Applying "How Things Spread" TED talk to the church

I listend to a TED Radio Hour segment “How Things Spread” (http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/468877892/how-things-spread), featuring Seth Godin, “the Yoda of marketing”.

People ignore ordinary things. For example, if you see a cow while driving, you don’t care. Cows are boring and invisible. But if the cow was purple, you would notice it. The thing that's gonna decide what gets talked about, done, changed, purchased, built: is it remarkable—worth making a remark about. The BlendTec “Will It Blend” videos sold a lot of blenders by blending not just food, but many other things like a rake handle, an iPhone, and cubic zirconia.

Getting an idea to spread isn't an exact science. There are tricks, but they don't always work. The success of great ideas, even sliced bread, isn't just about the goodness of the idea, but also about getting the idea to spread. People who can spread ideas regardless of the goodness of the ideas win. 

It's not always the idea with the loudest voice that spreads. Instead, you have to pay the price to be in the right place at the right time often enough that people will tend to see you as the regular. Starbucks is a great example. Things spread when people you know and like are talking about them.

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Application for the church:

1. We ourselves need to recover the truth that the gospel is remarkable.

2. In order for the gospel to spread, we need to talk about spiritual things with people we know and like.