Building Trains or Train Tracks

As many of you know I am currently investing much of my energy in creating innovation around publishing - specifically eBooks. This is a market that is changing dramatically each and every day. I call it the Wild West of book publishing. So in a space as in flux as publishing, how do you innovate intentionally?

Well, I got a key insight wen reading Kristin Butler's post on 7 Platforms that are Changing Publishing. This article is a must read even if you are not involved in publishing because of the creative innovations it highlights. So here is my thought for the day. When you are in a dynamic and changing field your innovation will either change the train or the train tracks. (Most of the innovations in the article are train innovations.)

If your innovation changes the train tracks, you are talking about the infrastructure that the whole new industry is riding on. In the eBook world the train tracks are the platforms (ie Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Google) that allow you to buy, access and read your books.

If your innovation changes the train, you are talking about products and services that ride on that infrastructure and utilize it to deliver things to customers at their point of need. In the eBook world a great example (listed in the article I mentioned above) is The Domino Project - an innovative publishing effort spearheaded by Seth Godin and delivered via Amazon's system.

As I considered this reality, it became clear that building train tracks is hard work. And beyond the huge time and money it takes, you have to win or you are relegated to the junk pile. When trains were a new innovation, there were different widths for train tracks in various parts of the world. But sooner or later most of those variations disappeared because people needed to get goods everywhere and various sizes and types of tracks were not a good idea (unless you wanted to keep people out).

Because of this, the players that can afford to innovate at the train track level will be very few and will involve incredible risk, investment and mass adoption. The area of innovation with much more room for creativity and the ability to build niche audiences is in the work of building trains. Once the train tracks are set, you can build all kinds of trains. Trains for circus animals . . . trains for coal . . . trains for people. The potential is only limited by the demands of those wanting to use that infrastructure.

This means that if you don't want to risk it all to set the standard for the train tracks you can still be a key part of the innovation in your industry. You can identify a group of people who want to use that infrastructure and build a train that will serve them well.

Even though the idea of building the infrastructure is a sexy one, the implementation is brutal with many harrowing stops and turns. But train building, while difficult and challenging, is much more likely to lead to success.

Can you identify the train tracks and trains in your area of innovation? What will be your focus?

Innovators Beware

This week two high level leaders have fallen. The IMF's Dominique Strauss-Kahn and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger have been in the news for alleged sexual crimes in the first case or an affair in the second.

As I saw all the media around these two situations, I can't help but think about the impact that our choices have on our life's work. We can be highly successful innovators and leaders, but if we make the wrong choices in any area of our life, those innovations are at risk.

But so often we convince ourselves that the decisions in our lives are not that connected. We think that somehow we can indulge in one area of life and keep discipline and structure in another area. But that is not the case. Our actions and decisions all impact each other and define who we are.

If you are working on an important Kingdom innovation right now, are you watching out for the other areas of your life? Are you asking God to protect you from harmful decisions and costly mistakes? Don't consider yourself immune. Instead depend on God for all areas of your life - not just the innovations you are risking so much to birth!

What are you Hungry For?

Our minds imagine that those innovators who are very successful have an almost animal-like drive to accomplish their goal. They are focused, passionate and never satisfied with less than success. This is the picture that so many of us paint of successful innovation. And some of this caricature is valid.

But what about contentment? What about resting in Christ as you develop and design your innovation? To the world, that seems like a weak response to the challenges we face. But that is exactly what God calls us to do.

But what does contentment in light of innovation look like. One example is the story of Ron Pritz at OC International that we are highlighting on the Generous Mind Blog. Here is a man who gets to steward a 2 million dollar gift for the ministry and help OCI to innovate and do new projects, and what does he talk about? Contentment.

Most of us in his shoes would be focused on impact, results, opportunities and innovation. But if our heart is not focused right with Jesus in light of these things, then our innovations will not honor Him.

I hope you will read Ron's guest post and I am sure that you will be blessed by it.

Innovation as a Means of Grace

Innovation is simply seeing out ahead of the present, identifying a need and creating a unique way to meet it. The problem usually comes in the first part of that definition. When we try to see out ahead, sometimes we have moments of amazing clarity and see things as they will become. Other times we miss it entirely. Still other times we think our vision will happen more quickly than it does.

More and more I have been focusing on the process of innovation in the lives of those involved. We usually judge an innovation as successful by what it accomplishes in financial return or human progress. But what if we were to begin measuring how it changes the innovator? I think you would find a much lower rate of failure among innovative efforts if one of the prime criterion's for success was the growth and development of the innovator.

The term "means of grace" refers to an activity that is part of the process that Jesus uses to reclaim our hearts and grow us closer to Him. Any activity can be a means of grace if God chooses to use it that way.

But I think that innovations are very likely to be used as tools by our Heavenly Father because innovative efforts require risk and great effort. In those moments of innovation we are extremely vulnerable and our protective layers are peeled away as we strive and struggle to accomplish the task in front of us.

In those moments, Jesus can show us many things. He can grow us up, tackle self-deception, give us new insights, and so on. So here is the question. If you are in a time of innovation in your life, are you offering this unique time of your life up to God and asking Him to grow you close to Him as you work? I would challenge you to consider that approach to your efforts and you may just find that even if your innovation never makes it to prime time, that you have gained more eternal benefit than you could ever imagine

7 Ways to Stop a Movement

I found this great thought on Twitter that I had to share with you: "7 things stop a movement: big buildings, big programs, big personalities, big control, big money, big meetings, big policies." (via @floydmcclung) Isn't it amazing that the very things which are most likely to kill new ideas and movements are the very definition of success for many of us? Is that true for you? As you think about your innovation and the movement that you are seeking to start around your idea, consider how you are defining success. If you are dreaming about someday sitting in a corner office of a big building presiding over big meetings, you have not made the shift to a leaner and more networked dynamic that define innovations today. You may be wildly successful with your idea and always work out of your home. So don't buy into those old ideas of success and kill your innovation in the process. Be willing to redefine how your innovation might grow and develop into a movement.

What Innovators can Learn from a Snake

I don't know if you have followed the drama in New York this week, but it seems that many people are caught up in the news story about a missing Egyptian Cobra that escaped from the Bronx Zoo. It is probably a mixture of fear and humor that keeps this story alive, but today I want to talk with you about an innovative individual who stepped into the Cobra's news cycle and started something viral. Someone, realizing the opportunity for humor and attention, set up a Twitter account called @bronxzooscobra soon after the story hit the national headlines. They proceeded to share humorous short posts about what the cobra might be doing in New York City without the proper supervision. That simple twitter feed went from a few thousand followers on Monday to over 100,000 followers by the end of the day on Tuesday. What caused that kind of growth and what can we learn from our friend the cobra? Here are a few key things that the cobra's twitter crew did right: 1. A Real Event: They realized that as long as the cobra was loose it would be a story. This meant that they could tie their humor and content to a real event with real drama. 2. Authenticity: The people running the twitter feed are obviously from New York. Their content is authentic to the city with mentions of bakeries, famous people in New York and so on. 3. Quality Content: The writing is good and the humor is hilarious. That is the most important differentiator. They are not just posting random thoughts. The humor and the writing are well thought out and done in such a way as to appeal to different audiences in the city and around the world. So the next time you want to launch a viral marketing campaign to engage people with your new innovation, make sure to take these three pointers from our friend the cobra!

Engaging in Crisis

I'm sure that each of you has been watching the huge tragedy in Japan over the past 48 hours. It is to incredible to even imagine. In these moments when I can't even get my head around what has happened somewhere in the world, my question as an innovator is to ask, "What unique and intentional approach should I take in my response?"

Are you asking that question?

Well, I thought I would share my approach in hopes that it encourages you to identify how God will have you respond. From my perspective, in a moment like this I need to connect with God about what is going on and then connect with man in response.

So our family will be reading and praying through the Operation World entry for Japan and asking God to be with the people of that country this weekend. You can see a shortened version of the entry here: http://bit.ly/hRZmbk

Then we will be reaching out through an organization called CRASH Japan. One of our Innovation In Mission group members is a part of this effort on the ground in Japan. It is a group within Japan set up to do relief and development work and is uniquely positioned to reach out to their own people and be a light in this dark time. If you are interested in CRASH Japan, please click here: http://www.crashjapan.com/

Blessings as you take an innovative approach to your response.

New innovations are changing how we read

Some innovations bring dramatic changes our daily routines, but others modify what we do and help us to carry on some of the same activities in different ways. Both types of innovation have their place. Today I would like to talk about an innovation that fits in the second category.

As many of you know I work at a Christian start-up helping publishers and authors to bring their content into eBook format in an interactive environment. Our endeavor is called Novo Ink and I have had the privilege to bring hundreds of powerful resources online in the last few months.

But one of the projects I am most proud of (and one of the reasons I have not been blogging as much) is launching this week. It is our first Enhanced eBook that we are releasing. And it is a big one. We have partnered with David C. Cook to release Francis Chan's book Crazy Love in an enhanced edition.

Now other people are doing enhanced eBooks, but I want to talk about how we did ours and how these resources will change how we read. Most enhanced eBooks are a lot like DVD's with an "extras" menu of interviews, images, cut scenes, etc. However, that isn't going to change reading - that simply throws more information at info-saturated readers.

In this product I got to work with the editorial team at David C. Cook and we brainstormed how to bring video, audio and web resources into the book in a way that helps the reader gain clearer understanding, new insights and different perspectives. So instead of clunky transitions between an intro video and starting the book as it has always started, we integrated the new resources throughout the chapters. The team at Cook did a great job selecting video/audio/links that really bring home the ideas that Francis is sharing and allow you to see them in a new light.

In the end this version of Crazy Love has 10 videos, 9 audio clips and over 50 web links to videos, resources and devotionals. All that content relates directly to what is going on in the book and provides a rich ecosystem for Francis' idea.

These enhanced products, if done organically, will allow you to connect with the author, hear from them, interact with resources that they care about and learn in a deeper way. This innovation doesn't change the fact that you will read Crazy Love, but it will change what you get out of it and how you share it.

I am so excited to share this innovative product with each of you who have been a part of this "Innovation in Mission" journey for so long. I hope you will take the time to check it out and buy a copy to read. I have spent a lot of time with Francis (or so it seems from the amount of time with this content :) ) and I know that this resource will be a blessing as you seek to grow in your love for Jesus. Click here to check it out.

So as you consider your next innovation, ask yourself the question: "Is this innovation designed to change everything or is it focused on modifying an existing process." The answer to that question will be a very significant "ah-ha" moment on your journey!

Innovators Admit Failure

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. ~Henry Ford

We have become very good at hiding our failures. We hide them by blaming others, spinning the facts, avoiding the subject or finding a new project to focus on. However we hide them, we do ourselves and those around us a disservice.

I know why we hide them. Our culture has trained us to believe that failures mean personal weakness, ineptitude and humiliation. We believe as nonprofits that donors will only support us if we ride one success after another in the journey towards our charitable cause. We also struggle to believe that people will still value us if we have failed in our ministry efforts. We tend to think that failure is a sign of God withholding blessing because of our mistakes or miscalculations.

But below the cultural dogma of success and the misunderstanding of God's blessings, we really do know that failures are good for us . . . don't we? Sure we do. We know that failures help us understand the problem we are seeking to solve and give us new insights into what to try next. We know this because we see it in life. When a baby first tries to walk, there are many failures that slowly lead to learning and then to success. When we learned to ride a bike or drive a car, there were many crashes or grinding of gears before we masted the skill. Most of the time those teaching us did not reject us for those things or think less of us. Instead they encouraged us to persevere and learn from the challenge.

So, in the end, our efforts to hide our failures keep us from learning and growing with those around us and identifying new solutions. There is a new web site called http://www.admittingfailure.com/ that is seeking to help nonprofits get beyond this struggle. The site has been put together by Engineers Without Borders Canada and they are putting out a challenge for nonprofits to share their failures in an effort to learn from each other and create new and better solutions.

This is a powerful idea because it provides each of you with a chance to share a failure and see how that bit of learning will help others. I believe it is also cathartic because we can confess to each other our struggles and our failures and ask for their help and prayer.

Now here is the big question: "Will you be brave enough to selflessly share your failures with others?"

Make it work before you make a splash

Seth Godin had a great post today about launching innovations. Read here. His basic point is that some of the greatest innovations in our time launched in obscurity and then became known as they delivered value.

This sounds very practical and obvious, but have you noticed that we don't operate this way. Instead we tend to launch our innovations with as much fanfare as we can afford. If you stop and ask yourself why we do this, a few things come to mind:
1. We are insecure about our idea and we need others to affirm our efforts and sacrifice.
2. We think that if people know early they will be involved in our innovation.
3. We want to stamp our name on the idea before someone else takes it.
4. Our boss, investors, or board tell us we need to make the launch a big deal.

I'm sure there are other reasons as well, but these come to mind.

So next time you are in the planning stages for an innovation launch, consider taking the humble, quiet approach to your innovation and build success based on service rather than PR.

Are you providing Access or Process?

The currency of a knowledge economy is each individual’s learning and growth. Every time we click the mouse, interact with friends or read a book, we are receiving information and growing as we apply it. With the explosion of information technology and, more recently, social technology, we are seeing thousands of innovations focused on helping us take advantage of all the data and networks available to grow in our Christian lives.

In this post I want to share with you two schools of thought when it comes to learning innovations. I am defining learning innovations very broadly to include all those efforts that inform and develop a believer as they grow in their faith. As I share about these two approaches, it is necessary to generalize. These labels can be helpful or harmful depending on how they are used. They are a powerful tool when they help us to understand ourselves and our efforts. At the same time they can be very harmful if they put us in boxes that limit our potential for ministry. So my hope is that these generalizations will give you a framework for understanding your efforts and the efforts of others.

School 1: Access
This group of innovative projects focuses on giving people access to information, ideas, opportunities and experiences. If you talk with these pioneers their heart is to see people engage with the information and use it to bless their families, communities and the world. A great example of this is the Joshua Project—a site that provides access to information about unreached people groups. Their focus is stated clearly on their site,

“Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the least followers of Christ. Accurate, regularly updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission.”

School 2: Process
This second group of innovative projects focuses on helping people develop as individuals and believers as they are involved in a process or activity. When you interact with these gifted innovators, they bleed discipleship and mentoring and desire to see people grow in Christ. A great example of this is Monvee—a site focused on helping you assess and track your spiritual growth. They describe their focus this way,

“Monvee exists in order to help people discover what is getting in the way of their spiritual growth and then craft a plan to address it. We believe every person who follows Jesus has what it takes to grow their relationship with Him in new and fresh ways. Monvee combines solid theology with innovative technology to deliver a tool that connects people with resources, ways to spend their time, powerful experiences, and relational connections that fit the unique way God designed them to grow.”

Both Access and Process are critical to Kingdom Innovation. However, if you are not clear on which type of innovation your project is designed around you will struggle to stay focused. They key is not to think about one as better than the other, but to understand how they are different and how Access or Process will drive your ministry efforts. This is one of those “Both/And” situations where it is critical to understand what each side brings to the effort and utilize them accordingly.

A good way to think of Access and Process is by considering Bloom’s Taxonomy. This famous chart has helped those involved in education and countless other fields to understand the progression towards learning. Bloom’s taxonomy says that learning starts with knowledge, moves on to comprehension, expands into application, formulates analysis and finally leads to synthesis.

As I have thought about innovators who focus on Access or Process, this chart has been very helpful. As you look at this chart, the Access Innovators live in the initial two areas of learning: knowledge and comprehension. They are focused on getting information to people in creative and user-friendly ways. They also focus on application as a way of measuring the impact of the information on the end user.

The Process Innovators tends to assume that the first two are happening. They really launch from application and focus on helping people achieve synthesis. The Process group is looking for ways to use creative new methods to help people grow and develop in their spiritual lives, relationships and ministry. They measure success based on the developmental progress they see in the lives of those using their tools.

So the application step is held by both groups and becomes the key point of continuity. In many ways the application step in Bloom’s taxonomy is the engine that keeps the entire process moving. It provides the impetus for someone to gain knowledge and then it provides the experience that begs for deeper understanding.

The greatest blind spot for both groups of innovators is that they assume that the other part is happening. This is each camp’s weakness. Process people fail to see the importance of access to critical information at the right moment in a person’s spiritual life and Access people assume that people will continue on to apply, analyze and synthesize the knowledge they are uncovering.

Once you have identified which camp your innovation fits in, here are some next steps to keep you focused and intentional:
1. If the DNA of your innovation is Access or Process, then own it! Don’t feel you have to do both to be of value to others and the Kingdom. Instead make sure that your mission statement and core values reflect the camp that is the driver behind your idea.
2. While you own your focus, don’t marginalize the other. Resist the “Either/Or” mentality and embrace the “Both/And” approach.
3. Don’t assume that the other part of the equation is happening. Partner with innovators in the other camp so that those utilizing your services will have ways to move up the ladder from knowledge all the way to synthesis.
4. See yourself as part of a whole process that is bigger than your service. If you are an Access innovation, find ways to make the information you are assembling available and useful to those working on the Process side. Likewise, if you are a Process innovation, find ways to utilize the processes that people are going through to provide ideas and data for the Access innovations to include.
5. Make sure as you build the framework for your innovation, that you design pathways to the other camp. So if you are an Access innovation, you need to provide clear ways for people to move beyond comprehension to application and analysis. If you are a Process innovation you need to make sure that people have a way to equip themselves with the knowledge and comprehension necessary to jump into application.

Another Twist
Now that I have taken some time to describe innovations in each of these groups and how they tie together to serve the believer as they seek to grow in their faith, I want to share a game-changing idea. These two camps exist because of the dualism of the 20th Century. We separated the acquisition of knowledge from the development of people using that knowledge. So from where we sit today, these two camps are very real. But do they have to be? Is it possible to design innovative solutions that provide both Access and Process in one coordinated approach?

Take a look at the life of Jesus. He told parables (information) to large crowds and then moved into the advanced phases of Bloom’s taxonomy in private with His disciples. He sent them out to apply what they had learned. Then in His last days He pushed into analysis and then allowed the Holy Spirit to bring synthesis as the disciples began to better understand their faith and their task.

Would it be possible to leave behind these categories and create innovations that move someone along the entire process of learning? Can we develop intentional and incarnational strategies that look at the whole scope of learning and guide individuals and communities through that process?

So start where you are, understand where your innovation fits, and then consider how your efforts could become more holistic as you grow in your understanding of the learning process.

Have You Misdiagnosed Your Innovation?

Just because you built a Web site doesn’t mean that your innovation is technological. The same would be true of footwear, sports or any other field. But this is a very common mistake. We look at an innovative product and assume that its core innovation is defined by it’s industry or market.

One example is facebook. It would be easy to say that facebook’s innovations are technological. However, as you listen to the recent 60 Minutes interview with Mark Zuckerberg, you begin to realize that the innovation that propelled facebook forward had more to do with sociology and connectedness than it did about code.

The same is true of Wikileaks. As a recent blog post from The Economist eloquently describes, the innovation in Wikileaks has nothing to do with technology. Instead the innovation is in how Julian Assange, founder of the site, strategically networked together servers within countries that have strong whistleblower laws and protections. Essentially, he has found a way to harness the globe’s legal protections in his fight to uncover secrets.

I have been fascinated with facebook and Wikileaks (see my recent post about Wikileaks and generosity) because these represent movements that have polarized people so dramatically but have not lost their ability to shape our relationships and our view of government and power. But as we get caught up in these dramatic stories of innovation, we tend to misdiagnose the innovative foundation. This can lead to a limited understanding of the innovation and how we can leverage it.

But more practically, it is possible that you have misdiagnosed your innovation! You may think that it is innovative for one reason, when really there is a deeper creative idea that is at play. Don’t settle for your assumptions. Dig deep into your idea and make sure that you understand your innovation and why it is unique.

Why the Word "Just" Scares Me

I have been thinking alot about this little word "just." It seems pretty innocent and it definitely doesn't feel threatening. However, this word is one of the most dangerous words an innovator can hear. Why is that?

Think about it. If you are in a brainstorming session working on your new idea and a colleague of your says, "I know how to solve that issue. Just . . ." A few things have happened in this moment:
1. A solution has been presented but minimized and made to sound simple or without difficulty.
2. Expectations have been set and people are expecting that "just" will turn into "done."

But we all know that no innovation every was "just" anything. There are thousands of rabbit trails, countless false starts and a myriad of failures along the way.

Next time you hear the word "just" don't ignore it. Stop the conversation and challenge the statement. An innovation culture is one where the word "just" is banned from the conversation.

What doesn't fit in a Safety Deposit Box?

I have a confession to make. We have a safety deposit box . . . and we have never put a single thing in it. It's one of those things that has been a mental block for me. What do you put in a little box somewhere that is supposed to be secure?

I guess the reason it is such a challenge is that the things we value don't fit in it. The experiences that we have as we grow in our walk with God, the people that are generous with us and those we get to show generosity to. The ideas that we have as we live life on mission. All those things don't fit in that silly box.

I've noticed that many people who are focused on innovation do know what to put in that little box. They put their secret soup recipe or the outline for their next major book in the box and make sure to hide the key. Why do innovators do that? Well, part of it is that they have invested so much in an idea that they feel compelled to protect it.

They identify what they believe to be the key to that innovation and lock it up tight. But I would like to ask you innovators to reconsider whether what is in that small box is actually the key to your innovation. The key question to ask is, "How did God inspire you to create what is now stored in that little box?" I'm sure there were key people you interacted with, events you participated in, classes you attended, etc. Could your innovation have come about without those influences?

So next time you go to that small box and check on your ideas, remember where they really reside - in your relationships and experiences that God brings into your life!

Do you Silo Sundays?

I was thinking today as I attended church that we tend to silo Sundays. What do I mean by that? We who reserve Sunday as a day of rest separate out the day from our normal lives. We go to church and think about church things. We go home and think about the approved "restful" things . . . sports, fiction, etc.

I am a big fan of rest on Sunday. It was designed by God and our bodies and minds desperately need a rest in this fast paced world. But I think that in our efforts to separate out the day, we tend to go too far. We silo Sunday from the rest of our week and fail to see Sunday as part of what makes our week work.

For me I find that Sunday morning is a time of great inspiration. I am listening to wonderful music, getting great teaching, interacting with other believers and thinking about new ideas. Then in the afternoon I let my brain take a rest and so many of the ideas from the week and that morning begin to take form and shape. On of our mentors called that "letting an idea cook."

It is Sunday that brings the week into perspective. I see how God has been working, get new thoughts about a key challenge I am facing and I allow all the thoughts of the week to cook. It is Sunday that brings my last 6 days together and prepares me for the next 6. It is not a time to ignore the "secular" or "mundane" in favor of the "spiritual." It is the time to bring my week into perspective with a spiritual lens that should define everything I have done.

Some of my most innovative ideas and brainstorms have come together on Sunday. Now I don't roll them out on this day of rest. I don't run to the office and start working away at my new insight. But I frame my week around my new perspective and I am able to bring new energy and excitement to my week.

So what did you learn today? Did you allow your life to entry Sunday? Do you believe that God can use Sunday to inspire Monday morning?

Redefining Experts

This blog post is going to be an event sandwich. I will start out telling you something I learned at the local Evangelical Press Association event last week and end up applying that lesson to the Lausanne Cape Town 2010 Congress starting tomorrow.

Well, I attended the regional EPA event last week with other media/communications/ministry people. It is always a good time to connect, brainstorm and engage with each other on key issues. One of the thoughts that came up was the question, "Who really is an expert anymore?" As we discussed and interacted the consensus was clear. The experts of today are not those who know everything about a particular subject. That is the 20th Century definition. Today's experts are those who can most effectively get the information needed on a given topic. They are the ones who know key voices on the subject, who have a solid foundation in the area and who can bring their knowledge and the information from others together into an answer to your question.

Wow, that is a huge shift isn't it. We used to think of experts as these eyeglass-wearing, socially challenged geniuses sitting in rooms with lots of books. But today an expert is ... well ... you. If you are involved in the community of people who care about an issue, if you have taken the time to build a foundation of knowledge and if know where you can look online and via different content streams for the right insights, then you are now an expert.

Now lets apply this very practically. Tomorrow the Cape Town 2010 Congress on Global Evangelization begins. This is the third congress - the first one in Lausanne was launched by Billy Graham and John Stott. This even brings together 4000 people from 190 countries in delegations. They have assigned tables and they are working on key issues that face the church today and in the coming years.

This event is your opportunity to deepen your knowledge, connections and information sources as an expert in various missions areas. By engaging in the event via the online tools I am going to share with you, you can tap into the key ideas and thinking that will allow you to be an expert for those in your sphere of influence.

Here is my challenge. I would like each of you to commit to listen/watch/read at least one piece of content coming out of Cape Town 2010 each day between the 18th and the 25th of October. Here is how you can do that:

Video:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LGC_CT2010video

Podcasts:
http://www.lausanne.org/cape-town-2010/podcasts.html

GlobaLink locations:
http://www.lausanne.org/cape-town-2010/globalink.html

Online Participation:
http://www.lausanne.org/cape-town-2010/participate-online.html

RSS of CT2010 news (includes Lausanne blog)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/lausannesite

Video Podcast:
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=397353785
direct link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/CT2010VideoPodcast
note: video podcast is not compatible with older ipods.

Audio Podcast:
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=397353786
direct link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/CT2010AudioPodcast

All congress video will also be added to:
www.lausanne.org/conversation

Email newsletter (for daily news summaries/highlights):
http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?llr=hr96nzn6&p=oi&m=1011244526119

You now have access to a flood of information that will help you to become an expert in key areas impacting the Global church. The only question is. . . will you take advantage of this opportunity

Every Discussion Counts

I don't know about you, but many times I do not see the potential in the people that God has placed in front of me. It is no critique of those around me at all - instead it is a critique on my own ability to see how God is working in other's lives.

So because of this struggle, I tend not to realize that those around me have so much to offer. Many times it is unintentional but it happens just the same. What I am realizing more and more as I go to events, work on projects and connect with new people, is that God has given each person we meet something to add to our lives, ministry and work. This is especially true of Christians who are listening to God and growing closer to Him, but I think God is even trying to teach us things through those people who don't know the Lord.

One of the qualities of an innovator is a person who is tuned in to what God is doing and saying through those around them. Innovators need new ideas, creative approaches and strategic thoughts if their ideas are going to be great. God is shepherding so many innovations towards reality through us and he is using these people to bring the creative solution together.

Do you listen to those around you? Do you pay attention to the ideas, talents and opinions of those that God has put in your life? Do you listen to those who are very different than you?

If you don't then you are missing out on one of the ways that God wants to communicate with you.

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.

The End of a Transition and the Beginning of a Journey

When we suddenly found ourselves in a liminal time of transition just a few months ago, I shared very openly about our process and about the lessons my wife Mindy and I were learning as we journeyed through a time of even greater dependence on God.

Thank you to each of you for being part of that journey. Your encouragement, connections and prayers along the way have made all the difference as we have strived to honor God through our transition. Over the past months I have written the following posts about our process:

• Transparency in Transition
• Open Sourcing Your Innovations
• Rethinking Publishing
• Serving Through an Interview
• What Happens When We Can Only Think at Starbucks

And now I write this post to share about how God has guided and directed us to a new phase of ministry. As you have seen from my posts of late, God has put the publishing industry on our hearts. Better said, God has burdened Mindy and I with a passion to help people communicate their ideas in new ways for a new century. This is not new, but in transition you always go back to the passions that God has given you and ask Him for a fresh perspective.

We did that over the past months. I interacted in great detail with many in the publishing field trying to identify what God is doing through the publishing of ideas to further His Kingdom. We asked the hard questions and looked for the key innovations that would be part of making God's Word and His work in the lives of believers available to more and more people.

At the end of that process God gave us the opportunity to join a new publishing start up called Novo Ink (www.novoink.com) in Colorado Springs. This new organization will be coming alongside content providers such as Christian publishers to help them move their current and back-list titles into a high definition, color eBook reader delivered by Zinio, a long-time digital content provider with over 7 million subscribers globally. These eBooks will be available on people's computers, iPhones, iPads and soon in the Android Market.

As of September 7, I have taken the role of Account Manager and I have the great pleasure of working with the publishing staff of the Christian publishers that decide to partner with Novo Ink to get their content into this new format and available for purchase. I am very excited about the potential because Zinio's platform has the ability to deliver static content in an excellent/high-quality experience but it also has the ability to deliver audio, video and Flash content within the books - helping Christian publishers make the jump to Enhanced eBooks and a more dynamic experience for readers.

Mindy and I will continue in the Generous Mind cause, including blogging on innovations in publishing as I move deeper into that arena along with innovations for ministry in general. We also will keep blogging about our latest book Through the River: Understanding Your Assumptions About Truth and encourage you to purchase a copy and take time to think through how you understand truth.

Again, it is with great humility and thankfulness that we write this note. We owe so much to each person that is part of the Generous Mind cause. We look forward to your comments and your thoughts as we begin this new journey.

P.S. To follow along as Novo Ink launches in the coming weeks/months please connect in these ways:
Web: www.novoink.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/novoink
Twitter: www.twitter.com/novoink

Redefining Entrepreneurship

A key part of understanding Kingdom innovation is your definition of entrepreneurship. To be honest, this has been a great challenge for me. One of the struggles I have continually had to work through is the idea that all innovators are entrepreneurs and all entrepreneurs own their own businesses.

The reason this assumption is challenging is that I'm not the business-starting type. I like to fit into a larger context and be a part of a team. I'm also don't have some of the savvy needed to run a business. So my thought immediately was, "I guess I'm just not an entrepreneur and if that is true maybe I am not a true innovator."

Since I edited a book on innovation and have been blogging on it for several years, you can imagine that this idea didn't sit too well. It was always one of those nagging things that I couldn't dismiss but I knew I just didn't have the full picture.

Well, recently I attended a seminar given by Mark Russell, a new friend who owns Russell Media. He has written a book called The Missional Entrepreneur and he provided some good insight. I will share several thoughts that he touched on in his talk over the next few blog posts.

But the one I want to focus on today is his definition of entrepreneurship. He defined it as . . . an innovative state of mind that results in productive action.


Lets break that down:

• innovative state of mind: That means that you are open to new ideas, asking questions and reframing the issues you face in unique new ways.
• results in productive action: That means that you take those ideas/questions/reframed issues and you do something with it.

I really love this definition because it does not mandate what kind of action results from your innovation. Instead it leaves that open to many contexts. That means you can be an entrepreneur inside an organization, on a team, or as you start your own effort.

I hope this is an encouragement to you as it was to me. Even if you will never start a business or run an organization, that has little to do with your ability to be an entrepreneur and innovator in your context.

So what do you think of Mark's definition?