Published at February 13, 2007
in Articles.
We place a high value on programs. We focus a lot of our energy on church programs, camps, retreats, worship services, and many other things that keep us occupied at church. While these things aren’t bad things, they can become bad if they become our focus. We could even place too much emphasis on the purpose behind the program instead of focusing on the people who will be involved in the programs.
There are many reasons for this (which would be another blog post). I think part of it is because we think we can measure the success of a program. An investment in people is very difficult to measure at the present time, but it is an investment that will make a difference. So, here are four tips to focus on people and not programs.
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Published at September 19, 2006
in Articles.
Last week, Steve Jobs held a presentation for Apple to announce some new stuff they were to offer, including a movie store on iTunes and upgrades to the iPods. He also gave a sneak peek of something they are working on for next year. Whether you’re a Mac or PC person, there are a few things we can learn from Apple and the performance of Steve Jobs.
- Create anticipation. Buzz is the word. One thing that Apple did before this announcement was create a buzz. There were a lot of people anticipating what was coming from them. There were rumors about everything: new iPods with wide-screens, movie downloads, etc. Many of the rumors weren’t true, but at least people were buzzing about the announcement. The interesting thing is they did this with a simple “Showtime” announcement.
- Make it an event. People from the media were lined up to get into this thing. It was just product announcement that could have been done via press release, but Apple went all out and made it an event. They even had a musician finish the thing off.
- Powerful partnerships. Networking is a huge part of the success of Apple. The TV shows on iTunes are only available because of successful networking. In order for the movie store to work, they will need to partner with more studios. Of course, having Disney in your back pocket doesn’t usually hurt.
- Listen to people. Colors are back with the iPod nano because that is what the people wanted. They also wanted brighter screens on their video iPods. Apple was willing to listen to customers and make changes accordingly. Are we?
- Don’t be afraid to try new stuff. Innovate. It is okay to try new things. What the heck are they thinking making the iPod shuffle so small? What are they thinking with the new iTV thing? Steve Jobs himself said that everyone who has tried this has failed. So why are they doing it? Because they are willing to take a risk to be successful. Maybe we should be willing to do that, too.
I’m sure there are other things you can glean from the company, but these are the things that stuck out for me after last week’s news. I think these things can also be applied to ministry. We need to be thinking about these things in our programming ideas. How could you apply these principles to your ministry?
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I’m working on a project that involves a lot of thinking about discipleship. When we say the word “discipleship,” we all think of something different. Here’s a little of what I think discipleship is not. When I say it is NOT these things, I mean that it is not SIMPLY these things. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.
A Bible study group or Sunday school class. These things could be considered part of discipleship, but they can no way be the entire discipleship process for a person. We cannot be formed simply in a classroom.
A follow-up class for “new believers.” No, it is not true that we can give them a 12 week class and consider them disciples. Many discipleship programs stop at this. Instead of connecting them for life with people who care for their spiritual well-being, we farm them through a class and then let them go out into the rest of the Bible studies we offer, hoping they land somewhere that will help them with their formation.
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I recently re-read the chapter about the Spiritual Formation of Adolescents in The Christian Educator’s Handbook on Spiritual Formation. It’s a pretty good chapter, and here are some of the things I gleaned from it.
“Christ did not come merely to provide a means for us to get to heaven; He came to live in us.” This should be fundamental in our thinking as we share Christ’s work with people. We are not preaching a “get you to heaven†gospel. We ought to be preaching a gospel of transformation, thinking through how Christ will change us in this life, making us who we are meant to be.
“Spiritual formation can only occur in the midst of a struggle.” There is no spiritual formation that does not include effort. The struggle is part of the formation. It is an important part. We struggle to act in accordance to who we are in Christ. Many times, we struggle just to understand what that is supposed to be.
“We must not create young imitators, sending them off to college, work, or marriage as hollow believers who can only mimic truths that are not their own. They must learn to own their beliefs.” We do a disservice to young people if we allow them to simply copy our beliefs. We must teach them to think on their own and have a personal belief system and faith. This implies risk, but it is the only valuable way for them to continue in their faith after they graduate from our ministry.
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