Consultants

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”

The shepherd looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answered, “Sure.”

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his notebook and connected it to a cell phone, then he surfed to a NASA page on the Internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response.

Entrepreneurs and the Value of Wasted Effort

I’ve been reflecting on self-employment and thinking about what I’ve spent my time doing the past few years. I realized that we instinctively describe activity (particularly when it comes to “work“) in terms of the outcomes that are achieved. Our culture values results and productivity. And you see the influence of this orientation all the time.

• We measure our value as employees by how big our salaries are.
• We write our resumes in terms of what impact we created.
• We define projects based on their deliverables.

What I realized looking back was that most of what I spend my time working on never results in anything. Nothing tangible at least.

→ I’ve spent countless hours developing prospects – crafting approaches and writing proposals – only to have the client’s situation change.

It Depends

I’ve noticed that there are two types of strategic thinkers out there:

There are strategic thinkers who hold on very tightly to a preferred approach.

When these strategists are asked their opinion on what a business or church should do, they launch in with the same answer again and again. They are the ones who flood the Internet with tweets and articles chocked full of words like “every”, “should”, and “must”. The act as if their universal truths are the secret to unlocking the potential of the universe. Occasionally they will attempt to justify their approach, drawing weak conclusions from even weaker evidence.

Business as Mission Adresses the Big Issues Facing the Church

In Tim Keller’s latest blog post, he points out five big issues facing the Western Church. They are:

I recommend you head over to the Redeemer City to City website and read what Keller has to say about these issues. It helps to focus on these shifts in the evangelistic landscape of the West. Doing so will help us to anticipate new opportunities and threats to our efforts to achieving our goals as Kingdom strategists.

Strategy Principles – Looking From Different Angles

I was reminded of this by a post I read on Abraham Piper’s blog. Earlier this year, Target introduced a new look for it’s private label, commodity product lines. The brand is called “up&up” and has received a lot of positive attention from the design world.

From a consumer’s perspective, I personally welcomed the change as the new brand distracts me from the reality that we shop at Target because we do not have excess discretionary income and they sell mostly quality products. The new brand really emphasizes the quality of Target’s products when compared to other low-cost competitors (like Walmart or ...

Zing!… oh

Any Biblical scholar with working knowledge of John 10:10 will tell you that Dilbert just called me the devil.

p.s. It’s not true....

Kingdom Strategist looks back at 2009

I haven’t fully gotten into the blogging groove yet. I’ve been at it for just over a year now but I’m only recently starting to feel like I’m picking up momentum. But I enjoy blogging and I’m especially enjoying all the new people I’ve met and interacted with this year. I know that my blog doesn’t have much to do with these relationships forming but it’s part of it none the less. Well someone forgot to send me the memo letting me know that bloggers have to do two things at the end of the year.

Check and check. (more…)...

Thoughts On Examining Sin and Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods

Tim Keller’s latest blog post gives a personal look into some of Redeemer Presbyterian’s senior pastor’s personal struggles with sin. You can read the post here. In it Keller reveals his struggles with workaholism, particularly in the early years of his career. He recounts how well-meaning friends attempted to help him, some looking at his activities through the lens of the law, others appealed to his self-esteem. Ultimately, Keller searched out his own heart, revealing his idolatry of service, accomplishment, and self-sacrifice.

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Blog Action Day 2009 | Climate Change

I’m proud to participate in Blog Action Day, an annual event where bloggers from around the world focus the power of their medium to address a global issue in the hopes of inspiring change. I got involved in Blog Action Day last year when the topic was something I’m passionate about: poverty. You can read my post from last year here.

The topic for this year (climate change) is not something I’m passionate about – BUT – that does not mean it is not an important issue. In fact, environmentalism is part of our Christian calling and every Kingdom strategist needs to consider how their work as part of redeeming creation, impacts creation.

Tim Keller’s new blog and a triperspectival analysis of today’s church movements.

First off, I am very happy for this: http://rcpc.com/blog/view.jsp?Blog_param=44. Tim Keller is a gifted preacher and his perspective on many issues facing churches and the Church is great. Very insightful, yet humble and consistent in valuing progress toward redemption and fulfillment of our Kingdom calling.

Second, over the past year I’ve been able to spend a significant amount of time discussing strategic issues facing Christians and the church with Drew Goodmanson. Drew is a strong believer in a “triperspectival epistemology” (aka the belief that true human knowledge has three perspectives: normative, situational, and existential (based on John Frame’s work The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God).