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Human-Centered Design Toolkit

This really is one of the more brilliant gifts for non-profits/ministries that I’ve come across in a long time. I can’t believe I haven’t seen it earlier.

The Human Centered Design Toolkit is a free innovation guide for NGOs and Social Enterprises. It’s basically a blueprint for identifying key problems and developing innovative solutions for them. The It’s designed to help NGO’s tackle the biggest issues that affect those living on $2/day or less. However, it’s ministry implications are far greater.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the brainchild of IDEO (the World’s Greatest Design Firm) and others, it’s an irresistibly clean, well-designed guide for innovation. Useful at so many levels of an organization.

Check it out over at IDEO’s website:
http://www.ideo.com/work/item/human-centered-design-toolkit/

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Reflections on DC09

Spent the last few days at the Dynamic Church Conference in Dallas. It’s a conference for users of Fellowship One, a Church Management software from Fellowship Technologies. 

Here’s what I like about this software, these people, their passion:

1. Passion drives their purpose. 
   There is a genuine heart and belief that technology can be harnessed to help people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus. 
2. They know that their technology is not the end but the means. 
   Fellowship One is about all about helping the church clear the administrative barriers to make way for real relationships. 
3. They have an impressive road map.
   Ftech has clearly been putting in the work to architect or rearchitect the product to be more agile and responsive to the growing technological needs of the evolving Global Mobile Church (GoMo as @terrystorch labeled it).
4. The don’t have the answers.
   They made it very clear that the users of F1 are vital to drive future developments of the product. They call us church partners…and they mean it. 

In my roll @theSanctuary, I see a long relationship with F1 in our future. If we’re diligent about it’s implementation, realistic about putting a SuperTeam around it, and intentional about pursuing the relationships on the other side of the data, this should be a beneficial partnership now and into the future.

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3 Word Goal for 2009…

After seeing the now famous post on 3 word goals, Sarah and I have come up with ours.

Hers:
ADOPT - Work towards baby #3…
LESS – Spend less, consume less, want less, 
DISCIPLINE – pray and invest daily in God. Consistency in Parenting and loving my husband

Mine:
CONNECT- Engage more in people this year. Real relationships.
LESS – Spend Less, Consume Less
MORE – Save More, Give More, Live More. Spend more time with my family.

2009. The year of the Scheller.

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Innovate 08 – 10 Takeaways

Ten takeaways from Granger Community Church’s Innovate 08 Conference.

1. Balance is static. Who needs balance? You have to lean into progress. – Mark Beeson
2. The Gospel is Good News for Right Now. Stop Talking, Start Doing. Mark Beeson
3. Stuff=how we tell the story. Spoken, Sung, Printed, Visualized. Brand Schizophrenia = When we fall in love with the stuff instead of Jesus. – Shawn Wood
4. Leveraging Technology for Ministry is all about engagement. It’s not about toys, it’s about tools to reach the increasing population and their shortened attention spans. – Bobby Gruenwald. 
5. We forget the promise and forfeit the payoff because we faint in the process. We need to understand that the process is the point. The payoff of God’s promise comes in the processes we go through as we’re faithful to act on what we hear from him. – Steven Furtick
6. An organization is the reflection of its leadership. Leaders must be willing to “get naked.” The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be is the pain you’re unwilling to endure. Accept the pain of the journey and enter in to God’s kingdom here on earth. – Life Church Directional Leadership Team
7. Pop Goes the Church. Harness pop culture in the church to:
   - Package events to attract a crowd.
   - Get people to Think or Laugh
   - Provide a new interpretation of a pop cultural element
   - To encourage people in their service. 
   WHY do all of this? It’s all about engagement. – Tim Stevens
8. Better off going 30 ft deep in 3 places than 3 in deep in 30 places. Don’t confuse the great commission with the great commotion. – Rob Wegner
9. Social Media allows people to fulfill their human desire to affiliate, associate and belong on a smaller scale. It’s also an environment where trust and relational collateral is developed at levels as shallow or deep as you want.  - Kem Meyer, Zach Montroy, Tim Schraeder and Jeremy Scheller (Ha!)
10. Changing the course is good. Be confident in knowing who you are and what you want to do and then you’ll have the space to be creative in how you do it.  - Mark Beeson

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Cost vs. Excellence.

Bobby over at LifeCurch/Swerve Blog had a great post today showing a cost vs. excellence curve.

Basically, he’s talking about the Law of Diminishing Returns in the frame of the church.

Excellence grows with more time and more money put in on the front end, but eventually you get less bang for your buck and it costs way more and takes way more time to be a little more excellent.

Even the church is not immune to the laws of capitalist economics.

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5 (Six) Dangerous things you should let your kids do:

Gever Tulley’s TED TALK:

1. Play with Fire
2. Own a Pocket Knife
3. Throw a Spear
4. Deconstruct Appliances
5. Break the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
6. Drive a Car

Look around you. What’s broken?

Do you know how to fix it? Or do you need to deconstruct it first?

This speaks to me on so many different levels. I love TED Talks.