If you want unconventional results, you have to do unconventional things.

16 years ago, my friend Bret Johnson asked me to pause my IT career and help him build a church in Las Vegas. The church was meeting in a strip mall, but he had a big vision to create community and change in Sin City. I thought it was an interesting idea, but really had no intention of taking him up on it, until – I can’t explain it, I just had to say yes.

I became an associate pastor, and worked on a lot of the programs, publications, and services as we raised money to build a more traditional church campus. Bret could be counted on for big ideas, and more often than not I would figure out a way to make them work.

At one point, someone mentioned to me that the church had done some advertising in the local newspaper, and that we should consider doing that again, because we had a handful of visitors who responded to the ad.

I found a copy of the ad that ran, and picked up a copy of the paper to look at the ads that other churches were running. These ads were in the back of the newspaper, comprised of tiny print and bad clip art, and lots of the worst church bulletin font ever, Papyrus. *shudders*

I started thinking about what we would have to do to get space on the front page of the newspaper. It occurred to me that none of the people on the front of the newspaper paid for the space, and it was much more likely to be noticed.

I started talking to some of the local reporters, and eventually I struck up a few conversations that ultimately led to two front page articles in the Las Vegas Sun. The first one that ran resulted in over 100 new visitors to the church, and a big boost in morale. It cost us zero dollars.

If you want unconventional results, you have to do unconventional things.

This is both a challenge and an opportunity in the age of “AI” and LLMs, which are very good at providing consensus advice.

I hope this story inspires you to do something weird.