Lessons to be learned from the death of a great innovator
Steve Jobs died today. The reaction to his death has been as to that of a great celebrity or national figure.
He was a businessman. Very few businessmen’s deaths evoke such national respect.
Steve Jobs will be remembered as an innovator. His innovative ideas would have left no impression without innovative actions. As one of his colleagues noted, many business moguls achieve success by making an existing product better, building a better mousetrap. But Jobs created things no one else had imagined. He dreamt ideas. He built ideas. He improved ideas.
He persisted in pursuing excellence in defiance of the brightest, wisest minds of the business community. Apple was done for, dead. When retailers, following popular wisdom, couldn’t or wouldn’t sell his machines, he found an answer. He opened his own stores . . . and outsold his competitors.
We advocates for small churches can learn from the life of Steve Jobs. We know we are swimming against a strong current. Popular wisdom tells us small churches can’t survive. If we keep doing the same things the same way, they may be right! But if we do things differently we have a chance to be innovators, too. We are not likely to find support among those following the collective wisdom of the current movers and shakers. We will have to forge our own way.
There are plenty of stories in the Bible to teach us the way . . . but now and then we can be reminded of the lessons of our faith by the life of someone who walked among us.