Return of the

TentmakerThe Digital Dynamic

and the

Power of Mass Amateurization

The issues business people deal with daily are not even on the radar for most churches.

The world is heading toward mass-amateurization - including the church. The age of the professional class is changing and blurring.

Market Place 30 years

Project Management

Executive Leadership

Consulting

Coaching

Speaking

Training

Ministry34 YearsCampus EvangelistTheology DegreeLay Pastor/Board MemberConsultingCoachingSpeakingTraining

http://www.millenniummatrix.com

I wrote the book to prepare the church for a revolution greater than the printing press which birthed both the Reformation and Enlightenment.

I answer the question, "What happens when everything can be broken down into common bits & bytes?"

Once you can do that then traditional boundaries created by print documents disappear.

I wrote to book to reframe the debate over Modernism and Post-Modernism.

I wrote to book to reclaim practices and disciplines that seem to have been abandoned but have renewed significance in a digital age.

The book provides an historical framework written in accessible market place language. It provides a unique and practical strategy for navigating the future.

Late

Over budget

Value-engineered

Missing parts

No warranty

$44,000 $16,000

Construction

Dysfunction

Integrated

Collaborative

Reliable

Fragmented

Adversarial

Broken

Who has built a building? Did you have any problems? Did you exceed budget?

70% of all construction projects go over budget and beyond schedule.

57% of a construction project is estimated as waste.

We've made things more complex than bureaucracies can handle.

Operation

In March 2007 - 17 leaders from the industry came together fed up with the current model agreed that it was fundamentally broken and needed to start from scratch.

The industry follows an industrial model, with methods, a culture and contracts that are 150 years old.

The same kinds of problems and waste are found in any industry or institution that traces its roots back to the industrial era or the Enlightenment.

As information becomes more complex, distributed, fragmented and accelerated - the mindsets and structure of the print, modern rational age begin to fail.

Digital Race Institutional Buggy

George Barna provides sobering statistics about Christians leaving the church.

If you have not at least kept pace with the demographics of your area - you are in trouble.

Our dilemma is that we are trying to address Digital Era challenges with Gutenberg era thinking and models.

The recent meltdown provides a perfect example of a Digital Race with Institutional Buggys.

The root of the problem in the financial industry is the fragmenting of debt, the inability to assess the risk of this new debt, the disconnected chain of accountability and the speed of transactions that makes the new environment incoherent and incomprehensible.

Think back when you got your first mortage. It was complicated but it was all paper and your mortgage was divided into a principle and interest.

Spread sheets with complex formulas now allow that lump sum to be divided into its numerous components and fees. Mini-industries appeared that specialized in aggregating and handling these sub-components cheaper than one person who used to do it all. With the advent of the Internet this information could be moved, collected and packaged.

These new capabilities have far outstripped the institutions responsible for managing, monitoring and securing these new creations.

The recent meltdown provides a perfect example of a Digital Race with Institutional Buggys.

The root of the problem in the financial industry is the fragmenting of debt, the inability to assess the risk of this new debt, the disconnected chain of accountability and the speed of transactions that makes the new environment incoherent and incomprehensible.

Think back when you got your first mortage. It was complicated but it was all paper and your mortgage was divided into a principle and interest.

Spread sheets with complex formulas now allow that lump sum to be divided into its numerous components and fees. Mini-industries appeared that specialized in aggregating and handling these sub-components cheaper than one person who used to do it all. With the advent of the Internet this information could be moved, collected and packaged.

These new capabilities have far outstripped the institutions responsible for managing, monitoring and securing these new creations.

Geopolitics has become similarly complex, volatile and threatening to the economic future and security of our nation.

The United States uses 25% of the worlds production with less than 5% of the population. We import 70% of our energy. We are not just in debt - we are in jeopardy.

We will continue to have to compete with a skyrocketing increasing demand for oil.

What does this do to our economy?What does it provide our enemies?What does it do to our national security?Where will it lead?

Climate change is a worldwide issue.

Companies must now have a sustainability strategy or be prepared to become public villains. Market leaders have made this a core value for their companies. They see it not only as a position of good corporate citizenship but as an enhancement to their business performance.

Sadly, I can count on one hand the number of churches I know that have even begun to ask serious questions about their position regarding climate change or the planet in general.

The American lifestyle has also reached a tipping point.

ObesityDebtConnection without vital relationshipsMedia addiction

Are all growing problems and threaten the future and well-being of our nation. How can the church promote the life changing power of the Gospel and its ability to restore wholeness without addressing these issues head on?

Jacques Ellul asked in 1948 in a book call Presence of the Kingdom, “If the church reflects all of the same problems of society in the same proportions how can it claim a transcendent power?”

Again - its not the power of the Gospel that is in question it is our paradigm of salvation within the role of the church that we need to reexamine.

Boomers

Millennials

GenX

Silents

Boomers control the workplace and over shadow the GenXrs. Boomers are more sold out to their careers, mission or cause. Boomers are digital immigrants and bridge print and broadcast eras.

Xrs are loyal to themselves. There are 35 million fewer Xrs than Boomers. They are bi-lingual speaking both broadcast and digital.

Millennial are a small percentage at this point - but represent both the biggest challenge and opportunity for the future of commerce and the workplace.

Boomers

Millennials

GenX

In 10 years half of the Boomers will have retired. In 5 years 60% of all current CEOs will have retired.

GenXrs will still number 43 million, however their percentage in the workplace will drop.

Millennials will represent the big shift. 80% or 56 million will reach working age.

This is a shift that will have similar repercussions when the Boomers came of age in the mid 60s. Instead of simply protesting and experimenting with alternative life-styles - this cohort will be able to create its own economic and social infrastructure.

Talent

Transformation

Tacit Knowledge

Transition

I was invited to the board meeting for a national architectural firm. They brought in leaders from different sectors of the industry; construction, a real estate developer, engineering, an industry consultant and architecture.

Their top challenges and concerns included:

Attracting and keeping talent

Reinventing their business and industry. Elevating above technical and team leadership skills to transformation skills.

Passing on both the know how and know why of their business. Organizations are discovering that explicit or technical knowledge does not produce a leader. Mentoring is the only means for developing a leader.

How many of your organizations have an active mentoring program that would look similar to an apprenticeship?

Digital Immigrants LeadingDigital Natives

How many agree that we all want to attract the next generation?

Here is an ALERT - you canʼt unless you can speak the language and understand the way they think.

This is driving leaders and organizations into a state of Vertigo.

The old reference points no longer work.

The old tried and true formulas are running out of gas.

The new maps are still vague at best.

Leaders double back on what they know driving more short term fixes and dysfunction.

Vertigo

This is driving leaders and organizations into a state of Vertigo.

The old reference points no longer work.

The old tried and true formulas are running out of gas.

The new maps are still vague at best.

Leaders double back on what they know driving more short term fixes and dysfunction.

What does a Futurist do?

Relevant Trends

Orienting Framework

Limiting Paradigms

Spearhead Change

Build Leadership Capacity to Adapt

I help organizations see how quickly they are moving to avoid the on coming future.

I also help organizations who think they want to journey into the future - to pick between the red pill and the blue pill.

I was asked by an architectural firm to help with a church client who wanted to move into the future. The church has a 100+ year history and one of the most esteem traditions in the country. The

Medium as

Message

When the medium changes

Marshall McLuhan made this point clear with his aphorism - The Medium is the Massage.

Medium as

Worldview

Our Worldviews Change

Brain Orientation

Oral

Non-linear, holistic, intimate, relational

Print

Linear, Sequential, Rational, Abstract

Broadcast

Fluid, Fragmented, Visceral, Emotional

Digital/Interactive

Non-linear, holistic, disembodied intimacy

1452

Reformation begins - 1517Guttenberg Bible - 145265 years Treaty of Westphalia - 1648About 200 years

The implications were huge. We forget that prior to the printed word organizations, nations and institutions were based on tradition, family lineage, divine authority and revelation.

The Reformation changed that and churches were formed and organized around ideas fixed on paper. Groups split and went to war over those words on paper.

In 1648 - The Treaty of Westphalia applied the same principle to a country and birthed the nation-state. This is a country founded on ideas and principles.

We have lost track of the significance of this radical shift. The way people organize and come together is so ingrained that we can barely conceive of it any other way.

The birth of institutionsHow do groups get things done?

Start with an idea, a purpose

Coordination (i.e. organization)cost & planning

exclusion

80/20 bias

alignment

self-preservation

Communication is a key cost

Organizations provide the best means to focus collective effort for a desired outcome.

For organizations to function well they need a compelling purpose, goals and activites centered on achieving those goals.

For the organization to be effective it must limit its scope to its central idea and purpose.

This requires massive intentional communiation.

Organizations require high levels of skill and specialization.

Organizations must use an incentive structure of a carrot and stick to keep people focused.

Organizations must chose where their emphasis lies: innovation, efficiency or personal touch.

What did Luther do?

New Paradigms of Faith and StructuresFrom exclusive to accessible

Common LanguageWorship - doctrine in musicSchoolsLibraries

The roots of education for the common person goes back to the Reformation, and, especially, to John Calvin.

"The modern idea of popular education - that is, education for everyone - first arose in Europe during the Protestant Reformation." (Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld - Is Public Education necessary?)

Calvin's Academy at Geneva was the model for many of the early colleges and universities established by the Puritans and their successors in America.

Calvin advocated that the purpose of education is for people to know God and to glorify Him as God - that in our vocation and in our life we might know "the knowledge of God, the Creator and Redeemer." The content of education must begin with the Scriptures, and continue into God's Creation.

1950

Filo Farnsworth - 1927Critial mass - 1950Cultural Tipping Point - 196847 years

What did Hybels do?

Contemporary MusicMet in a TheaterDramatized ScriptureWent casualGood News for Modern Man

Like Luther - Bill Hybels took advantage of the means and methods of a broadcast driven culture and birthed the entrepreneurial, culturally relevant church. These churches adopted many of the practices and structures of corporate business, marketing, leadership structure and "entertainment."

Spiritual Malls

One of those innovattelions and necessities included building facilities to optimize the exposure and reach of star preachers. Congregations exploded from a few hundred to thousands - due in large part to this new tool.

The formula for success is consistent - 1) an articulate telegenic preacher 2) upbeat contemporary worship 3) amenities and activities for families with kids.

1992Netscape & Tim Berners-Lee

www - 1989Netscape - 1992Javascript - 1995Dot-com Bubble - 1995-2002Web 2.0 - 2005iGen Revolution - 2015 - 2020

The ability to transfer bits and bytes.

How will groups get things done?

Build cooperation into the platform

Ebay, Wikipedia, Facebook, Flickr, Meetup...

Focus on outcome not activity or affiliation

Tooth of Time

Activate the 80%

Distributed

Cellular

Integrated/Coordinated

Mass Amateurization

Disintermediation

Low cost

On demand

Tailored

Interactive

One-on-one or many

Mass amateurization

Collective contribution

Grass roots

Active

Know why

Tacit knowledge

Focus on the whole

High cost

On command

Lowest denominator

One directional

Mass audience

Professional

Super star focus

Top down

Passive

Know how

Explicit knowledge

Focus on the theme

Digital vs. Broadcast

How does this difference work itself out in organizational structures and facilities?

379 results80 people

The Mall - 1970s

The church is still focused on large building projects when corporate America is shedding their facilities.

Business is far better at assessing Return On Investments and they are downscaling facilities, re-designing existing ones and moving toward more distributed capabilities.

Large facilities force long commutes, limited use, large land masses at the outskirts of town - all of which is going against current trends.

We need to radically rethink the role of the facility? What is is facilitating?

You can not develop intimacy or depth in this kind of environment - despite your best intentions.

Town SquaresMixed Use - Integrated Living

ReurbanizationEco FootprintCostConvenience Diversity

Is your organizational strategy aligned with a digital world or more so with broadcast or print.

Where do we go from here?

Digital Dominance

Institutional Denial

Revolution is not Linear

New Reformation

Re-Priesthood of the Believer

Return of the Tentmaker

Global Gospel

A Call to Make a Difference

What would Luther do

today?

Common LanguageWorship - doctrine in musicSchools

The roots of education for the common person goes back to the Reformation, and, especially, to John Calvin.

"The modern idea of popular education - that is, education for everyone - first arose in Europe during the Protestant Reformation." (Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld - Is Public Education necessary?)

Calvin's Academy at Geneva was the model for many of the early colleges and universities established by the Puritans and their successors in America.

Calvin advocated that the purpose of education is for people to know God and to glorify Him as God - that in our vocation and in our life we might know "the knowledge of God, the Creator and Redeemer." The content of education must begin with the Scriptures, and continue into God's Creation.

Libraries