14) The BackPage: Showing the Many, but Featuring the One

We’ve just returned from a major missions conference and it struck me how often my mind turns in favor of “showing the many.” For example, we now have put together 3 different versions of the “Wall of Unreached People.” Each wall is a 50′ or 60′ long “wall” listing all 7000 unreached people groups. Learn more at…

http://www.U4theU.com/wall

It’s not a fundraiser. We ask each site to pitch in a freewill offering to cover the costs of breakage and growth (creating new banners) and they also need to get the wall to its next destination (usually a shipping cost). But this is in stark contrast to some traveling exhibits which might cost the church or group thousands of dollars in fees.

But at last week’s convention, we also created a new wall featuring one panel per unreached people group or city. So although we continued to “show the many,” with the Wall of Unreached People, we also featured one people group or city at a time at the new 25UPG wall. I’ll have to say, it was a resounding success. One gentleman confessed, “You know, I’ve never been able to focus on the listing of 7000 on your black wall. I have too much ADHD for that. But seeing those huge pictures, one people group at a time — now THAT was sobering for me. And it was impactful.”

What’s your take? Do you find it’s more effective to “show the many,” or “feature the one?” Please click in the comment box that follows this item on the web, and, thanks in advance for sharing your story.