Communicator

“I love this place.  I love teaching theology and apologetics.  It’s energizing when people see the impact of theology on their lives.  And, when we bring in great theologians from different seminaries, I soak up their teaching and see the impact on my life.”

For the April 2016 issue of MinistryTech, I featured Michael Patton of Credo Courses.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

This month I’d like to introduce you to Michael Patton, a pastor turned entrepreneur.  God has used Michael to introduce a number of innovative new ventures including The Theology Program, Reclaiming the Mind Ministry, and Credo House, but today I’m going to focus on Credo Courses, a business whose mission is to “make accessible the top scholars in the world, teaching on the greatest subjects in the world.”

Called to the Ministry

In the mid-1990s, God called Michael to ministry.  He finished a BA in Biblical Studies then earned a ThM in New Testament from Dallas Theological Seminary.  While finishing his doctorate he began serving as a singles Pastor at Stonebriar Community Church in the Dallas area.  He enjoyed the opportunity to engage in the lives of young church members and to help them connect theology with their everyday lives.

About a year into his ministry at Stonebriar, like any good entrepreneur, Michael identified a need.  There was a real hunger for the kind of deep theology that is taught at seminary, but most people in the church weren’t in a position to pursue a seminary degree.  Michael started teaching what would become The Theology Program – a set of 60 lessons across seven courses on theology and apologetics, rich in Biblical truth, but designed for lay people.  The content resonated with the members of Stonebriar and over the next several years hundreds went through the course.  

Originally taught live, Michael saw the opportunity to leverage modern technology to expand the impact of the content, first recording the courses on VHS, then moving to DVD, and finally, in partnership with Bible.org, taking it online.  “Our vision is to make theology accessible not just to today’s audience, but for 50 years from now and beyond.  Those that came before us used the technology of their day, which largely was in the form of printed books that we still enjoy today.”

By making The Theology Program available online, Michael began a new form of ministry that has since touched tens of millions around the world.

Called to His Hometown

His time in Dallas was rich with blessings, but starting in 2004, a series of medical issues in his family led to the clear realization that Michael had to return to his hometown of Oklahoma City.  During this time, Michael continued to be tuned into the needs of his “market” and graduates from The Theology Program were hungry for more.  Michael envisioned building a dream team of the best teachers from seminaries across the country all teaching on their strongest topic.

With the blessing of the Stonebriar leadership and congregation, Michael began laying the foundation for this vision.  He created Reclaiming the Mind Ministries as a non-profit platform for distributing The Theology Program, moved back to Oklahoma, and began a blog (Parchment & Pen) and podcast (Theology Unplugged).  While Michael considered pursuing a pastor role in a local church and continuing the work within a specific church body, he had already seen the impact that could be had by being evangelically neutral and serving all evangelical churches without any preconceptions that would come from affiliation with a specific church or denomination.  Over the years, more than 2,000 churches have used The Theology Program in some form.

Within a few years, the ministry had leased some space for filming and recording new content.  They wanted to have live audiences, so they became a coffee house to attract alert minds passionate for theology.  They began hosting “Coffee and Theology” each Tuesday evening at 6:30pm and brought in guest speakers for “Coffee with Scholars” special events.  As part of Reclaiming the Mind, Credo House operated as a non-profit with a mix of coffee sales, memberships, and donations funding operations.  Michael says “I love this place.  I love teaching theology and apologetics.  It’s energizing when people see the impact of theology on their lives.  And, when we bring in great theologians from different seminaries, I soak up their teaching and see the impact on my life.”

Called to Business

While the warm and cozy environment of learning from God’s Word together over a steaming mug of coffee is a rich opportunity, it has limited reach.  In 2012, Michael started bringing his original vision to reality.  He created Credo Courses as a for-profit business and began working with leading Biblical scholars to create new content for streaming over the Internet.  In 2014, Michael hired Ted Paul as executive director and the pace of new content creation picked up.  To date, eight courses have been filmed with three of them currently in post-production.   

With the global reach of the Internet, hundreds of students from around the world are connecting to Credo Courses and some churches are pursuing licensing the entire catalog for all of their members to use.  In our interview, Michael and Ted laughed about how quickly video technology has progressed and how it shows from the original The Theology Program content from 15 years ago.  Ted shares “technology has come so far that, these days, it’s relatively easy to capture video really well.  You have to create a high quality product or you’ll just get lost in the noise.”

I asked Michael and Ted about what is different in being a Christian entrepreneur.  Ted emphasized that we can’t be fooled into complacency.  “We still need to build a solid business.  God won’t automatically bless your business just because you slap a fish symbol on it.”

Michael talked more about the challenges of fitting into the business world without tarnishing your impact for the Gospel.  “To be successful in financing the business or closing sales, you often have to promote yourself, drop names of the people you’re working with, and even show some level of favoritism towards those that can help you the most.  Keeping James 1 and 2 in mind can help keep us grounded in these times.”  At the end of the day, Michael emphasizes that the difference between a Christian entrepreneur and a non-Christian is what drives and motivates them.  “It’s not about me and my agenda, it’s about the glory of God.”  Amen.

“The key is the who…how has God used my background to advance the Gospel. I look back on those eclectic experiences and realize they’ve all been part of a strategic journey God has had me on. He doesn’t waste any of our past—he’ll leverage every bit of it. Church Online, YouVersion, and other initiatives were inspired by ideas and connections from my past entrepreneurial experiences.  Even the speed at which I got used to operating in those startups has influenced the way I approach projects here at the church. I take no credit for it—it’s all the way God has used me.”

For the March 2016 issue of MinistryTech, my interview of Life.Church’sBobby Gruenewald was featured on the cover of the magazine.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

One of the most successful church-based entrepreneurial efforts has been the YouVersion Bible App developed by Life.Church, which recently celebrated having been installed 200 million times!  I recently caught up with Bobby Gruenewald, Innovation Leader at Life.Church, and I hope you’ll find our discussion informative and inspiring.

MinistryTech: Bobby, before you joined the Life.Church team, you already were an entrepreneur.  Tell me briefly about those previous startups.  Do you think your faith had an impact on how you built and ran those companies or how you interacted with other entrepreneurs?

Bobby Gruenewald: My first startup was a web hosting company I started in college. With customers in 33 countries, it provided a huge learning curve of what it meant to be an international company, all while operating from a dorm room. After selling that company, a business partner and I acquired the largest professional wrestling website. It was during a time when Wall Street and others were valuing niche content. Our goal was to grow it rapidly and sell it, which we did in late 1999.

I probably could have done more to bring my faith into those companies, but I was very young and didn’t have a good sense for how to make that connection. I did do my best to lead with integrity and honor Christ.

But those companies definitely had an impact on my faith. God used those experiences to grow and develop me as a leader, and also helped me see firsthand the power of online community.

Later on, as I started getting more involved in leading at our church, I wondered how we could leverage that same technology to help people build online relationships with Christ at the center. That was the seed for what eventually became Church Online. I’m thankful I get to spend my days applying what I learned in the business world to what we do here in the church.

MT: Why would you walk away from the exciting world of technology startups to become part of a church leadership team?

BG: When I started studying business in college, no one thought I would end up in ministry, including me. But I was serving at Life.Church during my startup years, and eventually began helping with our technology needs. After a while, I realized my passion for the Church had eclipsed my passion for business. I knew God was calling me into ministry and I was blessed to have a chance to join the staff in 2001. And as much as I find the work of the Church even more exciting than technology startups, what it really comes down to isn’t about being where the most fun or excitement is. It’s about being where God has called you. I know with confidence this is where God has placed me.

MT: Tell me how innovation at the church evolved after you joined.  What were the first technology innovation ideas that you introduced to the church leadership team and how did they respond?

BG: There was actually quite a bit of innovation already happening, just not much in the way of technology. We like to say that we’ll do anything short of sin to reach people who don’t know Christ. And to reach people no one is reaching, we’ll have to do things no one is doing. That evangelistic passion and willingness to try new things has been in place from our earliest days as a church.

When I joined the team, my initial responsibilities covered the technology basics. From there, my role pretty quickly broadened to include our web presence. It was the early 2000s, and churches were still figuring out what to do online. We decided to make all of our message content available via video streaming. Then we began to experiment with adding interactive elements—giving people a way to follow along with notes and fill in blanks, similar to what you’d do in a physical environment.

Around that same time, I was helping with our efforts to go multi-site. Much of my focus was on how we leveraged technology to make it work, things like getting a satellite established and distributing our video feed over a network.

MT: How do you think God has specifically used your entrepreneurial nature and startup experiences to advance the Gospel and impact the world for His glory?

BG: The key is the who…how has God used my background to advance the Gospel. I look back on those eclectic experiences and realize they’ve all been part of a strategic journey God has had me on. He doesn’t waste any of our past—he’ll leverage every bit of it. Church Online, YouVersion, and other initiatives were inspired by ideas and connections from my past entrepreneurial experiences.  Even the speed at which I got used to operating in those startups has influenced the way I approach projects here at the church. I take no credit for it—it’s all the way God has used me.

MT: What is different between launching a technology startup outside the church and launching innovative startup ministries inside the church?

BG: Not a lot. Some of the variables are different: how you measure the ROI [Return On Investment] and your business model for what economic sustainability looks like. But for the most part, a lot of principles you’d see in a tech startup apply in the church as well. You still have to create a great experience for your audience and they still have to connect with what you’re offering. Moving quickly, applying strategy, being responsive…those concepts apply inside or outside of the church.

MT: Many of our readers are technology leaders at their church, but very few have had startup experiences.  What advice would you have for them if they have an innovative idea that they want to implement within the typical constraints of a church – limited resources (including funding), well established traditions, and often risk averse church leadership?

BG: My advice is if someone is trying to start something…

1. Depending on their role and position of leadership, it’s important that the idea fits within the vision of the church. If it’s outside the vision and passion of their leaders, it’ll be a challenge. It has to be consistent with the vision, or at least has to have the blessing of leadership. That’s been our approach with innovation efforts at Life.Church, and that’s why it’s been sustainable and healthy for us to pursue them.
2. Constraints can drive great innovation. God will bring His resource to His vision. You have to step into it in faith. You might not be able to see how you’ll get from point A to point Z, but if you have enough resources to get to point B, you have to trust that God will provide the right ideas to continue when you get there.
3. Don’t hold it tightly. If God’s given you this idea, it’s His, not yours. If it doesn’t work or connect, that’s okay. Sometimes that will lead you to a place God hasn’t shown you yet and sometimes it will fail. You have to be willing to fail and be willing for it to not work out.

MT: YouVersion has been an amazing success.  When you first started working on it, did you imagine that it could have the kind of global impact that it has?

BG: God has done infinitely more with YouVersion than we could have ever imagined.

Most people think of YouVersion as an app, and what most people don’t realize is that it started as a website. And the reason no one knows that is because hardly anyone used that website…so much so that we were about ready to shut it down. It didn’t seem like it was worth keeping it going. But as a last ditch effort, we decided to make a few changes to the site so we could view it on our phones. And when we did, we noticed we were engaging in the Bible more because it was on a device we had with us everywhere we went. We naturally began to read and engage in the Bible so much more. At that same time, Apple announced that they were opening up the App Store. We wondered, “What if we could have the Bible be among the very first apps in the App Store?” And that’s exactly what happened in July 2008.

The Bible App was one of the first 200 apps in the App Store, and what we saw after that was amazing. In three short days, we saw 83,000 people install the app on their iPhone. And as much as our jaws dropped then, we had no idea what God had in store. The Bible App has now been installed on over 200 million devices in every single country on the planet.

MT: Did it take much in terms of resources to launch and was it a tough internal sale?

BG: We had scraped together a small amount of money to hire contractors to build the initial website. At best, it was enough to get a proof of concept together. We started with a fixed, very small amount.

When we started YouVersion, we had a track record of creating some technology tools that had worked, so we had a reasonable amount of equity. It was all done with the blessing of our leadership team

MT: Did you use LEAN methods in launching YouVersion?  If so, can you share some of the key elements of that?  (Getting out of the building, MVP, hypotheses in business model canvas boxes that went through significant iterations/pivots, etc.)

BG: Not on purpose 🙂 Yes, some of those methods were used, but not because we read about them or studied them. It was more a matter of necessity and experience as we figured out what worked and what didn’t work. For example, we probably used an MVP approach, not because we knew what we were doing, but because it was all we could do at the time. Today we have a more experienced team and more sophisticated processes, but back then we were flying by the seat of our pants and didn’t have the opportunity to set up formal processes.

MT: Other than YouVersion, are there any “startups” within Life.Church of which you are particularly proud?

BG: I’m proud of all of our teams. Of those with a tech nature, Church Online is one. It’s amazing to see the reach we’re able to have as we minister to people across the globe. Another one is what we call our Church to Church team, which creates multiple products to serve other churches, all for free. They operate much like a startup. Their products tend to have less visibility than some of our other efforts because they serve a smaller market. But they’re incredibly significant because of their impact and what they do to serve the Kingdom.

MT: Thanks Bobby for giving us a great example of innovation and entrepreneurship within a church.  It’s my hope and prayer that God will use your example to inspire our readers to impact the world for the glory of God, just as Life.Church continues to do.

“Entrepreneurship is an endeavor to lose your soul.  Entrepreneurs take huge risks motivated by money, power, and control.  They suffer through incredible highs and devastating lows.  And at the end of the day, their business is their identity.  But our faith informs us that much greater things matter and my true identity is as a son of the Most High.”

The February 2016 issue of MinistryTech included my feature of Eric Knopf and John Russell of Webconnex.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

This month I’m pleased to introduce you to Eric Knopf and John Russell.  These two serial entrepreneurs have had common connections their whole lives, but their startup journeys took them on separate paths.  When those paths crossed in 2008, the unsolved “problems” John brought from his previous startup, the technology “solutions” that Eric brought from his previous startups, and some recession-enhanced free time collided.  Clearly it was time for them to do a startup together.

Looking for a Simple Solution

John had most recently been doing a lot of work around events and ticketing.  All the web-based tools available were cookie-cutter generic and more expensive than many small organizations could afford.  Both John and Eric had also experienced similar challenges with collecting donations online.  As they talked about it, Eric knew that some of the tools and techniques he’d been using in some of his recent startups could totally change the game.

What they set out to deliver was simplicity and control.  For users, how could they make it as simple and painless as possible to register for an event, or buy a ticket, or make a donation?  Don’t make them register.  Don’t force them to remember yet another password.  Just get it done.  For the event organizers, how could they make it easy and affordable to completely customize the interface so that the technology stays in the background and the event remains the focus?

Just Go

When I asked them if they had advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, John said “If you’re thinking about it, just go. What’s the worst thing that can happen?  Get something out in the hands of your potential customers and see how they respond.  Let your customers tell you what they need that you haven’t delivered yet.”

That’s exactly what John and Eric did.  They threw together a simple solution and gave it to some organizations who they knew needed it.  There were many features missing in that first iteration – such as the ability for Webconnex to get paid by their customers – but they immediately started getting feedback.  Although the term wasn’t common yet, this effectively was the Webconnex “MVP” – minimal viable product.  The smallest effort that would deliver the value proposition and start to generate learning towards making a great product.

Small Growth.  Big Growth.

Over the next several years, Webconnex continued to grow.  Customers gave feedback.  New events sparked new requirements.  Over time different types of events and different types of transactions led to splitting out the capabilities into multiple different brands (TicketSpice, RegFox, RedPodium, GroupRev, GivingFuel).  They did very little advertising but grew rapidly among smaller organizations and events through word of mouth recommendations.  By 2013, they had grown to a team of 10 and had processed $200 million in transactions.  They were blessed.

Then one day Focus on the Family called about using Webconnex.  The team believed the platform could support big organizations, but it had never been tested.  The Focus on the Family project was a big success and Eric, John, and the Webconnex team saw the door being opened to more and more large opportunities.

Growing in Grace

As the business started to take off, John and Eric realized they needed to strengthen their foundations.  They knew some of the Board members at Praxis Labs and applied to the Praxis business accelerator program.  They knew it would be a fantastic experience and they were not disappointed.  

The mentors, experts in their business fields, challenged them with laser-focused questions they’d never considered.  While helping them with the business fundamentals, the mentors were even more focused on the kingdom-impact potential of the business.  They asked questions about how the Webconnex value proposition reflects their faith and their Christian worldview.  And they asked how Eric and John’s relationships, not only with employees and customers but also with family and friends, reflect the gospel.

Christian Entrepreneurs

I asked them what it meant to them to be Christian entrepreneurs.  John answered rightly that it gives you a bigger purpose and impacts every decision you make and how you treat everyone.  

But Eric’s answer was almost chilling.  “Entrepreneurship is an endeavor to lose your soul.  Entrepreneurs take huge risks motivated by money, power, and control.  They suffer through incredible highs and devastating lows.  And at the end of the day, their business is their identity.  But our faith informs us that much greater things matter and my true identity is as a son of the Most High.”

Webconnex doesn’t want to be branded as a Christian company, but they do want to reflect Christ.  They referenced 1 Peter 3:15 (“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”) hoping that they give those around them a reason to ask why they’re different.

Eric said that being a Christian entrepreneur means choosing to honor God with their business, even when the world views it as not “smart.”  I asked what that looked like and John said “It’s easy to cut corners, and it’s tempting to make decisions that benefit our company, but might not be the right choice.  But, we have an unwavering commitment to do what is right, even if it costs us in the short run.”

I asked if they’ve had to turn down any business because of their faith and they emphasized that they enjoy the opportunity to serve people coming from many different places and to reflect Christ’s love.  Although their terms of service document has a surprisingly long list of prohibited uses, ranging from the obvious (adult content, drugs, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, physician assisted suicide, abortion, hate, racial intolerance, and weapons, among others) to the subtle (computer repair services, cruise lines, credit repair, debt collection, digital currency, medical equipment, timeshares, and weight loss programs, among others), they haven’t had to invoke it except in a very few cases.
Proverbs 3:21-22 counsels us “My son, do not lose sight of these—keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck.”  John and Eric are demonstrating sound wisdom and discretion.  May God continue to bless their business.

“If I can impart two things to anybody interested in walking this path, let this be the second thing you commit to: find and commit to a group of deep friends that you are honest with, loyal to, and different from.  Let the first thing be this: find and submit to a mentor.”

For the January 2016 issue, my Startup column in MinistryTech magazine featured Chris Skaggs of Soma Games.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

This month I’m pleased to introduce you to Chris Skaggs.  In his own words, he has always been entrepreneurial – the kid with the lemonade stand, or the college student doing web development.  With the launch of Soma Games, Chris and his team have been able to bring their Christian faith to the forefront.

Web Development is Good Money

Chris learned computer skills in the Navy, so later, when he was a college student around the turn of the century, he found that developing web sites was a great way to earn extra spending money.  As web technologies developed, Chris stayed on top of the new tools, tricks, and languages.  Over time, that web development business became Code-Monkeys.  Happy customers brought more happy customers and the business grew.  Chris built a team of like minded people from his community.  For Chris that community largely is the church so it turns out that Code-Monkeys is primarily made up of fellow believers.  It was natural for them to pray together over major decisions and pivotal events, and to praise the Lord for their success.

Then God Called

Not unlike many of us, Chris enjoys playing video games.  But, in 2005, a major controversy emerged around a popular violent video game that reached all the way to Congress.  As Chris was reading news about the controversy, he became aware for the first time that there was such a thing as a Christian video game industry, and that there was an industry conference the coming weekend just half an hour from his home.  Chris felt what he referred to as “God’s nudge” to attend the conference, and as he began to pursue that, God’s call into the video game industry became clearer and stronger.  You can read the whole amazing story on Soma’s website – how God providentially intervened time and again over several days to confirm that this was the next step in Chris’ journey.  From the website: “To recap, in the course of five days God had: Convinced me to attend a conference on a topic I’d never heard of; Arranged for an in-depth education on a very detailed subject; Started a new ‘business’ in something I was a complete stranger to; Made it so I was primed to represent that same, unknown industry, to roughly six million people; And paid for every bit of it.”

The Long Hike to the Starting Line

God may have moved quickly to call Chris and his team to video games, but He forced them to be patient and to prepare for this new business.  Not only were there new technologies to learn, but this would be the first business they had intentionally launched, and it required real business planning and discipline.  Most importantly, everyone on the team needed to be prepared spiritually.  One aspect of this spiritual preparation was a dependence on God and not on the world or anyone in it.  As the team read the Bible and prayed, they were constantly drawn to the reality that God was looking for them to be people “who could not be bought.”

It was also during this time that Chris became involved with a men’s ministry called Boot Camp Northwest.  The relationships that formed in this ministry were critical to Chris’ development as a Christian leader.  Most importantly, God provided Chris a mentor, Rande Bruhn, who would become CEO of Soma Games.  Chris says, “If I can impart two things to anybody interested in walking this path, let this be the second thing you commit to: find and commit to a group of deep friends that you are honest with, loyal to, and different from.  Let the first thing be this: find and submit to a mentor.”

Finally, in late 2008, shortly after the launch of the iPhone App Store, Soma Games released its first title – “G – Into the Rain” on iOS.  (On January 6 Soma will be launching G Prime – the Xbox One update of this “gravity gripping, Steampunk styled, moody-beautiful, slingshot simulating puzzle pleaser” that was inspired by the Genesis 6 account of Noah’s Ark.)  G was very well received.  It had a lot of downloads and won a number of awards.  It also brought new business to Code-Monkeys – companies wanting mobile or game development.  In the years since, The Code-Monkeys/Soma Games team has developed over 300 apps and games on 4 different platforms, with over a million downloads.  G, and its follow-ons also opened doors.

Going Big

One of those doors was the opportunity to be the exclusive licensee for video games based on the popular Redwall series of books.  In 2013, Soma launched a Kickstarter to build a Minecraft version of the Redwall Abbey as their Minimal Viable Product, and it was overfunded in just a few days.  Clearly this is a big, and high profile, opportunity.  To prepare, Chris was accepted into the Praxis Business Accelerator Program.  That year-long experience exposed him to many business experts that not only helped with critical elements of the business, but also challenged him to wrestle with key questions about what it means to build and operate a gospel-centered business.  

On their website, the company says “While Soma Games is a group of Christians making video games, we’re not what you might call a ‘Christian Video Game company’ and it’s important for us to be very clear about this to avoid inaccurate expectations. We’re making games that will be founded upon, and informed by Christian thought and the Christian understanding of reality – however, we don’t plan on making games that teach Christian theology. There are no scripture references, no Biblical characters and no telling of the Jonah story – other companies have been there and done a fine job. We hope to try something a little different.”

In their company motto, they acknowledge both their position relative to their Creator and their desire to honor God with their work: “terribliter magnificasti me mirabilia” – Latin for “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  In other words, Chris and his team are Christian entrepreneurs, driven to glorify God in all they do, and ruled by the Word of God.  May each of us seek to do the same!

“This Fall I arrived on campus as the new Entrepreneur in Residence and I was excited to hear a story that combines my passions for entrepreneurship, Christian faith, and mobile technology. …Summer observed that ‘Today’s students are raised with more choices and are more empowered to control their own life.  This new generation was asking for more than just chapel.'”

For the December 2015 issue of MinistryTech magazine, my column featured Oklahoma Christian University’s Summer Lashley and the Ethos program.

In this article series, we’ve defined a startup this way: a new venture working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed.  We’ve also defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, or business, but my main intent is to encourage, inspire, and educate you.

So far, all of the startups I’ve featured have been businesses, but startups can be new ministries as well.  This month, I’d like to feature a new technology-enabled startup within an existing, traditional Christian organization.

Daily Chapel is Good

Founded in 1950, Oklahoma Christian University (OC) has just over 2,500 students.  According to their website, “Oklahoma Christian University is a higher learning community that transforms lives for Christian faith, scholarship, and service.”  This Fall I arrived on campus as the new Entrepreneur in Residence and I was excited to hear a story that combines my passions for entrepreneurship, Christian faith, and mobile technology.

Daily Chapel has been a valued tradition at OC since the school’s formation.  Most students attend “Big Chapel” but other options include Missions Chapel, Seekers Chapel, Women’s Chapel, Great Songs Chapel, and weekly chapels for each academic college or department.  Historically, students have been required to attend chapel each day, with a set number of absences allowed.

Spiritual Development is Better

Summer Lashley, an OC alumnus, had spent a couple of years early in her career at a web startup company.  That entrepreneurial spirit must have been apparent because, after she returned to campus as part of the student life team, she was asked to move into the spiritual life office and figure out how to “reboot” the university’s approach to spiritual development. Chapel has always been good, but she realized that it may not meet every student where they are in their spiritual growth.  Summer observed that “Today’s students are raised with more choices and are more empowered to control their own life.  This new generation was asking for more than just chapel.”

In true Lean startup mode, Summer started doing Customer Discovery.  She would pull students out of chapel, both those up front and fully engaged and those in the back corner with ear buds in and hoodie pulled over.  What did they like and what didn’t they like?  What was missing?  What was their real need?  She started creating alternatives, forming small groups, and working with YouVersion to launch an OC reading plan within the popular Bible app.  She gave a small group of trusted students the freedom to pursue their own spiritual development plan and to journal what they did and how it impacted them.

As Summer and the campus minister read their own reading plan and considered what they were learning from the students, the Holy Spirit seemed to focus them on the two great commandments that Jesus clearly outlined in Mark 12:30-31 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” and “ ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”  What if OC could model spiritual development off of these great commandments?

Summer began planning a new program for spiritual development, named Ethos, where students would be encouraged to practice spiritual disciplines in five dimensions: Community, Discipleship, Discovery, Servanthood, and Worship.  But how could the university pull off such a radical redefinition of its spiritual life and how could students be encouraged to adopt the new model?

One day, Summer realized that she was increasingly using her iPhone to discover and to track important things in her life.  In addition to YouVersion, she was daily using RunKeeper and the Starbucks app to track her progress towards important goals.  She realized that, for today’s student, their phone is like the remote control for their life.  There’s an app for everything, so why not an app for spiritual development at OC?

Summer engaged with the OC marketing team and used an online tool to mock up a beautiful Ethos mobile app for creating, discovering, and tracking spiritual development activities.  She showed it to the university leadership team who loved it and brought the IT team onboard as excited partners.  Next she took it to the university’s board who was cautiously supportive, concerned about the school’s traditions.  With the help of a champion on the board, in time, this group also became strong supporters.  A university donor stepped forward to provide funding for the development and launch.

Spiritual Transformation is the Real Goal

The IT team built the Ethos front-end using the Ionic framework to simplify launch on both iOS and Android smartphones.  The mobile and web clients interfaced with the API core backend, with databases for students, check-ins, etc. and interfaces to the university’s student information and event systems and to AD for identifying and authenticating users.

IT also gave Summer a tool for generating reports.  Who is attending which events?  What are the patterns by college, by class, by service club, etc.  This may not qualify as “big data” but it certainly started to provide insights that the spiritual life office could use to fine tune how to enable spiritual development for students.  But, Summer is quick to point out that students are already doing that fine-tuning themselves.  In the first year of operation, students attended over 4,000 distinct events, 1,700 of which were spontaneously created by students (and approved by the spiritual life office).

“For Christian universities, a graduate who can tell the story of how her campus experience transformed her life demonstrates the distinctive value of the Christian university,” Summer explains. “Ethos is not only enabling that transformation, but the software is helping capture that story for the student – recording the spiritual events and enabling the student to capture her comments on how it impacted her.”

Ethos is one of many examples of how God can use technology to change people’s lives, but it also is an example of how God can use an entrepreneurial leader to start a new ministry that can help “reboot” the spiritual heart of an established institution with a rich Christian heritage.  Summer is quick to thank God for blessing Ethos and enabling it to be a blessing to many.

“Thirtyseven4 started with Steven’s heart for building trusted relationships and that is a commitment that defines the business.  Customers listen to Steven and his team, and the company listens to its clients.”  

Here’s my November 2015 column for MinistryTech magazine, profiling Steven Sundermeier and his computer security startup, Thirtyseven4.

In this article series, we’ve discussed what it means to be a startup (in business or ministry) and defined a startup this way: a new venture working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed.  We’ve also discussed what it means to be an entrepreneur, and specifically a Christian entrepreneur, which we defined as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  

Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs.  Some of these ventures and people may be ones that can help your church, ministry, or business, but my main intent is to encourage, inspire, and educate you as I hope you too will be growing as a Christian entrepreneur.

You probably already know Steven Sundermeier as a security expert based on his monthly column in this magazine on being “Protected With Purpose,” but this month I’d like to introduce you to the Christian entrepreneur side of Steven, and his company Thirtyseven4.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly

In 1999, fresh out of college, Steven landed a great job with a computer security company.  He got started doing the dirty work – disinfecting computers that had been hit with viruses, worms, and other malware.  For the next 10 years, he was blessed with the continuous opportunity to learn and grow and advance through the company.

But in those 10 years, he also saw the bad and ugly side of business.  The company hadn’t been started by Christians and the culture that had been established wasn’t consistent with Biblical morals.  Vendors, partners, clients, and employees weren’t always treated with love and respect.   It was wearying Steven to operate in that environment.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord

One Sunday morning in 2009, the Sundermeier’s Pastor chose to preach on Psalm 1.  

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
(Psalm 1:1-2)

This message really hit home with Steven and his wife.  They began praying for God to make clear whether Steven should leave his job, and if so, what they should do.  They sought Godly counsel from those around them.  They meditated day and night on God’s Word.  They continued to hear God’s calling on them from the pulpit each Sunday.

They realized that God was calling Steven, in the midst of the greatest economic recession of their lives, to quit his job and become an entrepreneur.  He started building the back-end engine for a new security offering.  He was careful to be above reproach, not using any intellectual property from his first employer, not stealing any employees or customers, not speaking poorly of their solutions.

Steven’s wife was the admissions director at a small Catholic college, so they understood the education market and decided to focus their new business there.  They sought to even more deeply understand what schools need and how they operate.  They sunk their life savings into the business, trusting in God’s call and His provision with the business.  They even named the business after Psalm 37:4 (“Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”).

Bringing forth its fruit in its season

The business started to grow.  Slowly at first, as potential clients needed to wait through the timing of their existing contracts. But then, increasingly rapidly.  The company has grown every year since 2009 and continues to grow exponentially.  

That doesn’t mean there weren’t bumps along the way.  Psalm 37 goes on to say in verse 7 “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”  Steven tells of the time a foreign competitor decided to make their education product available for free.  This may not qualify as a “wicked scheme” but it certainly was a test for the Thirtyseven4 team to rest in the Lord and not fret.  

Instead of fretting, they committed their way to the Lord and trusted in Him.  As always, they did not turn to putting down the competitor’s product, but instead again educated their customers of the value of personal support from local U.S.-based partners and the quality of Thirtyseven4’s product.  As with many other times, the Lord turned a challenge into a blessing.

And whatever he does shall prosper

Thirtyseven4 started with Steven’s heart for building trusted relationships and that is a commitment that defines the business.  Customers listen to Steven and his team, and the company listens to its clients.  They have expanded from schools into other non-profits including many medium to very large churches.  Customers needed ways to continue to protect when systems were off the network, so Thirtyseven4 expanded by offering a cloud-based offer.  Not every customer idea is a big winner that can be pursued, but the company has been greatly blessed simply by having trusted relationships with clients, vendors, and employees.

In talking to Steven, he constantly references how God has blessed him through this startup experience.  Not just in terms of business success, but in personal and family relationships in ways that he couldn’t imagine.  From day one, it’s been important to Steven and his wife that the company be a blessing to others.  Every year the company delivers food baskets and winter coats to the most needy in their community, and a portion of every sale provides funding for Remember Nhu, a global ministry saving young women from the sex trade.

According to their website, the mission of Thirtyseven4 “is to glorify God by using the gifts He has given us.”  From what I see, it looks like Steven and his team are being true to their mission, and demonstrating what it means to be a Christian entrepreneur.