The Apple TV and I go back quite a ways. I’ve been a proud owner for about four years and have previously written about their use in a church environment. Today, however, we’ll be looking not at how to use the Apple TV but what we can learn from Apple’s attitude to the Apple TV and how we can apply that to what we do in the Church.
The Value of “Hobby” Experimentation
The Apple TV has been a “hobby” ever since it first appeared on the scene…until now. I’ve followed the Apple TV closer than other device Apple has made because the very idea that Apple would have a “hobby” product intrigued me. Why would a company so obsessed with its image, its brand satisfaction, its own sense of superiority ever risk it all on a hobby?
Ok, so maybe they weren’t risking it all, and maybe that’s the point? Apple released a hobby product as a manner of experimentation, a calculated risk. If the Apple TV failed, it would be just one ore product that Apple brought unsuccessfully on to the market. It would join the Newton, the Pippin, and iTunes Ping in the pantheon of “rotten to the core” Apple failures.
But if it succeeded, if the Apple TV proved to be even slightly successful, it would become something upon which to build further innovation and, hopefully, greater success.
Church’s need to do this, too. Sure, the margins for error with a multi-billion dollar company and a church with an annual budget of only a couple hundred thousand dollars are very different, but just because you can’t compare Apple to oranges doesn’t mean that there isn’t value in “hobby” experimentation. To through in another example, the Relevant Podcast, from Relevant Magazine, just celebrated its ten year anniversary, and yet it was initially launched as little more than a hobby. In fact, years ago, before it was as big as it is now, the attitude about the podcast was “we’ll do it if we can” and some weeks no show was recorded. Now, however, it’s success has made it a viable component of their business. It’s no longer a hobby, and there’s always an episode.
Of course, experimentation only works if you play the long game.
Playing the Long Game
I’m always amazed by people who think that the way to invest for the future, whether its a financial, intellectual, relational, or spiritual investment, is to be constantly making changes. That never works. Growth doesn’t come from constant changes or constant experimentation. If that’s how you experiment, you’ll never be able to determine if what you’re doing is working. You’ll have too many inconsistent variables. The best way to experiment—and to invest—is to make a change and commit to it for a specified amount of time. Depending upon the changes you’re making, you might want to wait it a few weeks or a few months. You need to see the results of your changes over time.
I once worked for a school district that made systemic changes nearly every school year. They would change Component A, for example, and we’d struggle to adjust. Then, next year, they’re change Component B, and we’d struggled again. The following year, they would change Component A again and complain that they weren’t seeing the improvements they expected.
Well, of course they weren’t! That’s too much change. If you want to see quick turn around, you need to make small changes. If you want to see results on a larger scale you need to take time to observe the results of the tweaks you’ve made. You can’t have a “hobby” if you’re not going to commit to long-term experimentation.
“What would a ‘hobby’ look like for a church, Phil?” Great question, so glad you asked. How about a Saturday service twice a month? Or a new type of class offered during your mid-week service? (We went from age-based to topical classes. Great switch!) How about offering coffee and cookies before your midweek service? Or a full meal at a reasonable price? Offer it with a set end date, “For the next five weeks…” and if it works, extend it. If you’re looking to make smaller changes, maybe you could start offering communion at the end of every service, if you don’t already, or move your service elements around.
The point is to make changes that can be reversed if they don’t prove successful but only after you’ve given them time to actually prove themselves. Apple TV’s been around since 2007, but Apple has waited to the last half of 2015 to truly make it a going concern. That’s a long time to experiment, but I think it will prove worth it.
And yet, beyond the success of a particular hobby, you have to be able to make it a part of the whole of what you do.
Integration For the Win!
Integration might be the area that separates good churches from great churches. A good church has lots of good, successful groups/programs that are producing results, but great churches have groups/programs that are producing results as part of a holistic system with a centralized strategy. Too many churches have a feudalistic approach. They have programs and ministries that all act as separate fiefdoms oftentimes competing for resources, volunteers, even attenders.
My advice to churches is to begin creating new ministries as hobbies, let them prove themselves, and then integrate them into the life of the church as a whole. Of course, that would require having that holistic strategy I mentioned before, but then again, it’s something you should probably develop anyway.
Integration is key to the success of so much of what Apple does. The Apple TV now has access to iCloud, Siri, and the App Store. The potential here is absolutely amazing because the Apple TV is now officially a part and player of the entire Apple ecosystem. When you create a ministry at your church, are you doing so with the intention of making it a part of the whole of what you’re about? Do you create groups simply to fill the calendar or is there an intentional plan behind the whole process that guides and directs what you’re doing? Having “hobby” ministries are great, but if you’re not watching out, you’ll soon find that all you have are hobbies and nothing great or grand is being accomplished. The goal should be to transition hobby ministries into effective ministers that are part of the greater picture of what your church is all about. Creating more disconnected and competing fiefdoms is a recipe for a disintegrated disaster.
What if Apple’s various division (iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc.) decided to intentionally compete against each other, to vie for each other’s customers? They would cannibalize their sales, destroying the whole in the process. You must integrate all of your ministries, especially new ones, into the whole life of the church, making sure that they all contribute to your greater mission.
Conclusion
There’s so much that the church could learn practically from the outside world, but I think that Apple has even more to teach us than most because Apple takes a nearly spiritual approach to what they do. In fact, if churches took what they do as seriously as Apple takes their products and product strategy, I think we’d see a worldwide shift in evangelism as the world is set ablaze for Jesus. What’s sad, though, is that Apple is surely more likely to be more passionate about their silly phones and TV set top boxes than churches are about making disciples and making an eternal difference.
But hey, you can prove me wrong. Show your community that passion. Make some calculated risks by picking up a hobby or two. Play the long game and either cut it or build upon its success, integrating it into the whole of your church’s ministry.
For too long, churches have always thought the same. It’s time to think different.
[Newton iPhone image via Wikipedia]
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