Jack and Suzy Welch, in BusinessWeek (Nov 17), cited three reasons Obama won. I already discussed the first one: clear vision. Here's the second.

2. Execution. "Obama's team made few mistakes. From the outset, his advisers were best in class, and his players were always prepared, agile, and where they needed to be. McCain's team, hobbled by a less cohesive set of advisers and less money, couldn't compete."

Welch says Hillary Clinton tried to win "the old-fashioned way"--by going after the big states. "You can't just beat your rivals by the old rules; to grow, you have to invent a new game and beat them at that, too."

Is your church finding new ways to reach today's people? Or are you still trying to reach people with methods of the 1960s, or 1980s?

Okay, nothing original there.

But consider this: what might constitute a "new game" when it comes to the church? To advancing the Great Commission?

You can point to the emergent churches, with their candles, community, flattened hierarchy, narrative, conversation, holistic faith, and other mix-and-match traits. But do they go far enough to constitute a "new game"? Or is it just a matter of playing the Star Wars edition of Monopoly?

I guess I like the example of churches like Granger, NewSpring, Quest, Lifechurch, and others that focus laser-like on reaching lost people. They have many of the trapping of Church As We Know It, but are playing a different game than I've ever played.

Tomorrow: Having the Right Friends