 
**Game On:**

**A Christian Strategy Guide for Noobs**

Jesse Steele

Smashwords Edition

**Copyright © 2013-2018 Jesse Steele**

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced for sale in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Jesse Steele on Smashwords

ISBN: 978-131-006-641-2

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For personal enjoyment only, you are welcome to share this eBook with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete, original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by Jesse Steele. Thank you for your support.

2018 Note

The book, Memoirs of Ophannin at the time this was written, was changed to Ophannim Eye when it was revamped in 2017.

The name was changed in this text to reflect this.
**For Mom**
**Table of Contents**

ForMom

Introduction

The Grand Theme

Details, 10,000 Hours, and Triangulation

The Transition Ahead

Team Flowers

Freemium

Practical Steps

About
**Introduction**

A guitarist and singer named John Fish spoke at Moody while I was a student. He presented the idea of having "Christians in media" rather than having "Christian media".

A "Christian movie" is an oxymoron. Since a movie isn't a Human, it can't be a "Christian". More than a silly play on words, there is something to consider in this. A mop is a mop. A car is a car. A song is a song. Some things can reflect Christian virtues, or not, but quality and art are also important factors.

Is it appropriate to categorize every company and every product as either "Christian-made" or "non-Christian made"? Even if such labels were used everywhere, there would be no way of knowing whether those labels tell the truth. More importantly, these labels don't tell us everything we need to know, nor do they provide help with everything that needs help.

Why would Christians get involved in the market? We all need the market, for starters. Perhaps getting in the game is a good alternative to complaining. Rather than boycotting a bad company or evil industry, go into business yourself and put the Devil out of business.

I don't presume to be the first author who has written about increasing our Christian presence in the market. There is a wide array of topics relating to the subject; not all are in this book. Here, I'll narrow the subject as I often do—saying what is less likely to be said elsewhere.

That's the idea behind anything successful—uniqueness. If we are the same as everyone else then we aren't necessary.

On more than one occasion I've heard some group or organization talk about "celebrating differences". Though, I've rarely seen an actual celebration for things that make us different. It takes maturity, not only to endure our differences, but to enjoy them. Too often, this slogan is little more than a cute version of, "Stop arguing. I can't stand anymore arguing. Just celebrate your differences and get along!"

In my few, short, thirty three years, I've received two lifetimes worth of lectures on why I should do things the way someone else does them. Needless to say, few of those lectures ever convinced me to conform. When they did, the lecturer changed more than I.

"That's the way things are done," I'd hear. In those conversations, no one else seemed to understand that doing things as they are already done makes one irrelevant. In business, "irrelevance" is a death sentence.

We, as the Body of Christ, are in a serious need for innovation. I don't merely mean that we need more brainstorming rooms with chartreuse walls and purple carpet—though, that would be a nice start. We need to innovate innovation itself.

Rita Mae Brown wrote that insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.

Why don't Christians make the famous movies? Why can't Jesus Christ be the superhero in the number one best-selling video game? Why don't the most skilled and successful politicians write books about how their "war" strategy was derived by understanding why Jesus was smarter than Machiavelli? And why do wealthy entrepreneurs spend their retirement years proselytizing the population control message of the Devil, rather than the population redemption message of Jesus Christ?

I dare to suggest that the reason people don't like so many of our products is because our products aren't good. Or, better said, too many of our products are "good". So, few ever become "great".

It's time for a game change. Some things that I suggest in this book will offer practical advice. Other ideas may call the reader to do some soul-searching. Most ideas will do both. We rarely come across useful information that doesn't probe our hearts—often times, this is because the information was right in front of us all along.

"Marketplace" is a difficult word for me to accept, but it is the best choice. One term that's floating around Christian circles today is "marketplace apostle". I don't know why the word "apostle" is included in this term. Watchman Nee describes a simple, Biblical view of an apostle quite well in his book, Church Affairs, and a Biblical "apostle" doesn't have much to do with markets and exchanges.

A "marketplace apostle" usually refers to someone like Daniel or Joseph. That initially creates a problem for my free market capitalist heritage. Daniel wasn't an entrepreneur, he was a bureaucrat appointed to a lower office within the State because of his good looks. He was later promoted due to his spiritual knowledge. Joseph, was an honorary head of State, specifically because of his combined knowledge of dreams, management, and stewardship, as well as economics and preparedness. Joseph demonstrates some of my own philosophy—that one is only qualified to lead in government if he understands the market—thus disqualifying most government leaders of our day. But I shall save any further critique of American politics for another book.

Generally, when used in Christian circles, the term "marketplace" refers to activity that happens outside the "Church walls". This is another term I don't understand since bodies don't have walls—bodies have arms, legs, bones, etc—and the Church is a Body. I don't say this merely to be cute. I work diligently to purge from my mind, heart, and vocabulary, any notion of "church" as a kind of building or organized Christian fellowship. There is only one true Church; one Body with one Head and many parts; one Good Shepherd over many "fellowships". And I believe that one of the important steps to our success in the marketplace is to reach a simple understanding of truth: There are no walls between Christians and the marketplace.

To this point in history, many Christians, whom I greatly respect, have, innocently and with good intentions, misused the term "marketplace" in the manners that I just described in the previous two paragraphs. Every Christian ought to be admired, who strives to engage the markets. I don't denounce our intermediate understanding of these things. Rather, I celebrate the process of our learning.

Like any game, we must fail our way toward excellence. We've been doing a lot of that, minus the excellence part. Church, we're ready to level up.

A "marketplace" is and always will be an important center for any society. In the Far East, fresh food markets are located near a Buddhist or Taoist temple, even to this day. The temple and the market are separate, but related and central.

In the advancement of technology and society, the marketplace has not diminished. It has expanded. Though we don't go to fresh marketplaces as often as we did in years past, new marketplaces have sprung up through shopping malls, online stores, and even App stores such as used by Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

The market is where everyone can come together. Governments set rules that establish fairness in the markets. Politicians meet people in the aisles. Farmers reserve a table at the market so they can get paid. Gourmet chefs and housewives chose the finest ingredients from those farmers. The market is a place where we take our best and exchange it for someone else's. The marketplace involves and invites all of us.

In the immortal words of President Obama, "Let me be clear..." There are many great books about succeeding in the marketplace, addressing many different areas in which Christians can improve and learn from successes and failures of others.

One such book, which I recommend, is Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad. I'm also a fan of Dr. Miles Munroe's publications, though I respectfully sidestep the Modalist controversy—all Trinitarian doctrine is extrabiblical anyway. I'm also a fan of Malcolm Gladwell.

I prefer J. N. Kapferer over Jim Collins because Kapferer has worked with more successful enterprises and Collins's research, though for good reason, was largely limited to public companies—and selling your shares on the stock market is a debatable strategy in and of itself. Do you want to give newspapers the power, through the stock market, to orchestrate changes in the value and future of your company?

Of course, Collins offers a lot of valuable insight, if the reader can understand the far-reaching impact of the limits he himself explains. For instance, "get the right people on the bus first, then decide where the bus is going" doesn't give a model for success as much as it reveals that a previous owner built a house, vacated, and a new family is getting settled in. Such an organization is finding its own identity from tools it inherited; it's no longer the same organization in principal.

If you can consider such things, then Collins can be of great benefit. But it is risky to apply his principals universally because his research was, and arguably had to be, narrowed, based on the feasibility of research rather than relevance of achievement. Kapferer doesn't have such limits, only preferences for high-end luxury.

No success story researcher can give principals for every organization to follow—he only explains 1. what he identifies from 2. the cases he researches. Such books can be useful, as long as the reader knows the limits of the scope of research. But I digress.

The best kept secret of every success story book is that the people in those books had their own success without reading their own particular books. Stories can inspire and affirm, but they can't compensate for lack of heart and soul. Success doesn't merely come from reading a book; it comes from having the ideas in your heart that, eventually, someone wants to write a book about... after the fact.

All such books can improve and we can glean from anyone. I have yet to meet one scoundrel from whom I did not learn great truth; and I've learned from wise men all the more. The best books have not been written... because you haven't written them yet.

So, let's get started, learn from anyone, anywhere we can, and then succeed anywhere our feet tread. Game on, Church!
**The Grand Theme**

Call it the Big Picture or Policy Governance. The Grand Theme is a broad-stroke backdrop that guides inner details. It applies to almost anything, ranging from painting to law to story writing to lecture outlining, even the words we choose in daily conversations.

The Grand Theme is a tool. Wielding this tool is an artful skill. Many respected leaders understand the Grand Theme, though they are rarely appreciated for this. We may think of a painting as a masterpiece, admiring the pallet or the skill with a brush, when the secret behind its quality was the artist's grasp on the Grand Theme.

If Christians are to succeed, in any industry, in any vocation, we must understand the Grand Theme principal. In the examples we are about to look at, many people try to describe certain qualities, techniques, or skills in various fields or success stories. I'm suggesting that it may be easier to find the words to explain why a certain accomplishment was different by using this concept of a Grand Theme.

One application of the Grand Theme is perspective art. This emphasizes three-dimensional drawings that seem to leap off the page. It begins with a single dot that guides all the main lines in the early stages of sketching. In some perspective drawings, there may be two dots or three. Whereas you or I may see a drawing and say, "Wow, it seems to leap off the page," a master artist can look at a perspective drawing, tell how many dots were used, and appreciate the artist, even for his use of perspective dots. That is an artist who understands the Grand Theme applied to artwork. There are many other applications of basic, Grand Theme concepts in artwork as well—ask any artist.

In law, the Grand Theme usually begins with a generic statement about the rite of authority, followed by some form of a Constitution. The United States is no exception. John Carver refers to this as Policy Governance, where broad-scope, simple, generic rules can guide an entire organization from the top down, with a soft hand. For Carver, a mission statement is the highest form of policy. For the United States, all policy begins with the Preamble to the US Constitution and the presumption of self-evident, inalienable, God-given liberties—all US law stems from that Grand Theme or it is thrown out, sooner or later.

In fiction writing, the Grand Theme is a simple story, often times without any names or specifics. One example could be, "The hero, from another world, falls to the earth, learns valuable lessons through conflict, helps Humanity, and we welcome him." This Grand Theme could apply to movies like Transformers, Superman, and Thor. More importantly, these different movie and comic stories share almost the same Grand Theme because a Grand Theme is extremely basic and generic.

If there were a Grand Theme story that applied to Jesus and the Human situation, it might be, "The hero, a perfect prototype among Humans, suffers from our errors, goes to another world, we learn valuable lessons through conflict, and we invite him to return." While I admire many comic heroes, including Optimus Prime, Cal El, and Thor, I know in my heart that they lack one thing: On the Grand Theme level, none of them are like Jesus. Sadly, they more closely resemble another character from the Bible, but I will not address that here.

The Grand Theme can apply to anything, from blogging, to Tweeting, to designing clothes. Some of the most amazing digital art begins with a simple picture, or even a single line, applies a few filters and affects, and ends up as desktop wallpaper for thousands of Internet users.

Of course, the more skill the better and a digital masterpiece takes time, but the most important difference is whether the artist can think of the big picture. In terms of digital art, the Grand Theme could be anything from a recurring shape to a color that is either exclusive, recurring, or complemented. It could be a single letter or basic shape that appears on many levels of artwork. Or the Grand Theme idea could be that a "multiply" layer works better with a soft tone face than a "screen" layer.

The Grand Theme can affect the way computer programming code is organized or how champions of a video game achieve victory. For clothing, it can be as simple as, "No fashion without function, no function without fashion." The same could be for home appliances.

In story art, the Grand Theme may be reflected in the choice to draw a sword having just cut off a large wing with the caption "Peace on Earth," rather than drawing a handsome, young Angel with one of his wings in a bandage. The first conveys the idea that the enemy has already been defeated. The second could be an attempt to twist the truth and lure young people into adoring "fallen Angels". Whether you agree or disagree with my analysis, discussion about these ideas is a Grand Theme discussion.

In blogging, writing, and speaking, the Grand Theme could be a recurring idea that is different from the title of a message. It could also be the title. In story writing, an author may choose many themes, one may be "family". Another theme may be "technology". That doesn't mean that the term "family" must be mentioned in every paragraph. The word "family" may not be mentioned at all. In a plotline, a character may evaluate a memory of his mother while, in the subplot, two friends work together like brothers in conflict to overcome a challenge. That might be a way to express "family" as a Grand Theme. Though many people who read books and watch movies don't even notice these things, authors carefully consider and intentionally design such things all the time.

More importantly, you can more easily appreciate the skill of a writer, even without knowing writer jargon, merely by recognizing a Grand Theme at work in any field.

In camera work, a Grand Theme may be the choice to kneel down when taking two out of every three photographs. Again, while most people don't consider whether the photographer was standing or kneeling close to the ground when looking at a photograph, a skilled photographer might tell you that a photo taken while kneeling adds a unique, refreshing, childlike view of the world. Children's eyes, after all, are closer to the ground than the eyes of adults. This is another example of thinking on the level of the Grand Theme.

For a music band, the Grand Theme may be not so much about how fast to play arpeggios, but that saxophone and drums shouldn't play in the second verse while the lead singer should let the audience sing in the third verse. Or it could mean that the violin should harmonize in the first chorus, yet lightly play fast arpeggios of a reharmonization as the guitarist and keyboard play the original chord progression in the third chorus. When adding the Grand Theme of stanza diversity in a musical performance, don't just chose different notes as the song progresses—choose different chords, change between melody and countermelody, or maybe don't even play at all. You may not be a musician, but you may find some better words to describe the unique sounds you hear in a performance if you can identify Grand Themes.

The Grand Theme may be reflected in a college campus decision that "customer service" should be one of the main considerations in managing students, and that managing students should be a consideration when designing administration. One college took this approach and created a "student services" counter. There, students could go to one place to sign up for classes, pay bills, do other necessary registration, and perform many other errands in "one stop". This saved the campus from congestion, and saved the students time from having to travel to a myriad of offices, dispersed over several acres. The college also ranked in the top 100 schools in the United States shortly after. But all of this came from a simple understanding of the Grand Theme: "Customer service" is a primary concern with student interaction.

Though you may need a couple decades as a manager to make such a plan succeed, you can at least identify what's going on, without any management experience, merely by recognizing Grand Themes.

In relationships and daily conversation, the Grand Theme could guide us to make statements that are constructive, useful, and encouraging. People will welcome your criticism, even if they have never met you before, if your words are useful, and they have more confidence in their ability to improve after speaking with you. But even the biggest compliment will make people regret speaking with you if they leave the conversation feeling drained.

A word of caution to wise: Of all the topics this book addresses, the Grand Theme is the easiest to understand... incorrectly.

Many amateur artists use perspective dots, but they never use a dot when outlining the flow origin for hair on a character's head. Amateurs may use a perspective dot to guide lines of objects, but identify no source of light for shading.

Many policy makers think they understand John Carver's idea of policy governance when they fail to apply his most basic principles on a daily basis.

Many Christian parents feel disturbed about a movie because of vocabulary or violence, but don't even notice whether the heroes and villains of the movie are reversed in their resemblance of the heroes and villains of the Bible. You may not have considered this before, but Superman is much more similar to the Devil, having fallen from the Heavens, than he is to Jesus who never fell in the first place. But you won't see that merely from the words, but only by seeing the Grand Theme.

Many people strive to have a "positive attitude", as they unknowingly invalidate all the "negative" people around them.

Many bosses try to motivate their employees, but only exhaust them.

The Grand Theme is a skill that we can all learn and improve on continually. I pretend to be no master of the Grand Theme. It is sufficient for me to call myself a student.
**Details, 10,000 Hours, and Triangulation**

Dad used to tell me, "The Devil is in the details." While that may have been true for ENRON, the Devil may also be hiding in the Grand Theme.

Details are often daunting. When we consider details from the Grand Theme perspective, details are a matter of skill.

Every art has a technique. Before discussing the 10,000 hour rule, bear with me through a short trek down memory lane...

As a young piano student, my instructor was incredibly frustrated because I wouldn't practice. She showed her patience by continuing to teach me, as she dropped other students. She didn't teach me for my hard work, but because she thought I had talent and wanted only to inspire me and keep me at the keyboard.

Those were painful times. My mother would often ask sarcastically, "Do I have to stand behind you the whole time you practice?" Years later, after being a private piano instructor myself, I realized that the answer to my mother's question was, "Yes. You need to stand behind a student the entire time he practices." In the world of sports this is called coaching.

In high school, my piano instructor of eight years graduated me, saying I needed to diversify. With gratitude, I say that part of her decision was likely from due frustration that I wouldn't practice. I am forever in her debt. For the next teacher, I drove an hour, one way, twice a month, to sit with a retired lady for a two hour lesson. The entire time she sat right next to me and watched me play scales and arpeggios. We also did large amounts of sight reading. I don't believe we worked on many specific songs. She just watched me the whole time and my skill skyrocketed. Though, I still wouldn't practice at home but once a week.

The first teacher assigned many of the same songs week after week, mostly because I wouldn't practice. This repetition build repertoire, which is important for any artist. The second teacher focused specifically on technique.

Repertoire and technique are different. Both are essential.

In college, I worked as a caterer in downtown Chicago. At one of our banquets I watched the pianist play the same arpeggios I had learned in high school as I looked straight down from the balcony above him. After, I asked him what he thought about "quoting".

"Quoting?" he asked.

"Yes. You used a small melody from Westside Story," I said.

"I wasn't quoting. I played that at Carnegie Hall."

"I may go to New York someday," I replied. "So, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?"

He paused for a second with a twinkle in his eye, pointed at me, and said, "Practice."

It has been said that practice makes perfect. Giving credit where due, my soccer camp instructor at Springhill said, "I beg to differ. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect."

My high school Band instructor always used to say, "Don't practice the mistakes or you'll have to practice three times as long afterward—twice to unlearn, and a third time to learn it the right way."

Perhaps, with a little of my own history, you'll understand why I taught piano for 60 minutes at a time and had the student play the same technique exercise over and over as I listened.

I preferred favorites, classics, and tunes with repetition... like Boogie Woogseie, Take Five and Linus and Lucy. This way, students gained repertoire, technique, and love for piano at the same time. I taught repertoire-technique songs by rote. For note reading I used Frances Clark's adult book, mostly as sight reading fodder—standing over the student, pushing until 10 minutes of theory and 50 continuous minutes of new notes were complete. I also incorporated some of my own theory, some principals similar to Mark Almond's Piano for Life. Chord practice used inversions, followed by a sequence of 5, then 1, so the student would have a combination of ear training and sequential muscle memory to instinctively identify the modifiable elements of inversions. I'd typically max a junior high student after 18 months.

Most of the lessons I taught were monotonous. It wasn't because I was a lazy teacher. I just didn't trust the students to practice correctly without me there. "Don't practice more than twice this week," I'd say. "But, please, 5 minutes once or twice with mom watching." Admittedly, this also had an element of fail-proof reverse psychology. Whether the student obeyed my instructions, or sneaked to practice when mom wasn't looking, it all helped.

It really bothered students when I was half way across the room and would say, "Stop using your third finger and use your fourth." How did I know which finger the student was using by listening from across the room? Third and fourth fingers... they just sound differently, ya know.

I practiced more after learning that playing piano could be a form of "musical prayer". But that's another topic for another book.

As I'm sure you are enjoying my walk down musical memory lane, you're probably also wondering why I told you these stories. Can you guess what the Grand Theme is?

Hopefully you considered something like piano or possibly practice. These are topics or subjects in my short history lesson above. But the Grand Theme is time.

Time shows up in the idea of memories, history, hours of driving, whether mom should stand behind me, going to New York some day, and, of course... practice.

Many fields have what they call the "10,000 hour rule". Through childhood, college, and after college, the total number of hours spent learning something, like a musical instrument or painting, even playing a sport—after all of the consistent rehearsals, practices, classes, performances—the total amount of time put in before mastering any skill is about 10,000 hours. This is the 10,000 hour rule.

Of course, skills grow with every minute of practice, though noticeable improvements often come in spurts. 4,000 hours probably will result in more skill than 2,000 hours. All time spent developing and practicing a skill is beneficial.

If one begins during childhood, 10,000 hours can peak at about age 30, though the hours in practice are the main factor. Samuel anointed David a number of years before he became king at 30 years old. Saul had also become king at 30 years old. 10,000 hours and God's calling are different. Both must be respected for their differences, but there can be a correlation.

The Bible never explicitly states that age 30 is the age of acceptance, but this age, which many characters in the Bible reached before taking positions of leadership, certainly reflects agreement with the 10,000 hour rule of mastering a skill.

Joseph was sold into slavery and thrown in a dungeon for twelve years. Through those twelve years in prison, Joseph was putting in his 10,000 hours in diplomacy and administration as he managed the dungeon for the guards. He was promoted by Pharaoh at about age 30, the same age Jesus was when He began His public ministry on earth. Even in a sinless body, our Lord, most likely, waited to begin his public ministry until He was old enough to have spent 10,000 hours learning something, probably carpentry and prayer.

Moses's unusual circumstances allowed him enough time to reach 10,000 hours in multiple skills before leading Israel out of Egypt. With this perspective, we can see that Moses was, at least, a "double master" before his public ministry, and a "triple master" before he died... at least.

The important thing about details is the same important thing about 10,000 hours: Those 10,000 hours mature the details of a skill. Muscles need strengthening. Imagination needs information. Strategy needs experience. Intuition needs context. All of these things relate to details. That's why we say of an expert, "He makes it look so easy!" For him, it is easy, because 10,000 hours are necessary to master, not only the details, but also the Grand Theme of any given skill set.

Though we understand the value of practice, the full benefit of the 10,000 hour rule has not been realized by the Church. One example is Bible reading.

Jerry Jenkins, coauthor of the Left Behind series, spoke at a Founder's Week session at the Moody Bible Institute. He told about his experience while writing Billy Graham's biography.

Billy Graham put an open Bible in every room of his house and made a rule for himself, that whenever he would walk past one of these open Bibles, he would read it, even if only for a brief moment. Sometimes he would read a verse or two. Other times he would read for hours. That is where most of Billy Graham's knowledge of Scripture came from.

Joshua 1:8 gives unmistakable instructions, that Scripture is learned by meditating on it day and night. It doesn't matter so much whether we learn our Bible from Sunday school or in high school, or while researching for postgraduate publications. The important factor is the amount of time we spend.

Of course, we need guidance to interpret the Bible properly. It's good to discuss our ideas about the Bible with each other and learn from Godly men who have gone before us. But spending time reading the Bible is among the more important factors in learning it. One can compensate for lack of good Bible mentors by reading more Bible, but one cannot compensate for lack of time in the Bible by having more mentors.

One of the reasons Moody requires many students to live on their campus as much as possible relates to the very issue of time. My first boss, also a Moody grad, told me when I first applied to the college, "One thing is for sure: You may not know what you believe when you first go. But after Moody, you will know what you believe." There is something significant about spending time doing something, regardless of age or instruction.

At about eleven o'clock at night, someone in the dorm lounge would say, "Do you want to solve the problems of Calvinism tonight?" That was the end of the next day. We'd surely be up until 3:00 am and fall asleep in class the following afternoon. Though the administration wanted us well-rested for class, those late night discussions were among the main reasons they wanted us on campus. It's also one of the reasons many Moody students choose Moody. Time is powerful and it yields results.

Many "Christian" colleges may offer a few classes in Bible, but then mostly teach mainline subjects, giving their students an experience similar to a Liberal Arts college with little more than "super Sunday school". By attracting students who would rather attend a football game than debate Calvin, those late-night dorm debates rarely happen.

Though theology discussion and Bible study are different, they both require time and initiative. And both, like coffee, are learned addictions. It takes some getting used to, but one can become addicted to the Bible.

This relates to one of the main problems we have with Christians in media. We can't have good Bible-based stories if don't understand the Bible. I'm not merely referring to seminary. We need to know Bible, which means we need time in the Bible.

This creates a problem. Few college graduates have enough hours in their upbringing to log 20,000 hours—10,000 for Bible and 10,000 for their marketable skill set. Change is needed in our routine, Christian Bible-learning structure. We need to offer more Bible time all week long, while increasing our emphasis on marketable skills.

At the same time, we must drop the notion that a Master's degree is necessary to understand the Bible. Such an idea would be a modern version of Gnosticism—that higher knowledge is limited to a select few. Not everyone has the time or money to attend Seminary. Anyone can read a Bible every day.

I specifically chose to study Bible in college, as opposed to Business, Politics, Administration, or Ministry. We can write better and better books about management or how to "do" Church or grow economies, but God's Word is eternal. While I was making my final major-change in college, a wise friend commented, "Some students study Pastoral Ministry, expecting that Bible knowledge will follow. Others students study Bible, expecting that Pastoral Ministry knowledge will follow." I chose the second road, a road less traveled at that time.

Maybe God called you to study a specific skill in college and gain your Bible knowledge informally. Maybe He wants you to learn Bible in college and study a skill in your free/hobby/addiction time or as an apprentice. 10,000 hours is 10,000 hours, formal or informal. We're all unique.

Some Bible instruction can be very useful, so that we don't read the Bible from our ignorance. You may consider some correspondence or modular courses in Bible from a good Bible school not affiliated with any denomination, or from multiple colleges. This can help avoid developing slanted and divisive theology.

There are many great places to learn a lot of Bible in a short time, through on-campus internships, online, or through the mail—Moody, Willow Creek Association, Bethel in Redding, California, the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, just to name a few. Howard Hendricks wrote an amazing Bible study introduction how-to book, Living by the Book. John Walton has an amazing Old Testament background commentary published by IVP. Millard J. Erickson's Christian Theology avoids many debates and dives deep into Biblical issues, as does James Montgomery Boice's Foundations of the Christian Faith. The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology and the Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology are also amazing resources for anyone who wants to build a library.

FYI: "Biblical Theology" is a Christian teaching organized by Bible book, author, chapter, or verse; "Systematic Theology" is a Christian teaching organized by topic. A "Biblical Theology of idol worship" would have one section on Exodus and another section on Isaiah—both books say different, but true, things about the evils of worshiping false gods. That is "Biblical Theology". A "Systematic Theology of idol worship" may have verses from both Exodus and Isaiah side by side for most of its chapters. In this sense, "Biblical" doesn't merely mean "true".

It's generally good to develop Biblical Theology before developing Systematic Theology. Matthew and John both tell the story of Jesus's life on earth, but they each use different clichés and emphasize different events. Seeing the difference between John and Matthew, but the same Jesus, is good Biblical Theology.

Try to avoid using the term "Biblical" as a synonym for "true" or "correct"—a common mistake made by amateurs. "Biblical" can mean "true" or "correct", but not necessarily. And even if it does, it specifically means "true by way of the Bible" as opposed to "true by way of reliable research or experience". We need to learn both Biblical knowledge and practiced knowledge; Biblical skills and practical skills.

Of course, the term unbiblical, means that an idea contradicts the Bible, which is different altogether. The term not Biblical, could mean systematic rather than Biblical, or it could also be the same as unbiblical. So, I try to avoid using the term not Biblical and say either unbiblical or systematic, to avoid confusion.

I avoid theological and study books on Eschatology (End Times.) Revelation requires a lot of reading to understand. It's probably best to learn End Times by reading Revelation at least twice a week for about a year, coupled with some time in Daniel, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the rest of the Bible for that matter. But Revelation is the more difficult genre to grasp, requiring larger amounts of time and having a sharper, more difficult learning curve. One can't just read Revelation ten times, write a 200 page paper with lots of cross-references, and the debate it. There's more to learning God's Word than this kind of so-called "research".

Just make sure that formal education doesn't go to your head. Study the Bible in community, with many ages and backgrounds, diversifying as much as possible. If you studied at Dallas Theological Seminary, balance it out with at least a year at a Pentecostal fellowship. The secret ingredient is time and it only shows in the form of results. We are one Body and the Bible is our universal Book.

As with any skill, learning God's Word requires time. Be it Bible, art, programming, or management, the most likely way to achieve 10,000 hours is through addiction. So, get addicted to the Bible and at least one other skill... maybe two...

Children who give excessive amounts of time to computer games could be logging some of their 10,000 hours—if their skills are balanced properly. This is where parents need patience, encouragement, and creative exploration. I call this Triangulation.

Maybe a child likes to draw pictures. Maybe he has a knack for math. Maybe he enjoys music in an unusual way. All of these skills are needed on a good video game development team. By hiring an art student from your nearby college to give some private drawing lessons, those video game hours can be transformed into "inspiration hours".

Encourage doodling on classroom notes and in Sunday school. Don't say, "Doodle more." Say, "I like to doodle," regardless of the child's response. Any practice is progress because it strengthens muscles and adds experience. Encourage mainly through example, less through directing. If a child draws incorrectly, say, "Wow, I like that. You should do more. Want to see how I do it?" Of course the child wants to see how you draw—you just told him he should do more. Give simple tips. Even if you're not a good artist, some small lesson from YouTube can give you an ample supply of inspiration for a five year old. When he's ten years old, he'll be more likely to watch instructional videos himself after he's tasted useful, friendly advice.

The same could be true for coding. If you feel your child plays too many video games or watches too many movies, but math is his best subject, hire a computer programming student to how your child how PHP code can change the words on a web page—or how HTML code can change fonts and colors.

You could also hire a teacher to demonstrate cool effects in digital art software, such as Photoshop for pictures, Illustrator for drawings, Cinema 4-D for movies, or many free alternatives. Give the 16 year old a desktop computer on the condition that he installs Kubuntu (a friendly version of GNU Linux) and teaches you to use it. Odds are that he has friends at school who can teach him how.

Don't ban childhood addictions—augment and transform them. Don't require kids to continue learning alternate skills for long periods of time. Just require them to do some learning on occasion, whether through eccentric 60 minute piano teachers once a week or even through Internet videos—and you may need to sit with a child the whole time. Addictions, useful and harmful alike, only need a little inspiration. Inspire others with marketable addictions.

Kids will continue to play computer games, but by adding other skills, some of that addiction time can be either displaced or transformed. A student is more likely to become fluent in Linux or PHP if he uses programming languages to create his own, personal computer space.

Give him a few lessons so he knows enough to get hooked and teach himself to walk. Then, even gaming time will be an inspiration for his next project.

This is Triangulation of skill. Many people have studied one trade for 10,000 hours. Such could be a plumber or a blacksmith, a seamstress or a cobbler. But not many people have split their time to learn different subjects well.

A race car driver who also writes fiction might author some amazing stories. Winston Churchill was a speaker, but also a political leader who painted in his free time. Steve Jobs had the wild idea of introducing font options to a word processor. He was able to do this because of his knowledge from the art and calligraphy classes he audited after he dropped out of college.

Triangulating your skill sets involves more than having diverse experience. It means that you seriously tap into multiple areas of interest, which are as radically different from each other as possible, learning as much as possible about each.

In choosing and pursuing skills of interest, AKA marketable addictions, take Steve Job's advice to follow your passions because they, somehow, already know what you want to do.

Like combining oxygen and hydrogen to produce water, having multiple, diverse skill sets can create a "third" skill set, which is more marketable than both skill sets combined. This is the concept of synergy, where 1+1=3. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
**The Transition Ahead**

Another asset of the Church, which the Church has not fully realized, is the time spent in a professional pastor's office. A pastor is required to master multiple skill sets. This ranges from personal counseling to administration to fundraising to public speaking to research to Bible knowledge. Pastors are so well-diversified that there is no reason why non-Christians dominate the marketplace.

Unfortunately, pastors are burned-out from the heavy burdens placed on them by their job descriptions. This, combined with a general lack of appreciation for their triangulated skills, can be demoralizing for many pastors. It's not that we don't appreciate pastors, but that we don't appreciate them as much as we could.

As I explained in Clergy Don't Shepherd, professional pastors are some of the most highly-skilled people in the world, but that talent is largely wasted by asking pastors to also serve the day job of clergy. There must be another way—and there can be another way if the Body of Christ realizes that bodies don't have walls.

We are at a strategic juncture in Church history. More and more people are growing dissatisfied with "church as usual" and they "leave church in order to grow closer" to Jesus. At the same time, Watchman Nee is receiving more and more notoriety for his non-clerical system in the Local Church and his work in China.

As the Church will abandon the clerical system, eventually, thereby freeing pastors to walk in a fuller, more mature ministry, we may soon see a release of thousands of mature, experienced men of God who have more than 10,000 hours triangulated across multiple skill sets. Pastors are a sleeping army of enslaved Moseses, waiting to be led out of the Egypt of the clerical system. Those Godly men might not have put in so much necessary time and energy, were it not for the clerical system that worked them so hard. God has His purposes in Egypt, as He did with Joseph, and it's time for a new season.

While most readers may not agree with my basic premises about the clerical system, I hope that you can at least glean some value from these ideas. Nee and others have much more to say about clerical-Church organization vs local-Church organization; but my point is separate: Whether clerical Christianity will continue or change into something else, "pastors" need to be valued differently and their function in the Body of Christ needs to expand in a way that is more diverse and less stressful.

This will require a Church-wide, increased acknowledgement of the hidden value of 10,000 hours in triangulated experience, including how it applies to pastors, combined with the need for each pastor to re-learn a few old things and learn a few new things—and only the individual pastor can discover those things himself. Whether causal, consequential, or both, Christians will not take a strong presence in the marketplace without also having this transition where our overall understanding of pastors is concerned.

I don't say this to criticize pastors nor to hasten the foreseeable transition out of the clerical system that we know today. Rather, I'm offering reason for encouragement that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the Church, not only in regard to the marketplace, not only in regard to the clerical system, but for many things. If clergy get downsized, and it seems like our world is being turned on its head, make sure that you understand the great value that pastors have for our Christian presence in the marketplace. Such may not be the beginning of the end; it may be the end of the beginning.

Alongside a growing angst concerning the clerical system and the simultaneous unction to get more involved in the marketplace, a prayer movement is sweeping across the earth, through every corner of the Church, in almost every country. Cities are seeing "houses of prayer" pop up all over the map. Many of these may fail at first, only to be reborn after several years. Like gamers, houses of prayer must fail their way toward excellence.

I want to make some quick disclaimers about the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO, then explain how the local house of prayer will play an important role in our Christian presence in the marketplace. First, I will review some of my own triangulation.

Starting with my freshmen year in college, and for the ten years that followed, I was obsessed with one question: How do we "DO" church? I already understood that we don't technically "do" church since we "are" the Church. But success requires strategy and, especially in college, I wasn't sure how to either "be" or "do" church, let alone both. So, before, during and after my years at Moody, I touched deep into a broad array of Christian fellowships. I love people and I wanted to learn.

In my childhood, I attended two congregational ministries—one was an Evangelical Free Church in my home town, after a Church of God congregation split over the issue of "speaking in tongues" and my mother left so I would grow up with a strong youth program. The other congregational fellowship was also from the Church of God, near my grandmother's home, where I spent most of my childhood summers. There, some church-split drama was always creating a fuss and I'd get constant updates from my mother and grandmother.

In high school, I worked with CYIA, a "nondenominational Baptist" children's ministry for high school and junior high students. In college I got acquainted with Willow Creek and sat under Dr. Stowell's teaching at Moody, along with many other amazing professors. After college, I made frequent road trips to Mars Hill Bible Church, home to the notorious Rob Bell, as well as the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. I went to a conference at the Airport Road Christian Fellowship in Toronto, AKA the "holy laughter church"—though, nobody laughed until they heard my bad jokes. I also made some deep connections with Pentecostal and Charismatic congregations.

When I moved to Asia, I got a first-hand look in terms of their mega-church differences from the West, the prayer movement, Denominationalism's unique problems in Asia, and, at last, the Local Church movement of Watchman Nee, which originated in China from Nee's "Biblical Theology" approach to "doing Local Church" without clergy.

Nee's fellowship was originally branded as a "cult" by the Christian Research Institute, then that false label was later retracted by their Journal in 2009, vol. 32. No. 6, "We Were Wrong: A Reassessment of the 'Local Church' Movement of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee". Though many Christians have swung their views of the LC movement in the shifting shadows of Christian publications, as they have also done with IHOPKC and Willow Creek, I knew the movement would likely and wrongfully be branded as a "cult" the moment I stepped through the door and saw a meeting with powerful preaching and no pastors.

When an LC-goer gave me a copy of the "We Were Wrong" publication, I glanced at the cover and retorted, "Oh, I guessed as much. You don't have to give me this. I already know you're both okay and easy to misunderstand." After the diversity I gained with different Christian fellowships, probably close to 10,000 hours, I'm quick on the uptake where Church is concerned. I have blogged and written about this non-clerical local Church movement in other books, as have others. So, I'll say no more here.

At the time, I didn't know why I had the desire to visit so many different Christian fellowships. I guess I fit the profile of one of George Barna's "Revolutionaries" who are statistically proven to be really, really hungry for more of Jesus and the Church.

After 30 waking years of seeing the good, bad, beautiful, and ugly sides of the Body of Christ, I came to one basic conclusion: Christians don't talk to each other. So, I wrote a fictional book where a Charismatic and a Baptist actually become friends. I called it Crossroads at the Day of Bapticost. It's an eBook and it's completely free because my 10,000 hours in Church diversification came without tuition.

I've had many other adventures along the way, including waiting tables in every dining room imaginable, driving jobs such as valet and pizza delivery, a year with my high school rock band, and even Amway. I write about the future, from my experiences, knowing that much of the future is foreseeable to those who have learned the past and present.

Before moving on, I need to say something about the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. I am familiar with their flaws, which make me sad. But, I have seen few of those flaws ever published or spoken of by their critics. Most of the criticism I've encountered concerning IHOPKC, like most any criticism that Christians make of each other, is extremely uninformed and assumptive. In fact, pop-Christian criticisms of IHOPKC are so off-base, and yet consistent, that it has almost turned me into a conspiracy theorist.

I have little to no tolerance for Christians who speak ill of each other. This is mostly because their understanding of each other is outright wrong. The minute someone opens his mouth, I can tell how much time he has spent talking to the Christians he is talking about—because I have already talked to numerous Christians in both camps. No one has more desire to prevent Baptists and Pentecostals from crossing paths than the Devil. Misunderstanding is one of the Devil's favorite tools of division. Another evil tool is "fear of the other guy".

The solution to Denominational Christianity is the local house of prayer and a greater presence in the marketplace. We're at that point of the game were we inevitably level up, if we don't quit.

At IHOPKC, students sing Scripture, spending hours in prayer with Bibles on their laps. Students can attend IHOPKC's college, IHOPU, and study a variety of different arts. IHOPKC also hosts conferences for many topics, including the Christian presence in the marketplace.

My point in sharing these things about IHOPKC is that the local house of prayer can happen anywhere, in any city. When Christians pool their resources together for the purpose of local, community-wide, Christian prayer, many other skills, venues, arenas, topics, and segments of society converge in ways that we could never predict.

The music, art, and Bible teaching that flow from IHOPKC are amazing! It comes from their triangulation of prayer, Bible, and skill—and it can happen in any city. Though they have on-staff "pastors" in one section of their fellowship, they welcome regular visitors at many of their events, informal mentors are plentiful, they encourage city-wide Christian "blending", and pastors do not dominate their ministry—nor does the ministry dominate their pastors.

Business and market success require skill. Christians cannot have a solid presence in the marketplace without a strong connection to a local praying Christian community. This is true for reasons, both practical and spiritual.

The local house of prayer would be a perfect place for dance-learning groups, computer programming clubs, manufacturing strategy fellowships... The possibilities are limitless. At the local house of prayer, a Baptist and a Pentecostal are more likely to become friends, clear up their misnomers about each other, and put their heads together. An ongoing worship-prayer environment stimulates both right brain and left brain ideas. To take ground in the marketplace, Christians need to have their own common ground. That common ground is the local house of prayer.

Before closing the chapter, I want to say one other thing, briefly, about "apostles". Nee outlines a "Biblical" view of apostles in his book, Church Affairs. (If you read it, note that it is translated from Chinese and has some "Chinglish isms" and may seem more absolute, in English, than originally intended.) His view is plainly seen from the Bible, not grandiose or domineering, hard to abuse, and should be palatable to most Christians from any background.

Apostles, basically, "informally advise" local Christian leaders, help settle disputes when called upon, and don't have a typical day job so that their calendars are flexible. They aren't "appointed" by Christian leaders any more than a prophet or an evangelist. Apostles don't have a title, but a recognizable skill. LC folk call this a "function", though they don't happen to recognize any contemporaries as apostles. Most of the Church doesn't.

Apostles may gravitate toward distance relationships. They may feel something lacking in their Christian fellowship needs, if they don't visit three different Christian meetings each month. God gives us Christians, like these, who are wired differently because the Church needs their unusual perspectives. One wise man explained that God calls us to something unique by giving a strange hunger.

If you encounter an apostle, he probably won't claim to be an apostle. You can't train him anything beyond normal Christian teaching. "Apostle training" as a school course title is pretentious—indicating that the leader of the school could be a false apostle. Only God can prepare someone with an unusual calling. "Apostle" will likely become a household term, but apostles will never be common-place. It's more beneficial to train the Church to understand apostles than to try and train apostles.

If you are involved in an organized fellowship, an apostle may seem distant or "non-committal" at first, when, actually, he is trying to avoid stepping on your toes. Don't expect him to be at the same Bible study every week, partially because he needs to be flexible in his scheduling. Accordingly, he will always be accessible if you reach out to him. Apostles are dependent on long-term, distant Christian fellowship, without which it is hard for them to grow in Christ. Though this is not so for everyone, it may be true of a Christian with an apostolic calling.

Don't misinterpret unusual habits of an apostle as being "unfaithful" to local Christians. If you think a Christian should have more Christian fellowship, don't accuse him, don't call him every day to invite him to your meetings, just say hi to him once in a while. You'll probably end up having great conversations... and the Lord might have already told him to set aside time, in anticipation of your visit... maybe.

If someone who fits the description of an apostle gives you unsolicited advice, just smile, nod, listen, and go pray about it. If he's an apostle, he may have felt an obligation to give you fuel for thought, then he'll go away. Don't take offense. If you have a problem with someone like this, communicate with him. Don't jump to conclusions. They may make irritating mistakes on their unusual path of learning. Don't be provoked by this. The Lord may be testing you. Fighting or resisting an apostle, through administration or any other means, usually ends up hurting oneself, no matter how right it may seem at the time.

Apostles have been mostly absent from our Christian vocabularies. We don't know much about something that we don't see often. Discuss these ideas with Christians you are close to. I don't know much about the subject myself. The Church must adapt to reemergence of apostles as a family, together.

The term "marketplace apostle" may refer to an apostle who is independently wealthy or otherwise has his own market success and, thus, doesn't need a day job. A Christian may serve the informal apostolic function in his local Christian fellowship time, but be called to temporarily serve in business management or government—but he should have a flexible enough work life to help the Church where needed. This would be a proper use of the term "marketplace apostle". God probably won't call someone to the flexible needs of an apostle and give him an 8 to 5 factory or office job, unless it is to prepare that apostle for his future ministry.

Some apostles can be employed by the local Church. Nee calls this a "working apostle", like Peter was. Paul, in his tentmaking, best fits the description of a "marketplace apostle", as opposed to a "working apostle" like Peter. A "working apostle" may double as a "deacon" (local church/ministry/house of prayer employee) for his income. Flexibility is key for any apostle.

An apostle may or may not be an elder, but all apostles will try to informally communicate with elders often. So, elders and Christian leaders should keep an eye out for someone who fits the description of an apostle who reaches out to them. If he's an apostle, he just wants a bug in your ear without interfering. It's probably a good idea to listen.

Since elders can gain insight from communicating with an apostle, government and business leaders will also want to talk to him. Hence, apostles may also have a presence in the marketplace or government—many people will want time with a known apostle. The term "marketplace apostle" should never be used to mean or suggest "business/government leader-expert super Christian" or "an apostle who primarily ministers 'outside the Church walls' and not 'inside the Church walls'" or anything superstitious like that. "Marketplace apostle" is a simple description, not a mystical title.

Some of these ideas may require you to consider and arrive at your own conclusion. You may disagree altogether. But one thing is for certain: Christian marketplace success, local house of prayer, departure from the clerical system, and a general acceptance/restoration of the word "apostle" in the informal Church—all of these things will occur at about the same time and will relate to each other.

Something bigger is happening here—not just more "marketplace evangelism" or more "money to advance the gospel" or more "health and wealth" testimonials, nor is this over-baked "latter reign" theology. A stronger Christian presence in the marketplace is only one part of a larger, Church-wide "leveling up" that is transforming other parts of the world as well. Christians will do better in the marketplace by first seeing the bigger picture.

As transition culminates over the next few decades, experienced pastors will be in demand because we will need leaders versed in triangulated skill sets. Apostles will spring up out of nowhere to offer unusual help. Houses of prayer will become common place. And these things will likely happen in the context of either peacetime or hardship, such as natural disasters, economics, or even war. Get ready and keep an extraordinarily opened mind.

Our God has an endless supply of creative surprises. Don't leave yourself in a position to be offended or caught off guard by the events in the days before Jesus returns. For now, learn, ponder, discuss, and grow as much as possible.
**Team Flowers**

When Christians want to, we make the best teams. The problem is that we rarely want to.

At first glance, it may seem that many Christians prefer to lead a one-man-band. Balancing the ratios of chiefs to Indians will always be on the table for discussion. But I suggest that the reason we don't have much desire for teamwork is because we are simply unaware of the nature of teamwork in the marketplace.

Laying down our pet projects, changing favorite characters and colors, and not having our names at the top of the credit lines—there are many types of territorial fiefdoms that hold us back and are hard to let go of. They are almost like idols that distract us from things that we would enjoy much more, if we'd only abandon our inferior ambitions. The problem comes from convincing ourselves that irrelevancies are important.

Learning to identify the petty things that hinder our own progress is another matter all to itself. The secret is elbow grease and a willingness to be ruthless with mowing-down your own goals and creative thoughts. Don't treasure every brainstorm as a commodity; then you'll have more brainstorms. Write new songs. Draw something new. Scrap the code you slaved on for hours. Change your goals and they will improve. This will not only help your individual progress, but also your ability to work with others.

I hope you can find the time to give daily priority to your own soul-searching. In this book, we will look at other practical matters of teamwork that can help with that soul-searching process, once already in place.

There is no reason Christians can't become leaders in marketplace teamwork. There are four main types of teamwork that I will address in this chapter. I'll leave other forms of teamwork for others to blog about. The first form of teamwork explores the relationship between creators and designers—something that many non-Christians in the marketplace understand well. The second is about the relationship between investors, management, and talent—a general failure across the world, which, strange as it may seem, is one of the main factors I blame for the bad state of the global economy. The third has to do with the role of investors. The fourth is the customer.

When I talk about "designers", I'm not referring to the job title in the clothing industry. Many times, a "clothing designer" fits more of the description of the "creator" as I will describe here. One way to understand each other better, thus cultivating teamwork, is to be flexible in our definitions. Many of us use the same words, differently.

Creators and designers are easily confused, but remarkably different. Gene Rodenberry "invented" Star Trek. But he didn't write the episodes on a week by week basis. He invented the world of Star Trek, its philosophy, its Grand Themes, its view of science, the material universe, and the types of characters in the story. Other talented people wrote the actual stories and scripts.

Many comic book series are authored in a similar fashion. The creator of a comic series may only write one or two stories while other writers continue future publications. The author may write the story while an illustrator does the graphics.

Many comic books are created with a team of artists—a penciler who sketches the first stage of the artwork, a different person to bubble and write the words, an inker, and a colorist. Each stage of comic art can be a 10,000 hour mastery to itself.

While some Christians understand that one comic book can reflect the work of a team of artists, few Christians know that writing a single story can require an entire team of authors who inspire each other.

We often look at J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis as one-man-show authors. Though they didn't coauthor each other's books, they met together regularly and shared ideas. The Left Behind Series was outlined by Tim LaHaye, but the actual content was written by Jerry Jenkins. The best-selling Christian publication of our day was co-authored, LaHaye was the creator, Jenkins was the writer. Then there was an editor, reviewers, marketing, publishing personnel, warehouse personnel... The Left Behind series involved more than one person for it to become a success.

The relationship between the creator and a designer can apply to many industries. Computer programmers often work in teams, but the hard part of that team can be working for the customer who doesn't know programming. Clothing fashion may be invented by a concept artist, then the patterns are designed by someone who knows how to work with a sewing machine. One lady in Asia who owns a jewelry store—she draws her idea for a necklace with pen and paper, but a silversmith makes it a reality.

A creator-designer team is not necessarily limited to two people. They can be one-in-the-same person or it can be a team of twenty. Many companies leave the "creating" to customer feedback, which is why they don't progress like companies trumpeted by an obsessive-creative mind, ergo Apple. Even Steve Jobs relied on Woz to make the circuitry work for his ideas. Odds are that a one-man-show won't succeed and, even if it did, a team of two people to do the job of one person could result in a marketable product that's a thousand times better. Designers and creators are interdependent. This can apply to almost any field imaginable.

A second form of teamwork involves the relationship between talent and management. Every team needs both roles. Managers do things that special, talented people can't. In a sense, management is itself, a talent. But the specialized talent that makes an organization unique may emphasize either more right brained or left brained skill, whereas management uses both right and left brain hemispheres to function.

Here, I refer to talent as the specialized contribution of a team. In basketball, the athletes are the talent and the coach is part of management.

It is said, "You can't rush art." Producing creative work might be compared to giving birth, in some ways, though, as a man I wouldn't know for sure. I shall share from my own experience as a writer...

I write the first draft for most of my books all in one setting; longer books, within a few days. The entire script is in my head, with a few notes I've scribbled on my tile floor with a dry erase marker. I generally type the entire manuscript, mostly in one setting, eight to fourteen hours, after a week of psyching myself up.

On days I write, I'm typically moody and have strange cravings. Sometimes I want olives and ice cream—a curious combination. After the first chapter of writing this book, I dashed to the local 7-Eleven for a grape slushy, then walked around the neighborhood in a daze. I'm still not sure what the locals thought.

When I podcast, I look over my notes from the previous week, turn on the microphone, and then jabber. I've never been able to stick to written outline. Anytime I talk, in a speech or with a friend, I have an ever-growing outline in my mind and I consider a written outline to be a distraction. Everyone is different. That's my story.

Creating art can make people edgy. Great speakers may be rude back stage just before taking the platform. These things can be common for many authors and known personalities, especially the most loved.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was originally involved with a group of writers who opposed the Czar and he was condemned to death. At the last moment, a coach pulled up to the firing squad with a note from Czar Nicholas I, commuting his sentence to four years hard labor in Siberia. After some serious introspection, Dostoyevsky changed his heart and began authoring the books we know him for today. When the publisher would pay him for his book, he overcame writer's block by gambling away all of his money at the casino so that he could reenter a state of the hardship that inspired him so.

Ask any publisher, an abnormal life is normal for writers. The story of Dostoyevsky gives some insight into the eccentric thinking of artistic people. But it also reveals how much Nicholas I understood artists. Nicholas is a prime example of a creator-manager who can lead talent. The last minute change of Dostoyevsky's sentence, from death to four years, is the very kind of dramatic climax that can inspire a writer to change his ways. Nicholas saw potential in Dostoyevsky and giving an unruly writer a drama of his own transformed the rebellious author into a renowned novelist.

This also can explain why God allows traumatic experiences. Pain has a way of scaring the sin out of us and inspiring us at the same time. Like the Czar, the King of Kings has His reasons. Maybe the inspiration of artists can help us understand God as our Great Creator-Manager.

In the recent movie Jobs, Steve is portrayed looking Ivan, a concept artist, straight in the eye and asking him to make one promise: that he would always be fully honest with Steve, no matter what the situation. This doesn't so much demonstrate the style that Steve used with everyone as much as it shows Steve's understanding of talented people. He knew how to lead artists like Ivan.

Artists need freedom to express themselves to management. Mediocre managers often fire artists who share their brilliant ideas with disrespect. Steve would fire people at the drop of a hat, but, at Apple, speaking from the passion of heart-born talent helped one's job security. It also helped the success of Apple.

I remember speaking with Dr. Ken Taylor, the founder of Tyndale House Publishers in Wheaton, IL. I asked him how he might handle internal problems when an employee mistreats others. "We have an open door policy," he replied. "That means that any employee may schedule an appointment with me. I will verify that they have obeyed the Bible in going to any other people they should talk to first, of course. But anyone can schedule a meeting with me. If we find that someone doesn't work well with people, we try to find an area of the company where that person does better."

In that conversation, Dr. Taylor never once mentioned "teamwork". His focus seemed to aim more at identifying, placing, cultivating, and treasuring talented and unique people. Dr. Taylor wrote the Living Bible while he oversaw Moody Press. When Moody, the first publisher of the Living Bible was inundated with publishing the Living Bible, Dr. Taylor founded Tyndale, named after an English Bible translator who was burned at the stake. Tyndale is known for the saying that, "Even the plowboys," should understand the Bible.

Tyndale House eventually oversaw a proper translation, which could be used in preaching. They value people for uniqueness. Dr. Taylor should naturally understand talented people, of course. He worked extensively in publishing.

Christian Bale once had a verbal explosion on a recording set, screaming at a crew member for several minutes. A video of his long rant went viral. He properly and adamantly apologized on various talk shows. But his colleagues in the film industry reacted by saying things like, "Most of the public just doesn't understand what happens in the creative process of movie making. Sharing a video of Christian's temporary anger on a film set just isn't fair to him."

Artists are eccentric, difficult to deal with, and may have trouble functioning in daily life. This isn't so much a result of personality as it is from an ongoing choice not to waste their uniqueness. They pour time and energy into their passions, which takes away from their abilities to make decisions, spend money normally, talk to others respectfully, and they often may struggle economically for these reasons.

If you are a manager, your success may depend on your ability to understand one principal: Hired talent only has so much mental energy. Your artist can spend his limited energy on either respecting you or producing the art that your success depends on. Don't put him in a position where he must do both.

If you're an artist: Michelangelo had to learn diplomacy to survive the posers in power—though he loved many of them dearly. He dealt with politics from childhood all through his painting of the Sistine Chapel.

It is easy to despise an artist, especially in his early years. He may seem lazy or selfish if measured by most standards. However, an artist's contribution to society can often be overvalued by the same people who criticize the eccentric artist who lives across the street. Few people make the connection—without those no-job, creative types of people, phones and watches would be ugly, they wouldn't work well, there would be no Fiction section in the bookstore whatsoever, there would be no communication technology, no movies, no music, no hymnals... Most everything beautiful and useful that society enjoys came from an eccentric non-team player who was criticized by neighbors and family through his entire life.

Not too many years ago, artists were recognized by society. Wealthy families would "sponsor" worthy talent. Galileo was an example of this. I remember speaking on the phone with a man from an Eastern country. "Sorry, that was a call from my friend," he interjected after a pause. "I'll call him back. He is having trouble as a professor at the local university. He may need a place to stay. He's one of those talented people who can't keep a job. In ancient times, a rich man would let him live in his house. It was part of culture and it worked. But today, we don't remember this. It's sad."

We might think of artists as a flower blossom on a fruit tree. Blossoms are celebrated by a plant in the most prominent place. Blossoms attract the local bee economy and are, thus, fruitful, but never at first. The blossom doesn't contribute photosynthesis like the leaves of the plant do. And the blossom even withers before producing any fruit. But, the blossom itself is the origin of fruit and beautifully represents the future of its species. Many plants are known by their flower blossoms more than their leaves. No plant would ever despise its own blossoms nor would any gardener expect the flower to resemble a root.

Management can easily get irritated with the team's talent. But in professional sports, it's hard to fire all the basketball players without looking incompetent. In most other organizations, however, recognizing the contributing talent is not as cut and dry. Too often, management fires a talented team member for not being a "team player" when, to borrow from sports, the coach thinks that the basketball players should act behave like janitors. In those cases, it is the management, not the talent, who don't recognize teamwork when they see it.

The goal of basketball isn't to "get along"; the goal is to put the ball through the hoop more than the other team. Teamwork can be a means by which the goal is achieved, but teamwork is never the goal itself. Players can be a great team, even if they yell at each other. Every team is different.

When "get along" and "people skills" become front row priorities, an organization can lose its mojo. Everyone hears the same, sad story, sooner or later: A new boss steps it, a few people are fired, everyone gets along more, the numbers take a nose dive, and, "It's the economy's fault." The Body of Christ must develop intolerance for these kinds of stories. Teamwork is derived by knowing which game we are playing and being reminded of the goal, not from "social conduct" lectures or making hiring/firing decisions that value tact over talent. Such mismatched priorities are tools of the Devil and have no place in God's family.

While it would be great if no one ever got irritable on the job, no one expects a woman to give birth while smiling and blessing everyone in the room. Seeing the difference between the art of an artist and the conduct of an artist is a prerequisite skill for any manager to lead his team to success.

With this in mind, people skills, patience, keeping the peace, and gentle instruction are vital skills for any leader. Managers should use their people skills to compensate for the craziness caused by artists and "make everything okay" in spite of the trouble. Don't lecture others about "people skills". Some things should be taught by example. Managers who lord their positions over others don't last for long because the Lord doesn't bless them.

Some problems require a meeting, not just a memo. A wise man once said, "Never resolve conflict through an email." The same is true of business relationships and innovation. Don't be curt in all situations.

Deadlines need to be met, but deadlines don't determine the amount of time a task requires. Time and quality are two different standards and sometimes one of them must give way. Knowing whether to sacrifice the deadline or the quality is a decision that requires experience. Know the difference between urgency and importance. Don't let the little foxes distract you from the bigger issues that need your attention.

Know when to delegate and when to do it yourself. Keep an apprentice with you as often as you can, even if you do something yourself. The New Testament word for this is "discipleship". Take time to explain things to others, especially if those things seem obvious to you.

Ronald Reagan was excellent at delegating. But in his farewell address from the oval office, he said that parents should talk politics with their children. Parents' failure to do this is largely responsible for our situation today. Delegation doesn't work without discipleship.

There are many books, seminars, and courses that already address these leadership and management principals. But, these ideas must be understood as they relate to a specific situation. Rather than learning management as your main focus, even in the context of the field, focus on learning the specific skills of that field as you learn to apply these principals of management. Management should never be a study all to itself—it can be learned only as it relates to the specific field.

When learning management and leadership and skill, skill should remain the main focus, even for managers. This method is successfully used in franchising.

Leadership requires a complex skill set and must not be over-simplified. It takes time and the learning process never ends. One can lead an average company merely with people skills, but a world-class leader needs at least two good skill sets.

This is why MBA's train wreck so many companies; they focus on learning management itself. In GM's early years of growth, the company was led by engineers and scientists. No one knows how to manage a team of engineers better than an engineer himself.

Leaders in the Bible and Church history triangulated their skills. Joseph knew people and economics. Daniel knew administration and prayer. David knew music, prayer, warfare, and shepherding. Solomon knew shepherding and politics. Moses knew luxury and deserts. Jesus knew carpentry and prayer. Peter knew fishing and Jesus. Matthew knew taxes and Jesus. Paul knew politics and law. Martin Luther knew music, language, law, and theology. All of these people knew God's Word.

The third form of teamwork has to do with the multiple roles played by investors. All roles are important, not only for monetary and logistic purposes, but also for the need to have different forms of wisdom.

In Asia I was fortunate enough to make a good friend who has many investor traits. For some unknown reason, money always flows to him, but he never knows what to do with it. He can't draw, but he appreciates art. His comments on iOS 7 were not typical, but insightful. "No Steve Jobs, no Apple," is how he described the new OS. This is one type of opinion that an investor may have.

He knows when I'm in the process of writing a book because I come across as rude and nonsocial. He doesn't mind. "I see you must be writing something. I'll leave you alone," he says as we pass on the street.

In some of our own small ventures together, I've found my investor friend to be a great source of innovation. Sometimes we make great sounding boards to bounce each others' ideas off of. His questions have inspired a number of my own ideas. Every entrepreneur and investor must discover the proper people to partner with, for each and every situation.

An investor invests many things, financial currency being only one of them. Being an investor requires a combination of inborn talent and 10,000 hours—and every investor has something different to offer. Some investors may specifically offer prayer, others friendship. Investors can offer services, time, testing, referrals, etc.

In a sense, "talent" and "management" can "invest" in an organization's progress. But "investors" are one-step removed from the inner workings of the organization itself.

Investing can take the form of "customer feedback"—one reason why it may be best not to complain about bad service to a greedy company. No matter how much it costs you, your losses from buying a bad product, if you have any losses at all, may dwarf in comparison to how much money you could earn in your own business with the insight you've gained from the bad experience. Companies spend millions of dollars on Research and Development—don't volunteer such valuable information to businesses that will not sow into the Great Commission.

My grandmother taught me, "Never try to teach a pig to play piano. You don't get much accomplished and it really annoys the pig." (A similar maxim is said of teaching a pig to sing, but, as a piano player, I know that a pig is much more likely to sing on key than ever perform an arpeggio on a keyboard.)

Control your tongue and use the insight you gain from consumer experiences to start your own company, rather than "investing" your precious customer feedback into a greedy organization that has no intention of becoming honest. I speculate that, if Christians were tight-lipped about their customer feedback ideas, the entire immoral, pop culture industry would collapse overnight because the Devil's well of wisdom would dry up.

It's easy for the Body of Christ to view investors merely as greedy people who want to control the world with their money. But anyone can be greedy and controlling—and anything can be a form of investment.

Joseph, Daniel, and Esther were given great positions of power because, at the time, the king saw them as an investor would. A wealthy man, who would sponsor an artist in days past, was like an "investor". Parents invest in their children as mentors, guardians, friends, and financial backers.

Investing and managing are different roles of a team. In some cases, an investor may be a skilled manager and can fulfill both roles. But this doesn't happen as often as we may suppose. If someone thinks that being an investor means he should try to manage the team he invests in, it could indicate a controlling personality or that he simply doesn't understand the different roles of a team.

My investor friend and I have more of a friendship than a business relationship. Although we work on small, little projects, we do it more for fun than for money. Though, not every relationship between an entrepreneur and investor should be about enjoyment.

I don't want to make any recommendations about which investor relationships may be most profitable. But there is something for Christians to consider in the mere idea of enjoying any kind of team relationship, even with the small things. Many success stories begin with a few people putting their heads together for something they enjoyed. Bear that in mind when you're starting out.

Customers are another type of team member, the last we'll discuss. Customers can be a writer's audience or patrons of a restaurant. It is important for customers to understand the talented people of an organization they give patronage to. If you decide to dine out during the dinner rush, and your meal isn't delivered as quickly as in the afternoon, don't take out any frustration on the waitress.

At the same time, most of the management and marketing in America seems to be aimed at the idea that "the customer is always right". Suggestion boxes are always great for any organization. However, Christian managers could to more to diplomatically and helpfully inform customers about the inside baseball of their industries. Don't just believe any idea a customer gives you. If he really is smart, he'll "invest" his idea in his own company. A wealthy man once taught me, "Never take free advice because the useful advisors will charge money."

Construction sites often do well at educating the public, rather than closing down their project due to complaints. "Please pardon our dust," some signs may read, next to a large concept drawing of the building underway. Christians could pave the way to expand such "educational diplomacy" into almost any venue, rather than cow-towing to any and every complaint from any and every customer.

Rush Limbaugh once made some implications about a young lady who said some things he disagreed with. I won't state names in the situation—only that it blew up in the media. Limbaugh's sponsors received loads of angry emails. Some of those sponsors pulled their advertising from Limbaugh's show and made public statements condemning what Limbaugh had said. Limbaugh did apologize for lowering himself to name calling.

Though many sponsors pulled their advertising, Limbaugh's profits did not take a dive. Those sponsors, however, hurt themselves severely. They didn't understand the necessary problems created by talent. Their misunderstanding, that every complaint from every customer should always dictate an organization's strategy, backfired on them. In the end, they apologized to Limbaugh, but he wouldn't take them back. I think his decision was wise because the situation proved that they do not understand how to work with talent.

Limbaugh has a long history of respect from his listeners. They know his flaws, yet enjoy his happy, jesting way of responding to opposition. And Rush's audience understands that controversy is a part of life—and, with radio, controversy is part of business. He educates his customers regularly. So, when his own talent created dust, he didn't lose listeners—his audience grew. And this is something that the many management-only students can't understand.

I remember sitting in a sandwich shop in Chicago, seeing a mid 20th century sign that read, "The customer is usually right." Rather than cow-towing to every complaint, it's probably good to begin by asking whether the person who complains about your business is one of the customers you're trying to reach. In Limbaugh's case, those who complained to his sponsors were Liberals; but his audience is Conservative.

Principal teaching points about customer feedback can apply to politics and evangelism. If people disagree with you, help them understand why they should change their minds. You're not a bad person for believing that other people should agree with you. The business world calls this "sales".

D. L. Moody started out as a shoe salesman—or maybe it's best to say that he started out as a shoe evangelist.

Enoch Olson, founder of Springhill Camps, has a background in theology, but also in sales. In his retirement years, he tried to sell me the pots in his kitchen, though, I couldn't buy them because they weren't for sale... but he had me sold!

It's better to work with customer team members by listening and selling rather than pretending to listen and pretending to apologize. Of course, if you actually do something wrong, you should apologize, but make sure that you sell them something better in the end. Customers don't want an apology, after all, they want a good customer experience. If you don't sell something good, in the end, then your apology for a business mistake is in vain.

The Left Behind series was first pitched to Moody Press in Chicago, before it was picked up by Tyndale House, in Wheaton, IL. Moody didn't want the book. Jenkins became a big donor for the school, however. Once, Dr. Stowell joked, standing next to Wheaton College President Litfin, that Moody sends its rejects to Wheaton. Ken Taylor founded Tyndale to publish the Living Bible after Moody Press was exhausted from it. Wheaton, IL seems to pick up a lot that is "left behind" by Moody. The two colleges have a great relationship and a long, inbred history.

If things don't work out on your team, don't be afraid to start your own, and always keep a light heart about it afterwards. And if someone doesn't fit in with your team, give him some pointers on starting his own team, if that's what he decides to do.

The Body of Christ might do well as a "team of teams" serving the King of Kings.
**Freemium**

Freemium charges should relate to volume. Many charge free for personal, more for business. But this presumes that profit is bad or a game changer. Actually, personal use has its own hidden profit and benefit, even if not done by an entity that reports a taxable profit. Everything is profitable on some level, otherwise it can't continue. Not all profitability can be reported as taxable.

Freemium raises other questions, such as whether a "free" service constitutes a taxable income. If not, then all other services that must normally be reported as a personal, taxable income could be redefined as merely part of "freemium" in order to avoid personal taxes. This, again, visits the point that Christians should take a stronger stance in explaining and defending ideas within society, as well as looking at where the free/fee line should be in a freemium model.

Too much is done in business because it "can" be done rather than because it "needs" to be done. This "can" factor often determines the free/fee line in beginning freemium businesses. And it leads to the idea that a "business" customer has a bigger obligation to pay for something than a "personal" customer.

I propose that the free/fee should be determined by the provider's costs. A "personal" user may must more bandwidth than a small business, in which case the personal user may cross the free/fee line and should pay for a service while the small business owner wouldn't need to. But to implement this, freemium business owners will need to walk away from the cultural hatred for profit that has developed in the West over the last 50 years.

The economy has plummeted while more and more people said, "That's profit? That's bad and greedy. Everything should be donated and non-profit." Once a business owner can abandon such thinking, the strategists will see more clearly where the free/fee line of a freemium business should be, which will lead the business to create better, longer-lasting services that are more useful to both free and paying customers.

So, here are a few considerations for where that line should be. Every business is different and will have different needs. So, there can be no universal rules for such things. One factor is cost to the provider. Offering part of a service free, but charging for more of the same isn't the most sustainable. Paying for use is preferable.

One example is Dropbox, which offered 2GB free, then charging $10/month for the next tier, whether all the additional space would be used or not. Amazon's web space was preferable because they could afford a small free/trial tier, but then paying for actual use kept costs at an level that the market would naturally accept. Amazon also charged different rates for multiple services. Dropbox simply had the "MS" (More of the Same) approach, which won't last. I already predicted that Dropbox would be acquired by one of the big web brands in the Apple, Twitter, Amazon circles, if not acquired by another company before being bought by one of these.

Another factor is reselling a service for profit. Rather than having a flat fee for a reseller license, tiered licenses should be considered in addition to being open to negotiate a license for each B2B reseller scenario.

For online gaming, League of Legends from Riot has put together a great strategy. It involves strategy, knowledge, background literature, and art. One of the primary fee attributes are the premium skins. Arguably, Riot is in the art business more than anything else.

One of the oldest online companies is Steam. For Christian gaming platforms, this should be the most attractive for various reasons. Steam is offers a robust and accessible platform for contributors. It has proven to last as a web business. And it is available for the three main operating systems, Windows and Apple as well as main Linux distros.

The world is shifting toward Linux. Arriving and approaching are not the same. It is best to get on board with things that are approaching that have not arrived, Linux is one of those. With Steam, the transition will be seamless for customers and developers. Most other platforms are only available for Mac and Windows. So, Steam already has an edge on Linux. Once Linux has the edge on the market, so will Steam naturally have the edge on the gaming industry.

Another arena brought on by Linux is WordPress, since it is based in PHP. WordPress.org code is open source and available for all users, regardless of whether the use is personal or business. This is a good example of a freemium business model that doesn't set the free/fee line merely at the point of the user being a business.

WordPress offers another aspect that we can learn from. Why is it so dominant and prevalent among developers? The reason is not for its convenience for end users or built-in framework to manage a website, but the extensive functions that the WordPress development community maintains. This gives web developers a new set of commands that they can use with just a few lines of code, rather than needing to spend several hours performing the same function. And, when a bug in the code is found, the WordPress developers will push an update, which is another item that a web developer can remove from his list of things to do. Because of the extensive, maintained functions, WordPress can act as a sort of unofficial PHP module.

My point is not to sell you on WordPress, however. Don't get lost in the strengths of any successful business model. It is true that, since WordPress supplies and maintains many functions that are useful for web developers, it is likely to continue to play a major role in the development world. But we can respond to this information many ways. "Consumer mentality" would say that this is a reason to use WordPress, while a "business" or "pioneer" mentality would say that this is a reason to write and contribute one's own functions, to make one's self as useful to the world as possible.

If WordPress is a long term success because it makes itself useful to the world, this does not mean that developers should use WordPress, but that we should all try to make ourselves as useful to the world as possible. Excessive usefulness is one of the secret ingredients to the "freemium" model.

The other ingredient relates to why WordPress is able to offer so many functions—and maintain them. WordPress has a massive team and works with the greater community. It's not a one-man show. And it's not an empire where everyone would take orders from Matt. People contribute on their own, Matt uses their work if he finds it useful.

This may be the more difficult lesson for Christians to learn in the 2010's: The second secret ingredient to any successful business model is to include many people in the project. This doesn't mean recruiting endless minions to serve the vision of a single emperor, but peer-to-peer cooperation where leaders emerge based on their contributions, not their positions. Working together and working for a boss are different. Many things can be useful, but excessive usefulness is only possible where there is a large community of people who work together.
**Practical Steps**

In closing, I want offer some specific nuts and bolts. This isn't anything close to a comprehensive guide on where the Church should go. Our future on the earth is something we must discover through time, collectively. With this in mind, some of these ideas might point us in a good direction.

When considering the bad influence of media, the effectiveness of schools, honesty of business or government, or any of the many points of contention in our society, we should take another look at the big picture. The problem with movies goes deeper than violence and overarching themes. The problem with our education system is bigger than it being a possible stage for political indoctrination.

Our biggest practical problem, across the board, is our passivity. And we have the same problem Sunday morning. Christians want to be entertained more than they want to be involved. We ask for a good customer experience, rather than creating a good customer experience for others. Too many Christians are consumers rather than initiators.

Hollywood wouldn't be such a bad influence if Christians made the best movies. A classroom isn't able to indoctrinate students who are involved their own learning process. It isn't as easy for governments to sneak through dishonest laws if they are visited by their constituents every day.

We debate which politicians we should support, rather than using the dinner table to help our children begin their 10,000 hours of "Thomas Payne, inalienable rights, and a Republic if you can keep it". Parents can't teach their kids about politics if they haven't learned the roots of Conservatism themselves. With Football Sunday being more popular than Constitution Tuesday, of course Communism seems more attractive to young people who have no reason to believe otherwise, especially young people in the Church who are taught to be conscientious about compassion. The Emergent Church movement "emerged" because our passivity invited it for over two generations!

Step up. Get in the game.

I remember watching an itinerate Christian speaker share the stage with a pastor. The pastor commented that he'd like to use the video of the speech and the speaker said he'd be glad to partner with him.

After a few seconds the idea flashed in my mind: They just cut a business deal!

There's nothing wrong with Christians making business deals. Ministries and speakers ought to work together to sell good teaching materials and pay royalties. Paul encouraged us to pay people for their work, quoting the Old Testament when God commanded Israel not to muzzle an ox while it thrashes wheat.

But watching that exchange, between the pastor and the speaker, made me somewhat sad. There were many talented Christians watching their conversation. The audience could have learned more about the marketplace if the pastor and speaker had used normal business terms like, "We'd like to sell your video," and, "I'll charge you very low royalties to keep everyone's costs down and I'll also help in any other way I can."

I don't know why Christians cloak their business transactions when operating inside the walls of a ministry building. Business = jobs + fulfilling the Great Commission. Prosperity = success. American culture has treated the idea of business as a taboo for so long, we shouldn't be surprised that the economy is suffering. Jesus told many parables that unashamedly used business transactions as examples of both wise and foolish conduct—and He always treated prosperity as favorable.

Christians don't need to be greedy, but we don't need to shield the fact that we want to help the economy either. Money should be given in secret and business discussed in the open. Unfortunately, secular America has these two reversed. Donors' names are engraved in plaques at college campuses and Christian leaders usually discuss business in veiled terms. We need our thinking to be turned right side up.

Another matter is Fiction—everything from novels to movies to video games to many other genres we haven't invented yet. But Christian Fiction writers have a problem: It's not easy to write "Biblically-correct Fiction".

Most of today's Fiction promotes Naturalism, Evolution, Humanism, Hedonism, Pantheism, Polytheism, Occultism, immorality, and celebration of fallen celestial beings. It's hard to imagine good stories without these underlying agendas. Christians could write better Fiction than what is available in bookstores today. But we must begin by envisioning high-quality SciFi scenarios that presume God as our Creator and Jesus as our redeemer—without cliché Christianity. And we must make good use of Grand Themes.

One Grand Theme we can weave into any story is something Seminaries call Substitutionary Atonement. This is the Biblical teaching that Jesus was our substitute for the punishment of sin. That's what He accomplished at the Cross.

We can include Substitutionary Atonement in a variety of ways. Victory through pain could be one way. Unjustly and voluntarily suffering to save an enemy and winning him as a friend—this could be another. The writer must truly understand the concept of forgiveness—that it is undeserved and can repair anything in the most unexpected and creative ways.

If you're a writer, sit and watch a computer animation of galaxies and ask yourself, "How do stars 'forgive' each other?" Open up your mind and expand on basic Biblical ideas at the Grand Theme level.

For Fiction writing, I have a few books you may feel free to borrow from. One is Ophannim Eye and the other is The Four Planes. Both of these explain Creation, sin, and redemption in different ways. Memoirs is more of a 10,000 year history lesson while Four Planes is an abstract explanation of the created universe and how metaphysics may relate to Christian salvation. These books are not intended for everyone, just as The Silmarillion by Tolkien is favored by geek Tolkien fans. But feel free to use these ideas, royalty free. If you write any such fiction, and if you can, make a side note in an introduction, conclusion, or small credit area that you consulted these books, merely for the sake of continuity between Christian writers. While you're free to change some of those ideas, your work may inspire other creators who want to learn more about where your ideas came from. Feel free to charge money for your work and, for borrowing general names and ideas from those two books, you don't owe me one cent. That's my small gift to the Church, just as the Church is Christ's gift to the world.

One arena Christians should consider is online gaming based on "free to play" business strategies. Characters don't necessarily need to be Angels. They could be Humans 10,000 years into the future, after the remaking of Heaven and earth.

The Future is always a great place for writing stories because you can invent your own background, rather than having to research it, and, for Christians, eternity is the limit. In media, Christian game developers may want to cooperate with Christian novel authors or movie makers. Have the book, the game, and the movie... and the soundtrack for that matter. Desktop wallpaper that is more realistic rather than a mere billboard for advertising? Anyone?

Another thing about movies, in general, is the typical length of time. I think we need more movies that are either shorter than 75 minutes or longer than 180. The famous, long-lasting movies are often four hours. Our 90-150 minute movie culture is probably based on market feedback used by pollsters who assume that every complaining customer always knows the best business strategy... That, and Alfred Hitchcock's assertion, that the length of a movie should be directly related to the strength of the human bladder. How about the return of intermissions? Cinemas shouldn't mind the opportunity for a boost in concession sales.

Don't be afraid of making and sponsoring short movies. And don't be afraid of making a masterpiece either. At the end of Meet Joe Black, you really do feel like you know the characters and have reached the end of someone's life. Three hours was part of the secret ingredient to making that happen. We might be able to revolutionize the movie industry merely by establishing a reputation for having no movies made by Christians that are between 75 minutes and three hours. Almost every movie should be either shorter or longer—hot or cold. Cinemas shouldn't object to the ability to have more movie time slots available either.

In filmmaking, be a worthy role model. We might understand romance better, and the divorce rate might plummet, if we diminished glossy-eyed love stories to the point where kissing on the screen no longer made any sense. Let's take off the gloves and "occupy" Hollywood.

Another castle we can storm is sponsoring. Most advertisements and "sponsor boards" are outright boring. How about hiring a Christian clothing designer to custom make all the attire in a film? The clothes should be catchy, trendy, and the designer's name can appear above the cast in the final credit run. Maybe the clothes are a donation. Maybe the film maker buys the clothes for the cost of the material. Don't make the movie into a large advertisement. Just let people know who the clothes were designed by and make sure that the clothes are incredibly "worthy" of a Christian title. This idea could be expanded on, improved, and applied to other products and venues, such as novels and video games.

Let's also consider the power of eBooks and podcasting. Pastors put so many hours into their sermons! If you are an editor or if you enjoy your preacher's messages, approach him and ask to consolidate his messages into eBooks. You can ghostwrite for him. Many famous speaker/authors do this. We'd appreciate more pastors from various denominations if more of them were published. With self-publishing through eBooks, it's more possible, now, than ever before.

In addition to eBooks, make sure that you exploit the convenience of podcasting. Learn how to do it, produce quality and standard volume levels with appropriate bumpers and intros as needed. Don't violate copyrights and always ask the artist for permission to include any music. If you are a preacher or speaker, speak with the idea in mind that you are addressing both a radio audience as well as the audience in front of you. This may affect your tone of voice and the types of things you say, at least a little. These ideas could also be expanded on.

For public speaking, a great way to prepare enrich public speeches is to talk to individuals a lot. If you know what half of the people in the room already are thinking, it's easier to say things that relate to everyone. Also, learn some stage presence and acting skill. Hitler practiced his speeches under the instruction of a professional magician.

Actors—we need more of those. Do your best. Exit the comfort zone... Wait, what comfort zone ;-) Take stage placement seriously.

Everyone on a stage must respect each other. Sound techs have their work cut out for them. Make their jobs easier. Communicate and don't just bark. Ask the tech guys to teach you how to use a microphone and such. Be teachable. If you are a public speaker, make sure you hang out with musicians as much as you can and gel with their culture. Don't come across as an ignorant princess who starts waiving her hand foolishly at the musicians to quiet down. Understand each other. Learn each other's skills. Ask people with different talent how to communicate. This applies to any Christian field, but cooperation between different theater and stage talents is often overlooked. And, whatever you do... never, ever, ever, never step on an electrical cord or microphone cord if you want it to keep working.

As for software, app stores can be useful, but make sure you deliver with quality and keep a good reputation for the rest of us. More importantly, there's no reason we shouldn't earn the reputation for finalizing GNU Linux into a market-worthy operating system... I mean something developers would dump Windows for. Make headlines: Christian Developers Perfect Linux, Windows Looses Market... Nothing against Windows, but... We can! If we need a common plan, Ubuntu, KDE works great, but XFCE also. Just keep stuff available for Ubuntu repositories and all should be well. And be legally smart. If someone starts to attack you for any reason, call your Christian friends!

Why not write in Qt to maximize compatibility where possible? Or write our own replacement or improvements for Qt? Communicate. If you make your own distro, make it minimal so you can keep with the updates and follow the intellectual property rules—ask Ubuntu about that. Though, it's probably best to get a relationship with the main distro developers where possible. Collaborate, collaborate. Team!

A word to bloggers and writers... Read each other's work. Edit each other's work. Edit your own work. Be ruthless and shred. Cut down word counts. Avoid excessive use of passives, superlatives, and modifiers. Use adverbs conservatively—adverbs are often a crutch for uncreative sentence structure. (I'm guilty of the same literary heresy.) Read books about writing. Know the AP Stylebook and the Associated Press Guide to News Writing. Writing is also worthy of 10,000 hours.

One arena that has yet to realize its full potential is the networking between coffee shops and college bookstores. Young musicians, writers, and artists can promote their work and make small performances and appearances through multiple small venues like these. Large-scale concerts and venues are not always among the most preferable lifestyles of talented artists. Small, local networked itineraries may prove easier and more economically beneficial in every way, both for the artist and the house.

As for brainstorming sessions and innovation, there are many techniques that can be used—keeping positive ideas, working in a creative space, using large paper pads with a brainstorming facilitator. Books have been written about the subject. Another important factor, however, is the background brought to the table. Drench yourself in statistical research data as well as any numbers and figures about any information anywhere you can get it. Also, you need serious time in the field.

If you are trying to innovate as shoe designer, for instance, spend the morning watching Olympic or high school races, walk the floor of your shoe factory, glance at 20 different shoe designs you have already familiarized yourself with, then go on a four hour walk through the city. Make this your lifestyle. You are more likely to have your creative idea about two and a half hours into that walk if you drench yourself in data, just to become drenched. All the information you see in drawings, videos, and on the factory floor is being processed by your brain, mostly without you even knowing it. Your mind needs information in order to produce quality ideas.

Creativity needs both experience and data. The same applies in creating material that uses Biblical foundations as a Grand Theme. Truth of Christ can't be implemented with quality unless you know the truth. So, count Bible and prayer time as part of your brainstorming prep. When you go on that walk through the city, listen to an audio Bible on your headphones and tell Jesus that you love Him a thousand times—actually count the number of times... maybe.

A man might tell the woman he loves, "I love you," a thousand times, keeps a tally, and give it to her as a romantic gift. We're allowed to do the same with Jesus without misinterpreting the gift of love as "legalism". Love is a creative emotion and is one of the greatest fuels of imagination. Don't let any Grace or Lordship teaching rob you of the vast permission you have to express your obedient love to Jesus. Love is one of the biggest factors in creativity.

Make research, field experience, reflection, and prayer a lifestyle. Keep a pen and paper handy as often as you need. If you do this, you not need to schedule as many brainstorming sessions. And what brainstorming sessions you have with your team will have greater quality.

Again, these ideas of creative innovation, supplied by a combination of data and experience, apply to any field. Make sure Bible and "Jesus, I love you's" are numbered high among your many priorities.

Exercise. Take a nap from 10:00pm and 2:00am, if you're a night owl. Midnight oil burns brighter if you let it ferment until 3:00am. Eat healthy—lots of fresh plants, dark greens, bitters, spices, and electrolytes. Learn about healthy living all the time. Your mind can work better if your body is healthy.

Many writers struggle with proper eating while there are pounding out a manuscript. I solved that problem long ago: peanut butter and tea. <grin> There is no universal standard for all factors of every creative field. Just be aware of the factors and know that you're not as alone as the Devil would have you think you are.

When the time comes, and you face a large obstacle, you will need to navigate your way through the proper combination of listening to the Lord and claiming His promises. Many fellowships in the Body of Christ only emphasize one of these, often times to a silent and de facto exclusion to the other.

Don't fall into the trap of saying that something has already happened when it hasn't. Some Christians talk this way to express their confidence or belief. Actually, it becomes an unintentional form of deceit. You can speak confidently without pretending that something has already happened. Don't say, "I'm already rich." Say, "I'm already rich in Christ, and I'm confident God will give me money at the proper time." James also talks about making good use of the phrase Lord willing. That idea relates.

Confidence is not a matter of using unusual grammar in your speaking, but having belief rooted in your strong friendship with Christ, and that belief will inevitably related to your words, in both affecting and being affected by what you say. This is also the main reason to avoid cursing and foul language: What you say affects your mentality and our minds must be renewed and transformed through constant meditation on God's Word.

Consider Joshua: He didn't know how to conquer Jericho. So, he went off by himself to listen to the Lord and to ponder. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him, gave him the instructions about marching around the city for seven days, and seven times on the seventh day. Joshua followed these instructions, which were given to him, which he did not invent from his own imagination or belief. He then claimed the promise of God, marched in confidence, and grasped the victory. Get this order of events clearly cemented in your heart. Then, name it claim it propaganda won't throw you off guard. When facing walls and challenges, listen, follow instructions, then claim in confidence. And always learn.

Joshua's story is an examples of the path I have followed in many of my own victories. Mary Geegh, the author of God Guides, on her death bed, talked to my mother and a friend about how she learned to listen. "It was difficult at first," she said. Learning to listen to the Lord is also a 10,000 hour skill. That doesn't mean you can't listen until you've prayed for 10,000 hours. But you'll continually improve your listening skill and may only reach mastery after 10,000 hours.

Teach children to pay a lot while they are young. As Mike Bickle says, "Children don't have a junior Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit who is in an 80 year old is the same Spirit who is in a young child. Help children begin their 10,000 hours in their walks with Christ as early as possible and don't look down on anyone because of age.

As a final thought for anyone with an administrative talent... Consider studying, or at least appreciating Christians who study, Machiavelli. Proverbs was written by Solomon as a rebuttal to the Machiavellian villains he grew up surrounded by. If you read Machiavelli on one knee with Proverbs on the other, you'll understand Proverb's better and you'll more quickly identify evil tactics when used by evil men, both inside and outside the Church.

You might consider this a form of cultural-historical context. Machiavelli best describes the setting in Jerusalem when Solomon took the throne. There might be some wisdom to be gleaned from Machiavelli, but nothing that disagrees with Scripture.

Another author you might look up is Robert Greene and the 48 Laws of Power—but only if you have the stomach for it, as well as God's blessing. Administration is a calling and a skill, which has 10,000 hour requirements of its own.

No one wants to keep Christians from reading Machiavelli as much as the Devil. If Christians were able to recognize Machiavelli, they would see the vast extent of the Devil's influence in the Church, and they would more likely accept the times when the Church is behaving honestly, but shrewdly. Machiavelli isn't for all Christians, but he isn't for none, either.

Jesus taught us, in Matthew 10:16, to be as innocent as doves, but as cunning as serpents. Books and speakers who teach on leadership without teaching both the innocence and cunningness are not following the instructions of our Lord. Being "innocent" is a popular and politically correct virtue. But learning how to be "cunning" is an entirely different matter and is usually confronted with smiling, soft-spoken hostility. Power mongers don't want good people to be cunning. So, they behave as if it is akin to poaching baby seals.

Luke 16 records the Jesus's parable about the shrewd manager. He finishes with the critique, that wicked men are shrewder in dealing with their own kind than the righteous are in dealing with evil men.

There is nothing virtuous about Godly people being weak or easy to manipulate. The Psalms are filled with praise for our powerful God. The Old Testament tells many stories of when God gave power and victory to those who obeyed Him. And Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would give them power.

If you're going to study how to be cunning and how to have power, then study it. But many Christians have studied kinder-gentler "leadership" models, which amount to little more than passive aggression. These end up being some of the worst and most dishonest power mongers in the Body of Christ. If you don't learn how to be as innocent as a dove, yet cunning as a serpent, then you'll probably end up as innocent as a serpent and cunning as a dove.

When being sent as sheep among wolves, it's good to know the wolves. As I said previously, I have yet to meet one scoundrel from whom I did not learn great truth; and I've learned from wise men all the more. If you believe that the Lord does not want you to study Machiavelli, to know the enemy, then you must remember two things: 1. God has called many people to read him, perhaps not you, so don't condemn others for their diligence, and 2. you must account for some other way that you have obeyed our Lord's instructions in Matthew 10:16, and learned to be not only innocent, but cunning as well.

My mother said to me every morning on the way to school, "Remember who you belong to." Read the Bible lots and the world around you will make more sense every day. Develop talents and skills and appreciate people who are irritatingly unique. That's life.
Game on, Church!

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**About the Author**

Jesse Steele is an American writer in Asia who wears many hats. He learned piano as a kid, studied Bible in college, and currently does podcasting, web contenting, cloud control, and brand design. He likes golf, water, speed, music, kung fu, art, and stories.

Jesse owns various brands, occasionally teaches writing and piano, and preaches the evangels of Linux, Open-Source, and Jesus.

Today's news, yesterday.™

Email:  books@jessesteele.com

JesseSteele.com

Other Books by Jesse Steele

Bapticost: At the Crossroads (Act I)

Churchianity: At the Crossroads (Act II)

95 Theses of the Clerical System

The People's Party: A Blueprint for American Political Revival

Clergy Don't Shepherd: God 101

The Four Planes

Memoirs of Ophannin

Monkeys in the Jungle: Why Some Trees Just Won't Grow

The End: A Bible Translation of John's Revelation
