Sweet Spots and Niches

I recently saw a YouTube clip titled "The Restaurant That Became the Best by Mastering Hospitality" where the speaker talked about the NYC restaurant Eleven Madison Park and how they learned not to mimic great things other restaurants were doing, but rather to look at what they did badly and become experts in those things. For the speaker, it was notable that they realized good places do crappy coffee and ignore the beer drinkers - and it was the attention to those kinds of details that make Eleven Madison Park stand out.

This of course got me thinking about congregations, and wondering if we rely too much on observing what others do and trying to mimic them, and then wondering why those things don't work for us.

Now that may seem a strange thing for me to say, as a longtime writer about best practices.

But while there are best practices, there are also ways we can lean into the things that are in our sweet spot, the things that we know no one else does, the things that might draw attention in a culture that demands you pay attention to everyone and everything all the time. We don't need to copy the things big box churches do (which are beginning to decline like shopping malls have) - we don't even have to copy what the congregation down the street does. "We have this too" doesn't inspire people. What does inspire people is something you do well that others aren't doing well or doing at all.

This is related to a post I made in 2023, where I talked about a lesson from Barnes & Noble:

 I read an article by Ted Gioia talking about how the bookseller, whose market share utterly tanked as the digital age took hold. In the face of drastically declining sales thanks largely to Amazon, and seeing their main bricks and mortar competitor Borders shut down, Barnes & Noble attempted to imitate Amazon, expand their offerings to include music, a coffee shop, and gifts, toys, and even their ebook reader, the Nook. And by 2018, the 120-year old company faced total collapse.

Instead of closing for good, they hired a new CEO, James Daunt, who had saved the UK-based bookstore Waterstones, and they followed Daunt’s lead and tried a different way – namely to go back to their roots, to what they are best at: selling books. They stopped all the food and electronics, the gifts and the games, and they even stopped kowtowing to market forces that led to terrible decisions based on promotional money from publishers to push books that are, by and large, not the best.

As Gioia explains, when Barnes & Noble put their passion for good writing front and center, and allowed the staff to follow and affirm that passion, that vision, the company began again to thrive. They put books and readers first, and everything else second.

What happens when we stop trying to be all things to all people?

We have a niche – and important one at that. Our saving message is so desperately needed, and we must empower people to put that front and center. We don’t need more meetings, we need more energy to meet the moment.

So what have you seen successful congregations do poorly or not do at all? Is this something you are or can be passionate about? Does this fit in your niche? Does this meet your mission and vision? Then go do the thing! Hire your version of the coffee sommelier... create your version of the beer list... follow the passion of your people.

It is time to thrive.