Guy Kawasaki, ‘The Art of Innovation’ (video)

If you don’t know Guy Kawasaki, you should. He worked for Apple for many years. He’s now a venture capitalist, speaker on all things innovative, and a Twitter all-star.  His points from the talk above can be condensed as follows:

1. Make meaning
2. Make a mantra (not a mission statement)
3. Jump to the next curve
4. Roll the dice
5. Don’t worry, be crappy
6. Let 100 flowers blossom
7. Polarize people
8. Churn, baby, churn
9. Follow the 10-20-30 rule
10. Don’t let the bozos get you down

It seems to me that most of these can easily be applied to ministry ventures, especially new ones. Let’s connect the dots. We should especially have #1 down cold. It’s all about not existing for yourselves, but genuinely serving others and making the world better. As Christians our ‘meaning’ is in redemption and renewal of all things through Christ. How do we tangibly seek to bring that about?

#2 underscores one of the central messages of Thom Rainer’s Simple Church, that we need to keep it simple. So, for Commontary, I have essentially two mantras, which may be one too many: “Orthodox, Accessible, Missional” and “Accessible Bible commentary, for anyone, anywhere.”

I also appreciated #6–when you start something, you don’t know who exactly will connect with it. liberti church was this way–we didn’t end up reaching exactly who we thought we would. That’s ok. Same with my ministry here at Penn State. That’s ok as well. You have to stick to your vision, but also be flexible.

I can see people objecting to #7 “Polarize people,” but have you ever noticed that the most influential (and indeed, often the most faithful) people in ministry seem to have legions of haters? They take it from all sides, too. Like Kawasaki says, you don’t go out there intending to piss people off, but if you’re doing it right, you inevitably will. He doesn’t go into this, but I believe there are ways to use that to your advantage. And when doing so, #10 is key. Listen to the right people, learn to tune the others out.

I know it’s not particularly fashionable in some circles to import business principles into ministry. Certainly there have been some abuses. Certainly it can be done uncritically and foolishly. But what is true is true, and the Church shouldn’t ignore truth simply because the business world happened to say it first. We should listen to them, because they are working hard to understand our world. We can listen and learn from that.