Competition and Collaboration
Every company I have worked for has been massive — both in size and in success. This massiveness is due to no small degree to the abilities these companies have of leveraging themselves as competitors in the market. They set themselves apart as unique; but it is not only marketing. These companies also must protect their data, their processes, and their products from other companies. My present job is much different; collaboration has replaced competition. We work together with other groups in an effort to do what we do better. Why? Because we share a common goal: help humans encounter God. I am new to this whole mentality (of open collaboration) and it is not an easy concept to embrace. Fortunately I am surrounded by other ex-marketplace personnel who can relate. I am curious about two things:
- How does one relax his/her competitiveness?
- How long will this last? As more and more churches are on the Internet, will we continue to embrace collaboration, or will we soon turn into the two churches on opposite street corners who bicker over everything?
I sure hope we don’t become the bickering churches. I’ve been on staff, in various forms and flavors, at churches for about 5 or 6 years now. I am consistently impressed at the vibe among sister churches across town, countries and continents from each other who work around/across denominations for the exact purpose you mention – connecting others with Jesus.
Competitiveness is there… it always has been, and probably always will be. I’m a very competitive person. But, I’ve realized finally that life is too short and we only have “one shot” at this… might as well get over ourselves and leverage the collective brains of all of us out here.
I’m glad you’re on staff at Newspring – you’re already a tremendous asset there, and I look forward to engaging on various other kingdom-changing projects with you and other leaders we haven’t even met yet
Good post.
Thanks, Daryl — I agree that humility appears to be the solution to the competition; hard to make that tangible, though. I enjoy working with you, too — I sense the LC/NS bond will continue to grow sweeter!
You know Zac, I sit here and have some out of this world visions flashing through my head. Imagine a reality where Churches compete for the souls of humanity. A church on every corner reaching out to the lost? A soul-saving meter to indicating success.
Yea, the human spirit drives us all to be more, do more and make more in our chosen fields of work. Competitiveness is just the way we are wired…
But through Jesus Christ we have been given the ability to balance that competitive spirit with the spirit of love. With Jesus as our leader and God’s spirit in our soul, we cherish and adore the success of others. In fact, although we may not say it out loud, we actually cheer for other teams when it comes to reaching the un-saved.
I think there is room for tens of thousands more churches across the land. Seeking out the unsaved and spreading God’s love, which is never a finished task.
The other way of thinking about this problem is that no one church on earth is ever going to be able to supply the Love of Christ to everyone. Us humans are so diverse in our needs that there is plenty of room in the save-the-souls industry for many players.
So keep up the “loving spirit of co-oper-tition” and keep reaching out…
Thanks, HH, for the input! Love, humility — we may be piecing this together!