It was around 4am. The second night in Malaysia and I was wide awake. I wandered down to the hotel lobby to see if I could pick up an internet connection and bumped into another insomniac—Abdul from Saudi Arabia. Malaysia is a great place to meet muslims. It’s a muslim state, and thousands of muslims [...]
Category Archives: 5. Adaptive methods
Don’t solve problems. Copy success.
27 May, 2010 – 4:20 PM
I think we spend too much time analysing the problem of the decline of Christianity in the west. Too much time deconstructing and conceptualizing. It’s not a mind game. We should be asking: Where do we see the gospel advancing, disciples made and churches multiplied? How can we get more of that? How can we [...]
Teaching students vs making disciples
14 April, 2010 – 3:38 PM
Here’s a simple paradigm for turning your bible study group into a disciple making group that reproduces. In a traditional home group, it’s the red that gets left out when time runs out. In a multiplying discipleship group it’s black that gets left out when time runs out.
Interview with Jay (6)
22 January, 2010 – 1:26 PM
Jay: We have white-hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships and rapid mobilization. Your fifth one was adaptive methods; speak to that one a little bit. Steve: The heart of the Christian faith never changes and movements are very rigorous in that conservative side of the faith of saying there are some things that [...]
Learning from Ignaz
14 February, 2009 – 9:52 PM
Two observations on the story of Ignaz Semmelweiss: 1. Semmelweis was passionately engaged and humble enough to learn. He wanted to save lives. He did not accept current reality. He was a driven man. He knew what his mission was—save lives. And he did something about it. He did not come with preconceived notions of [...]
The Ignaz effect
13 February, 2009 – 7:48 AM
Next time you go into a hospital and come out alive this is the gentleman you should thank: Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865), a nineteenth century Hungarian doctor. He discovered there was one cause to the unusually high rates of women dying from “childbed fever” or blood poisoning following childbirth—dirty hands. At the Vienna hospital in which [...]
Inventor of the iPod
11 September, 2008 – 8:57 AM
Apple didn’t invent the idea of the iPod. A British furniture salesman named Kane Kramer did—thirty years ago. He was 22 at the time. The point? Breakthroughs in fashion, technology, science, art, warfare, sport—in every sphere of life—and most especially in the renewal and expansion of the Christian faith. . . . breakthroughs ALWAYS occur [...]
Blow up the church!
18 August, 2008 – 2:14 PM
It’s summer in Italy. Everything shuts down for August. The cities empty out, and so do the churches. So what should the churches do? Why not go to Adriatic coast where the people are and bring a 30 metre inflatable church? You may think this is a joke, but there is a serious side as [...]
Evangelism for dummies
8 August, 2008 – 1:40 PM
Dynamic movements are very “tight” when it comes to core beliefs but “open” with methods. The best methods are adaptive, flexible, reproducible, functional and simple enough to be contagious. Here’s an example from my email traffic. Hi Brian How’s it going? I have an Aussie mate living and working in Europe. He’s reaching out to [...]
Making ideas stick
3 May, 2008 – 5:21 PM
Movements are contagious. They have a cause that spreads like a virus. Here’s what Chip and Dan Heath have to say about making ideas stick. 1. Simplicity. To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize. Saying something short is not the mission–sound bites are not [...]
