“The teams that are engineer heavy and creative light have not worked nearly as well as the teams that are creative heavy and engineer light.”–Fred Wilson from a recent blog post
Fred Wilson invests in tech companies as a venture capitalist and has begun to invest more in companies that demonstrate creativity MORE than technical expertise. As he has looked at the portfolio of companies his firms invests in he noticed this:
“When we look at our portfolio and analyze what has worked and what has not, we see a high correlation between having that “creative element” firmly ensconced into the founding team and success.“
Ministry leaders can learn from this trend–investing only in nuts and bolts (tactics/role-based skills) over the vision/creativity/innovative thinking may become increasingly less important in the near future.
I’ve seen glimpses of this already: working with college students has revealed that passion and creativity earn credibility and trust–then later on I can share the tactics of the ministry.
I love the way the post concluded:
“Because I think we are in new territory in the digital technology revolution and some of the old rules matter less and new rules matter more. And if that is true, we ought to figure out what the new rules are and make sure we are focused on them.”
I wonder what some of the “new rules” of ministry are…do you have any suggestions?
B-
Great post. As far as new vs. old rules in ministry, I’d replace “rules” with “tactics.” I think there are obvious things that will never change and could be considered “old”:
-Staying Spirit-filled
-Praying like crazy
-Remaining obedient to vision/mission we’re called to.
Strategies shouldn’t necessarily change, but I think some creativity is needed at the tactical level. I have no clue what those new rules are or will become, but I think a continued culture of flexibility, creativity and adaptability has to be cultivated. If staff at the local level become problem-solvers rather than model-multipliers, it might be a good start to creating these new rules you’re looking for.
good concise list of unchanging rules/tactics.
i’ll throw out three:
“If I start a ministry then people should come.”
“Attendance equals commitment/alignment.”
“Those who have the most external gifts and abilities always lead”
great word on being problem solvers instead of model-multipliers.
focusing on addition vs multiplication is a great topic for ministry leaders to think through…