1 thought on “120 Pioneers gather in Oxford to discuss mission spirituality and create poetry- ACNS”
On this side of the pond, young church planters have absorbed so much of the entrepreneurial ethos that many even wear the Silicon Valley uniform of blue blazer, white tieless shirt, and designer jeans. I wish that they would emulate something else in the entrepreneurial ethos– the habit of experiment.
In the dot com years, tiny new companies launched on the basis of a grand strategic plan. The flaws in that approach are well known. In the Great Recession, companies are being launched with more modest documents backed by lots of small experiments that– (a) demonstrate that people will respond to a product as expected, and (b) give practical experience in delivering that product. Much fluff surrounds any ambitious proposal, but this learning is real.
This experimental habit is spreading to those who offer human services, especially in the developing world. Indeed, the World Bank boasts some of the smartest bloggers on how to test interventions before scaling them. Why don’t churches do this? Creativity and intuition have their place in any new venture, but so, I believe, does testing things out in a careful way that strengthens the product and the team that makes it.
On this side of the pond, young church planters have absorbed so much of the entrepreneurial ethos that many even wear the Silicon Valley uniform of blue blazer, white tieless shirt, and designer jeans. I wish that they would emulate something else in the entrepreneurial ethos– the habit of experiment.
In the dot com years, tiny new companies launched on the basis of a grand strategic plan. The flaws in that approach are well known. In the Great Recession, companies are being launched with more modest documents backed by lots of small experiments that– (a) demonstrate that people will respond to a product as expected, and (b) give practical experience in delivering that product. Much fluff surrounds any ambitious proposal, but this learning is real.
This experimental habit is spreading to those who offer human services, especially in the developing world. Indeed, the World Bank boasts some of the smartest bloggers on how to test interventions before scaling them. Why don’t churches do this? Creativity and intuition have their place in any new venture, but so, I believe, does testing things out in a careful way that strengthens the product and the team that makes it.