Small church, mega church, program church, organic church—what form of church is most effective. Wrong question says David Watson. You don’t conquer a swamp with tanks. You adapt your strategy to the context. When I first went to India almost 20 years ago, a very wise worker said to me, “You can’t change Indian culture; [...]
Category Archives: 5. Adaptive methods
Apache victory
7 February, 2007 – 12:20 PM
photo As we saw in Aztec collapse, while it took just two years for the Spanish to conquer the mighty Aztec and Inca civilizations, the Apaches successfully held off the Spanish for 200 years. According to Tom Nevins the difference lay in the way the Apaches were organized as a society. The Apaches withstood the [...]
Aztec collapse
6 February, 2007 – 5:12 AM
Almost five hundred years ago, Hernando Cortez walked into the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, and presented their leader, Montezuma II with an ultimatum. Give me your gold or you’ll die. Cortex had been amazed by the great highways leading to the city, it’s complex aqueducts, sheer size and beauty of it’s temples and [...]
Church planting movements and SOAP
2 February, 2007 – 6:31 AM
Our home group kicked off for the year last night. We share the leadership around and I was on. We’re working through Philippians. So I pulled out some SOAP. It’s a simple Bible study method developed by Wayne Cordeiro and picked up by churches all over the place. SOAP = Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. more [...]
Five adaptive methods
2 February, 2007 – 5:48 AM
Following up on the post on SOAP, here are five more examples of adaptive methods. 1. Alpha view or download the Alpha cinema ad I know of factory workers in China and yuppies in London are coming to faith through Alpha It’s everywhere—152 countries, 21,000 churches, 80% of the prisons in Britain. Four million people [...]
Small is the new BIG
22 November, 2006 – 12:36 PM
According to Seth Godin, small is the new BIG. Find out more in this free download introducing his new book on the subject. More downloads here. A key principle and a must read for church planters (the guys who do stuff) and movement strategists (the guys who talk about the guys who do stuff). “Small [...]
Following up the punch
6 November, 2006 – 2:35 PM
A movement is held together by a common cause. That’s why movements find it so much easier to adapt their methods to the needs of the hour. In eighteenth century Industrial Britain, John Wesley considered it a sin for anyone to get saved in anywhere but a church. When he was excluded from preaching in [...]
The rise and fall of the Swiss watch
5 October, 2006 – 6:04 AM
We can thank Jean Calvin for the Swiss watch. In 1541, he restricted the wearing of jewelry—a worldly vanity. This forced the goldsmiths and other jewellers to turn into a new, independent craft : watchmaking. By the end of the century, Genevan watches were reputed for their high quality. For centuries the Swiss have been [...]
Get off that horse
1 October, 2006 – 10:44 AM
Cartoon source When your horse dies it’s a good idea to dismount. When you’re in a hole it’s time to stop digging. When the paradigm needs to change, you can’t work your way to success. You need to change the rules of the game. Ten years ago most analysts wrote off Apple. Today they all [...]
