Economics, Church, and Scarcity

Simple economics tells us that people will value anything that is scarce; scarcity drives prices up and, for those who can afford scarcity, it drives personal status up. We live in a supply and demand culture that demands much more then most in our culture are ready to supply.

Some examples of the supply and demand culture we live in:

The powers that be that control the Middles Eastern oil sands have driven the price of oil up significantly simply by limiting the amount of oil taken from the earth. The result has been a world wide jump in prices at the pump, a renewed search for more oil in other parts of the world, grain fuels, and ‘wars on terrorism.’

Gmail. When gmail was first introduced the only way that anyone could sign up for a gmail account was through a personal invite from a friend who only had a limited number of invites. It was a great bit of marketing that allowed new gmail users to, at least for a while, feel a sense of status in ‘the next big thing.’ Early adopters of gmail had a superior service that gave a personal sense of superiority and insider knowledge. Everyone wanted to at least get the invite so they could check it out!

Now let’s transition this to ideas, actions, emotions, and spirituality. To do this, keep this key thought in your mind: “Familiarity breeds depreciation.” When something, anything, is too familiar, it looses its value.

Ideas – Which ideas get the most play time in your thoughts? The ideas that are surprising, arouse curiosity, and are counter-intuitive to what you normally think. Right?

Actions – I have a sneaking little suspicion that sex is talked about, joked about, thought about, viewed online, and highly valued because sex, for most people, is a scarcity. Again, supply and demand.

Emotions – Imagine if everyone was accepted. Imagine if no one ever felt like the outsider, rejected, or lonely. Imagine what would happen to acceptance! No one would care anymore and it obviously wouldn’t be something that people see counselors about, cry in bathroom stalls about, or jump off bridges for. Acceptance is a scarce feeling because so many are not accepted. Now consider this; most strong emotions have something to do with a scarcity.

Spirituality – Have you heard a statement like this before, “We live in a culture that is very interested in spirituality but not interested in the church or Jesus.” I’m sure you have. Have you ever thought why that statement is made?

I think it might have something to do with scarcity. Bible-believing Christ-centered spirituality is no longer sacred in its ideas, actions, and emotions because it is no longer scarce. There is too much of it. Think about that for a moment…

Familiarity breeds depreciation. People don’t care because we’re not sexy or, as Jesus put it, salt and light.

Could it be that the large majority of our current Canadian society does not appreciate or has a growing depreciation of the church simply because they already know what they are going to get? I’ve heard it said over and over that the church needs to be known in culture but maybe we need to be less known? Are we too familiar? Maybe. Could we somehow surprise culture with something they don’t know, feel, or see?

There might be room for scarcity in your church. Scarcity drives market.
-Jer
tags: church marketing, emerging church, church growth, church economics

Stuck Learning #2

Following is a rebuttal to my recently writen Stuck Learning post. This was sent to me by a friend who I am sure will see my way in the end! :)
**********************

First off, how do you know that people aren’t learning anything in the opposite states of which you’ve presented?

1. Knows Everything Already – Some people know vast amounts, and really what those teachers/communicators have to offer, these people already know and understand it. So, over all, there stands the obligation of those people who are teaching to go further than their students. Some of those people, I would suggest are possible sick of what is known as satisfactory. What if someone has exhausted all of the resources that they know of, and sincerely can’t find anymore so they can proceed--- all the resources have been used by this person. Is there more to learn, and are they to create new resources out of thin air?

2. Busyness – Sometimes you really do need to deal with what’s in the front of you before you can deal with anything new. So, you can’t always learn something new. Sometimes people just have to cope with and process what’s going on. If you take new things on all the time ‘in hopes to learn’, it can result in stress, and possibly, eventually burn out. I would suggest to encourage people to sometimes stop learning new things so they can digest what’s in front of them already.

3. Boredom – What are the teachers actually teaching? Are they teaching material that is intriguing, one that challenges or are they simply teaching what they know? Sometimes people have, again, exhausted all the resources, and as a result are bored. The onus is no longer on the learner, but the teacher.

4. Repetition – I think there’s something to be said for perfection. You have to practice it until you get it right. “Practice makes perfect.” Think of drumming for example. The drummers, who are really good, have perfected every step before they move on to the next/new one. This applies to more than just this one aspect of life but, I would suggest, in its varying forms, to every aspect. You have to master the placing the light bulb into the socket if you want to actually see the light turn on when you flip the switch.

5. Completed Living – Again going on the thought of the drummers training. You can’t move on until you’ve perfected what you have just been taught. Bringing a new aspect will completely throw you off. Some things in life require you to acknowledge that you have perfected something, and that you have completed it in order to move on and be successful. If you recognize that you are incomplete in something, haven’t mastered it, and move on anyway, you could be setting yourself up for future folly.

6. Crisis Free - I think ‘troublems’ is a wrong way to put it. What about learning through just simple observation? I wouldn’t say that you’re stuck if you aren’t experiencing crisis. Crisis can sometimes again, cause stress or, as an end result, burn out, and thus crisis as a positive, can be a dangerous ally.

7. Unnecessary Failure – Aka, Ignorance. That’s another way to look at it. What if you don’t know that the knowledge is available? You have absolutely no knowledge of this higher level. Is the onus on you if you actually don’t know?

8. Isolation – What about the introverts? The ones that can’t learn with others. You look at college and high school years, where you have various students. Some of the students simply can’t learn from and while being around people. They need to be alone so they can process. Being in a room of people is distracting, causes dissention for them, and, therefore, disallows them from being able to process any information. Not everyone is the same, and not everyone learns the same way. To make a universal statement that shared space is a learning environment that works, seems rather presumptuous.

**************
Thanks Steve!
-Jer

HDB is short for _________ .

Apparently this blog is an HDB. Thanks Paul!
To find out what category of blog yours falls into check out this exhaustive list.
-Jer

Stuck Learning

Sometimes people get stuck not learning. Some stuck places include:
1. Knows Everything Already – These people never allow themselves to be surprised or effected by any new insight. Sometimes arrogant and often criticize without offering solution.

2. Busyness – People who are so busy that they are too busy to “notice” learning. Busyness allows us to only see the immediate survival steps and never imagine the next steps.

3. Boredom – This is normally a side project of ‘knows everything’ people; nothing is ever new, surprising, or engaging – every bit and piece of knowledge is old and frustrating. Bored people generally are boring people who look more for entertainment then learning.

4. Repetition – No one can become better by doing the same thing the same way forever. What worked yesterday and today likely will not work tomorrow. Feel free to tweak and change it up or risk living in a mediocre and non-innovative life.

5. Completed Living – These are stuck places that misinterpret goal completion as finished learning. Incompleteness must be acknowledged in order to move on.

6. Crises Free – You might find that your capacity for learning is stuck if you have not had to work through conflict or find solutions to problems. Learners generate troublems.

7. Unnecessary Failure - This is not a stuck place but rather a metric of being stuck. You might be stuck if you have failed because you have not learned from the knowledge available to you.

8. Isolation – Though not always the case, isolated people generally like to dig holes for themselves; community involvement, collaboration, juxtaposition of ideas, and shared spaces are key learning environments. Learners ruthlessly seek out other learners.

Any thoughts on getting unstuck? Post here in the comments, write a column and we can post it here in a few days, or respond on your own blog.
-Jer
tags: learning

You.

What are people most interested in?
Themselves, obviously.

Watch anyone look at pictures from last night’s little shindigger and what photos do they spend the most time looking at?
The photos of them, obviously.

Who do news crews interview and which people care the most when disaster happens in India?
Indians who still have family living in India, obviously.

What causes are people most likely to get behind?
The ones that are about them or somehow impact them personally, obviously.

What communities are people most likely to be actively involved in?
The ones that enhance their life, obviously.

What bands, films, songs, and advertisements are people responding to?
The ones that are the closest to who they are and who they want to be, obviously.

What version of truth, certainty, spirituality, and belief do people love?
The version that fits their life, obviously.

Which god do you serve?
The version that fits your life, obviously.

-Jer
tags: self, ego

How Certain is Certainty?

Merry the Day After Halloween - it's like Boxing Day for candy and you can get pumpkins for nearly free. I dressed up as a kissing booth.......Anyhow, following is an article from a friend who has moved to the UK this year for school. He is also in the process of writing a book on the subject of truth; he would like some of your response to this thought. Enjoy!
-Jer

It seems like one of Christianity’s favourite topics these days is truth. On a blog such as this, the topic needs little introduction. And so, I’ll skip the introduction.

Whatever you believe truth is, whether you believe in absolute truth or not, there is a deeper question, which is the inevitable product of all of these questions. Should we be certain?

Certainty:
–noun, plural -ties.
1.the state of being certain.
2.something certain; an assured fact.
—Idiom
3.for or of a certainty, certainly; without a doubt: I suspect it, but I don't know it for a certainty.

It has been my experience that most of our questions about truth are actually just a form of this question of certainty. Those who believe in absolute truth are just more certain of ideas. A wise man once said to me, “the only certain thing in the world is that only crazy people are certain.” Is that just a statement of relative truth? Or is it wisdom stemming from a realization of the limits of the human brain?

If in fact it is wrong to be certain of something because we are human, where does that place us in relation to God? Belief is a function of the human brain, and I believe that this function is no different no matter what its target is. Thus, if certainty is not a positive modifier of the function belief, certainty in God cannot be a good thing.

I also believe that faith and trust are synonymous, and that faith has nothing to do with belief unless you are trusting in someone who told you to believe something. I do not see faith as a reason to be certain of God’s existence.

The problem with certainty is that we are always capable of being incorrect. Certainty is what stops us from seeing when we are correct. I once knew a Christian who was so certain that God created the world in six days that she said “I wouldn’t believe in evolution even if you proved it right before my eyes.” She then proceeded to say that her certainty came from her faith in God. The equation, as I see it, is as follows:

Belief + Faith = Certainty

I’m almost certain that is incorrect. But what about this one?

Belief + Proof = Certainty

Or this one:

Belief + Proof = Absolute Truth

I must distinguish the difference between certainty and absolute truth. This is hard to do since in my last blog on absolute truth I discovered that people have three different definitions of the term. Certainty is when your belief is “without a doubt,” in an “assured fact”.

The biggest pro of being certain is that it allows you to develop ideas on a firm foundation. When you are sure something is true, you can then base other ideas on the fact you have already discovered. Also, certainty can be considered necessary in order to have assurance of salvation. The main drawback of certainty is that we are human and could be wrong. Also, certainty is offensive to those who believe differently.

I am currently writing a book on the topic “truth”. I have gotten to a point where I cannot continue to write until I know what side I am on in the argument over certainty. I would love to hear your ideas.

Is certainty a positive, negative, or neutral characteristic of one’s beliefs?
tags: truth, philosophy, certainty

Artistic Leadership

There is a certain artistic flare that is the signature and calling card that accompanies every leader through the large and small tasks of leadership. Artistic flare separates and identifies leaders; it is your brand, your feel, the vibe and buzz that you create, and is visible among the every day details and in the wildly conceptual.

The problem with art is that it is hard to qualitify and measure. There is a gallery close to where I live that keeps a steady rotation of mixed media, canvas, photography, and even some writing of local artists to showcase and sell their work. It is a small little gallery that I find myself wandering into every week or so to take a quick look.

As the summer was turning to fall and I was doing some writing in the park I decided to take a break and walk into the gallery. Among that day’s selection of art was only one piece that just mildly interested me and held my attention for only a moment. Objectively, I could admire the time, technique, and color used in each of the pieces but…and this is a big but…what it didn’t do was make me feel. And because it didn’t make me feel it didn’t make me buy. The same is true for a dancer; you can teach most anyone to raise their right arm and move their feet in the right sequence but if there is no feel and vibe attached to the movement its not dancing; its simply choreography.

But that’s not to say that the choreography won’t fool anyone. And what I am definitely not saying is that, just because I didn’t feel and buy the art, that nobody else would. Somebody will. In fact, everyone buys something. If everyone bought the same art we could easily mass produce and sell it at any big blue and yellow maze that doubles as your ‘storage solution’ store.

Your art and your leadership will only be attractive to some. Your leadership success and failure is not dependant on your perfected time and technique but on the flare and vibe that you add to it. Some of us paint eccentrically in forms and shapes that inspire contemplation. Some of us paint real-life stills that reflect reality and insist on response. Some of us paint the future, other the past, and some just dance!

Focus on your genre.
Your medium.
Your style.
Make me feel your leadership.
It will connect.
And people will buy.
What is your vibe? Your leadership art and style?
-Jer

tags: art, leadership, art of leadership, advertising

Free Links For Sale

Happy Thursday everyone! Steve, I'd like to offer you an online hug! Do you feel loved?
Some new stuff posted by my very own personal alter-ego.

Also, a great question and discussion going on at Jabin's blog; anyone who has ever been broken and loves Jesus now might be interested. Go add your disagreement.
Leo, I still miss you.
-Jer

How Many People Do You Know?

If you hadn’t noticed or have been living under a rock or somewhere near Manitoba and are boldly holding onto long distance phone plans and Canada Post then you likely might not have noticed that it seems that whole world is connected via the internet. And, I suppose, by the simple fact that you are reading this you would already know this and don’t live in the flat wasteland. The words and sentences that follow are ones that I am unsure of how much I actually agree with and, to some degree, even care about. You may even notice a contradiction or un-correlated correlation when it comes to the role of proximity in relationships. It’s there. Anyhow…

There are many people writing the score for a tune that sounds something like this; “People are connected today like never before – proximity and geography are no longer!”
And it’s true. And so wrong. Or at least not too accurate.

Even in the world wide café of internet, msn, myspace, forums, chat rooms, blogs, youtube, limewire, or whatever where constant connection with other people is the norm; physical proximity to each other still holds the strongest links for deep relationship. There is popular speculation circulating among church futurists and marketers alike that suggests that everyone in the world will be linked via technology and that this linkage will radically alter how people know and are known. And, though it is true that many millions of people have formed weak links to each other through a variety of online sources, it is not true that it is going to radically change (in the near future) how humans connect to each other in meaningful ways.

Consider these words of psychologist Robin Dunbar; despite the fact that the worlds’ population is migrating to the cities and living shoulder to shoulder with each other “we still know only about the same number of people as our long-distant ancestors did when they roamed the plains of the American Midwest or the Savannah of Eastern Africa.” Read that again. If that is true, it is incredible!

Our own built in OS (operating system), the brain, is only capable of managing so many “links” at any given time. We were built with a capacity to only have so many relationships with so many people. The ceiling on these links is not limitless; the implication suggesting that the most significant links will still be the ones where human-to-human interaction is regular, in person, and online. Technology has played a role in adding to the frequency of these strong links but has not significantly created many more strong links.
-Jer

tags: culture technology, relationships, online community, church future

Silly Church People

Ok - so, umm...now what?

Here is a statement that bugs me when church people ask/state it; "We want something different, but we don't know what it is.?"

What are these people really asking?
How many times do, when we change and go different, do the same people say the same things?
Are these people the same people all the time?
What do I do now?
Thoughts?