread out wherever they want to be and connect with their devices? Because it doesn’t work, that’s why.
Real, live, inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together in crazy places like New York City (Church, Young Life, your business). Feeling sorry for yourself because you can’t go to the theater (fill in your activity here) for a while is not the essential element of character that made New York (Church, Young Life, your business)) the brilliant diamond of activity it will one day be again.” - Jerry Seinfeld.
My good friend, Dick Dillingham, said that at his company, Keller Williams, they say, “you can either have reasons or results, but you can’t have both.”
We all need to ask ourselves, two and a half years after the shutdown, are we still hanging on to “reasons,” or are we leaning into the opportunity ahead of all of us to reach more people?
Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole says, “Instead of making excuses, we made ourselves different… The only way to win in business is to make adjustments, not excuses.”
Let’s not spend our time looking over our shoulder at the things that temporally held us back. It’s time for us all to focus on the things that made our ministries or businesses the “brilliant diamond of activity” they will one day be again.
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13-14