Redefining Success in Light of Suffering

One of my great joys as a believer in this new age is the opportunity to be involved in the Lausanne Movement as we get ready for the Congress in Cape Town, South Africa next month. My role is helping with social media and coordinating the Blogger Network - over 30 talented writers who are sharing their thoughts on global evangelism.

Recently we did an interview with Ajith Fernando about his recent article in Christianity Today entitled "To Serve is to Suffer." It was a great time of asking questions and listening to a wonderful man of God who has a passionate heart for service.

One of the things that Ajith talked about was the idea that "fulfillment should include suffering." Wow, what a challenging thought. We are trained as innovators to believe that a life of fulfillment will mean blessing, success and new opportunities to use our skills. But to think that we cannot experience true fulfillment unless we suffer goes against the very grain of our culture.

Why would he say this? Well, if we define our success as innovators in light of a world that values productivity, progress and new ideas, then suffering doesn't seem to fit . . . or does it? Take a minute to think back to the lives of some of the great innovators of the last century. Many of them suffered greatly. I think of the physical ailments that tormented William Wilberforce or the context of slavery that George Washington Carver was born into. I think of the tragedy of Adoniram Judson as he saw those he loved die during his service as a missionary. Each one of these individuals was an innovator that struggled and suffered greatly.

But it was in many of those agonizing struggles that God formed them into people who viewed the world as He does. Their innovations and efforts came out of God's strength flowing through them rather than their own efforts. And in their suffering, they came to grips with their identity in Christ.

I think that Ajith was challenging us as innovators to focus on identifying with the suffering Christ and then responding in love to the challenging situations around us. If our challenges allow us to create new innovations that respond to people's great needs, then we will see greater fulfillment than we could have ever hoped for on our own.

Innovators own a piece of the conversation

If you look at the research about social media from Forrester in the book Groundswell, you see that most people are content to watch the conversation of others. I'm sure there are many reasons for that. Some are worried about saying the wrong things and others don't want to invest the time. I understand those reasons, BUT I'm here to tell you that if you want to be an innovator YOU don't have that option.

What do I mean? If you want to be an innovator in Kingdom work, you have to own your part of the conversation. That means you have to identify the cause you care about and the area your innovation will focus on and speak into it. In other words, you need to be generous with the area you are studying, working and living in. Only as you own that piece of the conversation, engage others with your ideas and connect with other thinkers will you have the right to present your innovation.

Gone are the days when you went into your garage one day and came out 2 years later with the perfect widget. Today, you have to speak your idea into the community of people who care and work with them to refine and develop it. That might mean that you blog, or that you have a group on facebook or that you even have a group of associates/friends in real life that you brainstorm with. Whatever that looks like for you, it is essential.

But many people will be thinking, "I don't have any avenues for engaging my sphere of influence on the Kingdom innovations that I am working on!" That is a problem. But today I have one option that I want to challenge each of you to consider.

I hope most of you have heard about Lausanne's Third World Congress happening in Cape Town, South Africa this year. This is one of the most significant events to catalyze innovation and thought for global evangelism. I believe that the conversations that are happening right now in their Global Conversation site are key to many new ministry innovations that will launch in the coming years.

At the request of the Lausanne team and as I prayed about how I might help this movement, I am coordinating the Lausanne Bloggers Network. This select group of 50-100 bloggers from around the world will have access to content and speakers and will get the chance to engage their audiences with the ideas coming out of the movement's Global Conversation. This is an amazing platform for you to own a piece of the conversation.

I would love to see 5 or 6 people from our Innovation in Mission team be a part of this network. Please read more about it HERE and contact me through this blog or through the Lausanne link in this sentence to find out more and see if you are a fit for the network.

I believe that this opportunity is going to launch some exciting new voices and help other voices to engage their audiences in the cause of global evangelism.

So here is my question: Is this a platform that God might use as you strive to innovate for Him?