I'm approaching my fifth year of writing bulletins. How did this ever happen? As you probably guessed by now, I am not the snazziest writer in the world. So, when my boss told me I had to write a white paper at work I was obviously worried about it.

A white paper, in case the term is unfamiliar to you, is not just a technical brief that you put on white paper! Ah, if only that were so. No, a white paper is a marketing tool that conveys information. Let me explain it this way.

Suppose you sold drills. You probably think you should tell your customers about all the great features of your drill, how it works at variable speeds, how's it goes in forward and reverse, or how it is better than brand X's drill. Nope, that is not exactly how a white paper works. What do your customers want? They want holes! So that is what you sell them. You sell them holes. People buy what they want, and they respond to it in a positive way when you give them exactly what they are looking for. So a white paper on your drill would be something like this.

"Find yourself constantly needing sharp, splinter free holes because you are assembling fine furniture or just find yourself wishing there was a way to rapidly produce holes of varying sizes? We at Randy's Drillsİ know exactly what you mean. Often in our own workshops we discover drilling holes in soft woods like pine and then moving to a hard wood like oak requires constant bit changing, and that different drilling needs require different bits. That is why our Zoomİ drill is such a handy thing, with its quick-change chuck "

See, if your customers hear technical, boring stuff right up front they aren't going to read any further and you've lost them. First, prove you understand their problem and then you move on, gently, to why your drill is the best. Even if it's not the best, explain why it will solve their problem. You don't have to put down brand X or brand Y at all. Your customers will relate with you. You sold them holes and you delivered them a solution. If it happens to be the solution is to buy your drill, well that's what you wanted, right?

Ok, now move that over into the religious area. One of the things that used to drive my anti-God friends bonkers was that in Colorado Springs the bus system would rent the side of the bus to anyone, including the Mormons (and there are a lot of Mormons that close to Utah, believe me!) The Mormons rarely come out and say "We're the Mormons, and we are better than other religions and here is the technical reason why". Nope, they would put up signs that simply said "Lost? Confused? Lonely? God has the answers." In small print it usually said something about some latter day church group, but you get the point. They didn't sell the Mormon church, they sold the problems people have without God. Many people (the weak minded, my anti-God friends would say) responded to this because they were buying holes. They wanted holes!

So how does this relate to us? Well, I remember an obnoxious kid who finally "got it" about Christ and the bible. Then he went out and annoyed all his friends by proving them wrong with the bible. He spent a Jot of time learning all the verses that proved "faith only" was a farce, and then loaded for bear he tried to convert his friends. He thought he was "evangelizing" and having a "ready answer" he stopped the mouths of the "gainsayers", He only taught the truth, and he was right, but the way he did it was 100% wrong. His success rate was 0%. "Their problem" he thought, "because I gave them the truth and they rejected it."

I'm not saying you use sneaky, underhanded methods to teach the gospel. But when the book itself tells you to be ready "in season and out of season" then maybe we should buy a clue and focus on that "season" part. Yes, I need to defend the faith, sometimes by going for the juggler. But teaching is not attacking. All the passages that talk about gainsayers and such show also to exhort, be patient, and be meek! When we teach, we need to be gentle. We need to start with the problems our friends are having, and "sell" them what they want: solutions to everyday problems. Good, sound advice. Too often we think the love and peace God offers is the byproduct, the consequence, when in reality that's the whole point. When you solve someone's problems, they always find they have more. And then they will come back for more solutions. And eventually they will "get it". Jesus taught that way himself. In a real sense his parables were white papers, which sold the need and delivered the solution. Think about it.

Randy