MinistryTech

“What do I want those witnesses to see in my own life?  I need to run with perseverance the goal set before me.  It’s easy for me to say, ‘I don’t know how’ or ‘I can’t’ but I need to throw off those hindrances, get out of my comfort zone, and do what needs to be done.”

The August 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine features VisuALS Technology Solutions, LLC, a young startup I’ve been blessed to work very closely with:

Sometimes things just come together in a special way.  The world calls that coincidence, but we know it to be God’s providence.  This month I’m excited to share the story of VisuALS Technology Solutions, a company that has sprung forth from the Oklahoma Christian University campus where I serve, and the story of Jevon Seaman, a young man being used by God to give a voice to the voiceless.

Human Flourishing

Six months ago my monthly column talked about entrepreneurship and human flourishing, and throughout the Spring semester, that was the theme for my discussions with students.  So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that God would bless us with a student project that is becoming a business that can greatly enrich the lives of thousands.

About three years ago, Ash Srinivas, a student in OC’s Masters of Engineering program approached Professor Steve Maher with a proposed project for an undergraduate senior capstone electrical engineering systems team.  Ash had a friend from church with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) who was losing the ability to control much of his body, including his voice, his hands, and his arms.  Ash knew that technology was advancing fast and a communications solution should be possible for much less than the $20,000 price on existing products.  

In the Spring of 2015, a team of three engineering students started working on software to enable ALS patients to type, and with text-to-speech, to speak with their eyes. Before their graduation in the Spring of 2016, Ash’s friend tried it out and said it was a good start.  The team handed it off to a new team of four engineering students, who called the project VisuALS.  Professor Maher recognized the commercial potential and asked me to help.  I recruited a marketing student and an accounting student to help build a business plan.

An Accountant with Heart

Jevon was that accounting student.  For as long as he can remember, he’s been serving in the church. Being in a small congregation, everyone in his family finds ways to serve, and they’ve taken missions trips to help another small church in Germany with community outreach.

When Jevon arrived at OC, he thought he wanted to study English, his dad thought Marketing would be better, but God had something else in mind.  Jevon wasn’t able to get in all of the classes he wanted, so he found himself in an accounting class, and he loved it.  He truly felt called by God to working with numbers to help businesses prosper.

When he heard about the VisuALS project, it was an answer to prayer.  While Jevon felt called to be an accountant, he struggled with how he could use accounting to love God and love his neighbor, beyond just making good money and being generous with his giving.

“I Love You”

The engineering team did a great job with the software, and by January of this year, they were ready to get some feedback.  The team, including Jevon, went to a local ALS Support Group meeting and explained what they’d been working on.  

Carl Phelps had been diagnosed with ALS two years before and had been unable to speak for the past year.  He could still walk, but was losing the ability to use his hands and typing had become very difficult.  He walked over and sat down in front of the VisuALS system and started typing and talking with his eyes.  For the first time in a year he was able to say to his wife Janice, “I love you.”  He also gave the students feedback on how to make it better, and after using the system for 45 minutes, told them “I’m not giving this back until you tell me when I can have my own.”  Two weeks later, the students brought the system to the Phelps home and got it set up.  You can see the impact on their lives in a video on YouTube titled “VisuALS – Christian Entrepreneurship at OC”.

Through that interaction, VisuALS became more than just a school project.  Jevon shared, “Getting to know Carl and Janice, and giving Carl a voice, showed a world beyond his disease – who he was and continues to be.  Carl was able to share with us that he still wants to be a disciple of Christ and he shared his favorite verse, Hebrews 12:1.”

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”

Impacted

Jevon has been personally impacted by this encounter and has also adopted Hebrews 12:1 as his own mission.  “What do I want those witnesses to see in my own life?  I need to run with perseverance the goal set before me.  It’s easy for me to say, ‘I don’t know how’ or ‘I can’t’ but I need to throw off those hindrances, get out of my comfort zone, and do what needs to be done.”

That’s the mindset of an entrepreneur, and doing it all for the glory of God as a Christian entrepreneur.  The engineering students have graduated and started their corporate careers.  Jevon will be an accounting senior at OC this year, but he’s also stepped up as Chief Operating Officer for VisuALS Technology Solutions, LLC.  He’s helping launch the business to help thousands of more Carl’s.  Lord willing, at the beginning of September, VisuALS will begin selling their product for $3,000, a fraction of the cost of existing solutions, so that many who couldn’t previously afford it, can now regain their voice and say “I love you” to those around them.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she 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. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

We are trying to do great things for God, but we so often get caught up in the craziness of the latest javascript framework, the new trendy web design model, or the next big thing.  We lose sight of the fact that God is doing a great work in us and through us.  It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world, but about seeking Him, and being transformed by Him to His glory.

For the June and July 2017 issues of MinistryTech magazine, I interviewed Ai Ching Goh and Andrea Zaggia.  Their startup story passes through Italy, England, Malaysia, the United States, and Korea.  Here’s part 2:

Last month, I introduced you to Andrea Zaggia and Ai Ching Goh, husband and wife and co-founders of Piktochart.  In sharing their story, we learned how God had used technology, and even their web-based business, to bring them to Himself and to saving faith.  This month I am pleased to share how God is using them and their business to bless others.

A Transformed Life

As you may recall, Ai Ching was raised in Malaysia.  Her family is Buddhist.  Growing up, she didn’t even like Christians.  She told me “I was wrong my whole life!”  Andrea was from Italy where his family identified as Catholics, but the church wasn’t an important part of their life.  They met over Skype, then in person.  Andrea moved to Malaysia to be with Ai Ching.  They started a business together and were married.  But they were lost.

Ai Ching said “it’s so hard to work with your spouse.  In retrospect, it seems impossible without Christ in the center.”  She said that they would often get into heated debates over trivial aspects of the business. They each had a “rights” mentality, insisting on what they thought they deserved.

In Ephesians 4, Paul commends us “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4:22-24)  He goes on to describe it this way “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Eph 4:31,32)

Andrea and Ai Ching admit that they aren’t all the way there, but after joining the church, they are being transformed as Paul describes.  Now, they always pray together.  No longer is it a zero-sum game with one winning and the other losing.  They strive to make every decision in one spirit.

Challenged by Scripture

When they joined the church, they also joined a care group in the church that met weekly.  The group was studying the book of Daniel.  In the first chapter, we see Daniel’s faithfulness demonstrated in verse 8 “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.”  We don’t know exactly why Daniel thought the food and wine would defile him, but his faith required separation from the culture around him.

Likewise, Ai Ching was challenged to consider whether she was defiling herself by continuing to engage in the cultural practices with which she had been raised.  In her hometown of Penang, there are many idols.  It is a common practice to literally eat food offered to idols.  Twice in a very short time, Ai Ching ate food  that had been offered to idols.  Each time, she came down with a very high fever that lasted exactly one day.  She understood that she, like Daniel, was to separate herself from the cultural norms that had been defiling her.

Not long after, the care group looked at Daniel 3 and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being bold and standing for their faith.  Ai Ching realized that she also needed to be bold.  She had been lying to her parents about what she did every Sunday.  She realized that she needed to tell them the truth and she shared with them her testimony.  Her parents were not happy, but Andrea and Ai Ching were strengthened and encouraged as they continued to grow in their walk with the Lord.

Business and Technology Connections

Being in a country where less than 10% are Christians made it hard for Andrea and Ai Ching to learn how to build a business with Christian values.  They turned to Google to try to find Christian mentors.  One of the top results was Praxis, who I have featured before.  Later, they attended SXSW in Austin and there met Evan Loomis, co-founder of TreeHouse, who had been through the Praxis program.  They applied and were accepted into Praxis where they built great relationships with mentors and peers that continue to serve them as they grow in God’s grace.

To summarize some of their key takeaways, each of the Piktochart co-founders shared a verse that guides them.  Andrea recited Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  By the world’s standards, entrepreneurs are expected to follow a pattern – raise money fast; fail or succeed fast; fire struggling workers fast.  At Piktochart, by God’s grace, they haven’t conformed to this pattern.  As I mentioned last month, they had the opportunity to take money from investors, but didn’t feel at peace with the offers.  If they had accepted those offers, they now would have investors that would be opposed to many of their current decisions, including tithing from the business to support Kingdom work.  God has provided.  They haven’t needed outside financing and the business is still growing five years in.

Ai Ching quoted Jesus from Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  As a businessperson, we have so many responsibilities to juggle, including serving customers and employees, ensuring product quality, dealing with never-ending new versions of browser and web standards and technology trends, and adapting to changing market conditions.  She says “It is so important not to be focused on these ‘waves’ but on Christ, our Head, who is ready to pull us out when we start to sink.”  As Jesus said in John 14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

As technology entrepreneurs, Andrea and Ai Ching have learned lessons that can benefit us all.  We are trying to do great things for God, but we so often get caught up in the craziness of the latest javascript framework (jQuery, Angular, Vue), the new trendy web design model (one page, responsive, material design), or the next big thing (virtual reality, augmented reality).  We lose sight of the fact that God is doing a great work in us and through us.  It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world, but about seeking Him, and being transformed by Him to His glory.

“As a Christian man seeking to know God, as an entrepreneur seeking to glorify God through business activities, it’s easy to get distracted.  The most important thing is to seek God first.  Getting caught up in ‘doing for God’ rather than ‘seeking God’ can happen to anyone, whether in ministry or business, so this requires my fullest diligence.”

For the May 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine, I interviewed Tim and Sara Kilpatrick of Hero Factor Games.  Here’s their story:

When Sara Kilpatrick was in the 1st grade, she contracted the Chicken Pox and was confined to her home.  All she could do all day was play video games.  From that moment on, she was determined that she would grow up to be a video game designer.  Today, Sara and her husband Tim are co-founders of Hero Factor Games.  Their website describes their products as “creative video games that support positive, moral, and biblical decision-making.”  What does that look like, and how did the Kilpatricks get here?

A Personal Revival

Both Tim and Sara were raised in the church.  Sara was baptized at age 8 and was always pursuing a closer relationship with Christ.  Tim, on the other hand, left the church in high school and explored other ways to “find god.”  After a few years of wandering, including studying music at a conservatory and studying philosophy and literature at a small Christian college, he found his real callings, first to the one true God of the Bible, and then to writing software.  

After completing his Bachelor’s degree in CIS and beginning the MSCS program, Tim was recruited to work at a mobile app development company where he met Sara.  Sara had also earned an MIS degree, but with a graphic design minor, and an MBA.  Tim and Sara discovered a mutual love for developing games, and for each other.  Soon they were married and developing a business plan for a video game company they could start on the side as they continued in their full time jobs.  

But God had other plans.  He placed it on their heart that He wanted them to quit their jobs and pursue this passion full time.  They spent much time in prayer and God provided confirmation that this was His will.  Their time in the Word kept pulling them towards going full time with their business.  One of their advisors told them “often times God won’t give you what you need until you really need it” – counseling them to make the jump.  And, to cap it all off, an angel investor approached them about investing in the business before they had even started looking for money.

While starting Hero Factor Games has taught them many business lessons, they cherish more the spiritual lessons they’ve learned.  As a couple, they have drawn closer to God and rested more faithfully in His ability and not their own.  This time has been somewhat of a personal revival for them with incredible blessings for them personally, for their marriage, and for their business.

Sara summarized some of their lessons in this way: “We’ve learned to always seek God first, before even seeking His direction or blessings (John 17:3). Then, in light of who God is, the rest of the day is the opportunity to apply what we have learned about Him – to trust that God really is who He says He is.  We believe that this business is God’s ministry, that He will use it, that He will get the glory, and that He will provide everything we need.  We submit everything to Him.”

Use Your Powers for Good

When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mk 12:29–30)

The motto for Hero Factor Games is “Use your powers for good.”  It comes from Mark 12:30.  As they develop their games, Tim and Sara especially focus on the choices that players make and how that shapes how we think and who we become.  C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity “every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself.”

Tim and Sara’s first game is atomidoodle, a fast action game that teaches about chemistry and God’s creation.  It won the silver medal for mobile apps in the 2016 Parent’s Choice Awards. They spent over a year building various prototypes of different game concepts before their time with the Lord led them to pursue atomidoodle, and within a week they had a prototype working.  They are now developing several other games in various genres.  Tim told me “The most important thing is to build a fun game first.  Then we can figure out how to build in God-honoring content without being pedantic or contrived.”

The Kilpatricks are obviously very thoughtful about how their work is a ministry and how it can bring honor to God, but also about how it’s not really on them to make it happen.  In our interview they referenced George Műller, the German Christian who God used to touch so many lives in Bristol, England in the 19th century.  Beyond even the initial angel investor, God has continued to provide what they need when they need it, including developers showing up on their doorstep, willing to work for free until they could afford to pay them.

Tim uses a quote from A.W. Tozer to summarize their priorities, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  Tim applies this to his life in this way: “As a Christian man seeking to know God, as an entrepreneur seeking to glorify God through business activities, it’s easy to get distracted.  The most important thing is to seek God first.  Getting caught up in ‘doing for God’ rather than ‘seeking God’ can happen to anyone, whether in ministry or business, so this requires my fullest diligence.”

As U2’s Bono said “Commerce is real… aid is just a stopgap.  Commerce – entrepreneurial capitalism – takes more people out of poverty than aid.”

For the February 2017 issue of MinistryTech, my column took a step back from profiling individual Christian entrepreneurs and their startups and revisited the question of why we should even care about entrepreneurship.

This month, I want to take a pause in our monthly profiles of Christian entrepreneurs to reflect again on why this topic should even matter to Christians.  We spent a few issues at the beginning of the series on what startups and entrepreneurs are and why the church should care about them, but that was two years ago, perhaps before some of you were even reading Ministry Tech (or Christian Computing, as this publication was then called).  So this month, I want to consider how entrepreneurship can contribute to human flourishing.

What is Human Flourishing?

It seems like the concept of Human Flourishing has become trendy again.  The Greek philosophers often debated the concept of eudaimonia, which some have translated as human flourishing.  Plato’s definition of eudaimonia was “the good composed of all goods; an ability which suffices for living well; perfection in respect of virtue; resources sufficient for a living creature.”  Today, we are aware of poverty in the world around us, and we may be tempted to think of flourishing as the absence of poverty, but the concept is much more than that.  

Jesus said, in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Anthony Bradley, professor of religious studies at King’s College says that human flourishing is “characterized by a holistic concern for the spiritual, moral, physical, economic, material, political, psychological, and social context necessary for human beings to live according to their design.”

In their book, Entrepreneurship for Human Flourishing, Chris Horst and Peter Greer of Hope International link the concept to the Hebrew word shalom.  “The ancient Hebrew word shalom goes beyond our modern concept of peace and embodies completeness in relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation.  Human flourishing happens when people and communities thrive – when they experience wholeness and restoration in their relationships, in their view of themselves, and in their relationship with their Creator.”  

We get a sense for the richness of this concept when Jesus uses the Greek equivalent of shalom in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Who Brings About Human Flourishing?

So human flourishing is a really big concept.  Although the Bible doesn’t use the words, we certainly get a sense that Adam and Eve, in the garden before the fall, had the kind of wholeness and perfect relationships described in all three definitions above.  We also know that all will be redeemed and restored in paradise, and if you go back up and read Plato’s, Bradley’s, or Hope’s definitions, you’ll see that they accurately reflect what we see promised for us in the Bible.  

But that will be accomplished by Christ, and not by man.

That being said, as Christians, we are called to “put on… compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12), we are commanded to love our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22:39), we have been given “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18), and we are told that the “peacemakers” are blessed and “shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Many in Christian ministry have taken these words to heart and are working diligently and effectively to address the issues of the world, the effects of the fall, that keep people from truly flourishing.  Their work is critical, impactful, and God honoring, and although their reward will be in heaven and all praise is due to God, they deserve our admiration and support.

How Can Entrepreneurs Contribute to Human Flourishing?

That being said, business does more to address human flourishing than just provide funds for those in “full-time ministry.”  As U2’s Bono said “Commerce is real… aid is just a stopgap.  Commerce – entrepreneurial capitalism – takes more people out of poverty than aid.”  

The Goldwater Institute found that “Economic freedom and entrepreneurship are keys to escaping poverty for many.  There is a strong connection between a state’s rate of entrepreneurship and declines in poverty.”

The Economist wrote “The world’s achievement in the field of poverty reduction is, by almost any measure, impressive… the aim of halving global poverty between 1990 and 2015 was achieved five years early.  Most of the credit, however, must go to capitalism and free trade, for they enable economies to grow – and it was growth, principally, that has eased destitution.”

But advances in human flourishing are about more than just addressing poverty.  Horst and Greer write in their book “Entrepreneurship is not something we should just tolerate.  We should celebrate it.  Average life expectancy has more than doubled globally over the past 200 years.  During that time, we’ve moved from a nearly illiterate population to one in which 84 percent of adults can now read.  In the past 40 years alone, the percentage of undernourished people in the world has dropped by half.”

They point to innovation and entrepreneurship as foundational to these incredible advances.  But they also point to the more mundane impacts that entrepreneurs have on eudaimonia.  “In general, entrepreneurs are in the business of solving problems, not creating them. Their initiatives and inventions—and the businesses that sustain them—meet human needs. Tables allow families to share meals together. Telephones enable friends to communicate in real time. Airplanes permit people to travel the globe.  Tables, telephones, and airplanes are handicrafts of entrepreneurs. When entrepreneurs fulfill their mandate to serve others and solve problems, humans  flourish. And to solve these problems, entrepreneurs recruit workers, who can also then experience the dignity of work.”

Entrepreneurs are very good at creating jobs.  According to a Baylor University study, between 1980 and 2000, small businesses in the U.S. created more than 34 million new jobs.  And according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, in one year in the U.S., 2.5 million net new jobs were created in total, while companies less than 1 year old created 3.5 million net new jobs – meaning that all companies more than 1 year old combined, eliminated a million jobs.

And jobs do matter.  Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup found “if countries fail at creating jobs, their societies will fall apart.  Countries, and more specifically cities, will experience suffering, instability, chaos, and eventually revolution.”

It is my hope that, in this series, I am giving you a glimpse into how Christian entrepreneurs around the world are using their God-given gifts in service to God, whether it be building web sites or solving major world problems or simply providing jobs and dignity to the hopeless.  And, it is my hope that they may inspire some of you to use your God-given gifts to love your neighbor and bring glory to God.

“I realized I knew nothing about making videos, but the Holy Ghost and YouTube taught me enough to get started.”

For the January 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine, my column introduced Shonda Carter and her video production business/ministry.

Show Stopper! is the new book by Shonda Carter that has grown out of her startup company, Shonda Carter Productions.  It has been a bestseller on Amazon pre-orders and is being released this month.  So, how did a former prison employee become a best selling author, and what does this have to do with ministry technologies?  Read on my friends.

Paid to be Mean

Shonda wasn’t raised in the church.  When she went to college, she wanted to become a judge; she wanted to have power.  She studied Criminal Justice, but unlike high school, she found that it took more than smarts, it took hard work to get good grades.  She wasn’t willing to put in the work to pursue a Law degree, so she graduated with her Criminal Justice degree and started her first career.  

She got a job working for the prison system as a probation officer.  She loved that she got paid to be mean.  And she was good at it!  From there, she moved to a Child Support Enforcement role.  Even though these jobs seem to have nothing to do with her current calling, Shonda points out that God never wastes anything – these jobs taught her how to tell people what to do – which has made her a better video director!

God Saves the Mean Lady

Shonda and her husband began attending church, but she just didn’t “get it.”  She looked around at all the people that were full of joy in the Lord and she prayed “God, don’t you want me?”  One night, Shonda and her husband took their kids to the local drive-in to see a movie.  It was a double feature, and although they didn’t really have any interest in watching the second movie, The Passion of the Christ, they figured they were already there, so they stuck around.  Shonda realized that she was a visual learner, and once she saw what Christ did for her, she could finally understand all that she had heard at church.  God literally opened her eyes to see and understand the gospel.

Not only did God use the film to save Shonda and her husband, He helped her realize that video has power in communicating His deepest truths.  As she began studying the Bible, she realized that Jesus is the master storyteller.  In gratitude to her pastor, instead of simply writing him a thank you note, she wrote a play for him.  A year later he asked her if she would start a drama ministry with live monthly productions.  Shonda loved applying her creativity in service to God’s people, but the live productions were too unpredictable.

Technology to the Rescue

Thinking back to The Passion of the Christ, Shonda realized that video may be the answer.  Her computer had some software called Movie Maker, so what could be so hard about making a movie?  “I realized I knew nothing about making videos, but the Holy Ghost and YouTube taught me enough to get started.”  Eventually she went back to school to learn video production, quit her child support enforcement job and took a minimum wage job as an Associate News Producer for the local television station.  She felt called by God to spend a year there, but she got promoted to News Producer and overstayed the twelve months before God made it clear that she was to move on.

As she continued to make videos for her church, she thought about creating a YouTube channel with spiritual content.  Jesus went to where the people were, and video, if it’s engaging, can help people “get” the message.

To figure out the business side, she plugged into the local startup community.  Video marketing on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook was becoming increasingly important to entrepreneurs, so Shonda started helping her new friends with their videos.  I asked her what the hardest part of starting her business was and she said it was believing that she was good enough to get paid for video production.  It’s called the imposter syndrome.  Everyone told her she was good and her work was valuable, but she didn’t feel comfortable charging for her service.  She finally bit the bullet and Shonda Carter Productions was born.

Three Video Tips

I asked Shonda if she could share three tips with us for making great videos.  Her best advice boils down to this:

1. Make it short.  The shorter the better.
2. It has to have a story.  People want to feel, not just hear.  Jesus used stories to powerful effect.
3. Music matters.  Special effects don’t impress anyone anymore, but music helps the audience get in the moment faster.

Finally, I asked Shonda how her faith impacts her as an entrepreneur.  She said praying for God’s wisdom in all things is her most powerful business tool.  When opportunities come her way, she turns to the Lord for direction in who to work with and who to decline.  As a startup with limited resources, she also prays constantly for wisdom on spending money, for example, on which conferences to attend.  She is thankful that the Lord has been faithful to her.

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25 NIV)

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she 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. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

“For most organizations, tools like WordPress and Weebly provide very high functionality at a very low cost.  You can go a long ways without spending much money at all, but at some point, your needs exceed their capabilities, and to take that next step you go from spending hundreds of dollars to spending tens of thousands of dollars for custom software development.”

In the December 2016 issue of MinistryTech magazine, I introduced Stephen Key and his company, Basedeploy, which is working to bridge the “software chasm.”

Before launching Basedeploy, Stephen Key tried to start an online matching site called Giver.  From his short-term missions work with orphanages in Central America and his work with foster care organizations in the U.S., Stephen knew that these kids have needs for things throughout the year, and not just at Christmas time.  His vision was for an online marketplace where individual needs could be met by individual givers.  But after several months of trying to get Giver off the ground, Stephen realized that, at every turn, God was closing the doors on Giver and opening the doors for a different opportunity.

This reminds me of Paul’s experience on his second missionary journey: “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:6-10 ESV)

It All Started At Church

Stephen didn’t have a master plan for his life.  He just took each step, making the best decision for him and his family at the time.  But God has a plan for Stephen.  He grew up in the church. He went to the high school associated with his church, Victory Christian in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  After graduating he literally moved across the street to Oral Roberts University.  Stephen knew he’d be an entrepreneur.  His dad was an entrepreneur and all four of his older siblings had gone on to start their own businesses.  He knew, from watching his brothers, that he would eventually need to promote whatever business he started, so he majored in Public Relations and Advertising.  One summer Stephen participated in a Computer Science Boot Camp at ORU and loved it.  From that moment, he knew that software would be at the center of his career.

Shortly after graduating from Oral Roberts, Stephen landed an exciting job.  He was hired as web developer for Victory Christian, the large ministry that included his home church, his high school alma mater, and a wide variety of global ministries.  The pay wasn’t as high as he could’ve gotten in secular work, but he loved being part of an organization making an impact for the Gospel, and with so many different ministries, there were always interesting projects to work on.  One of the projects that stuck with him was creating a templating tool to make it easy for small Victory Christian ministries around the world to easily create an internal web page.

The High Tech Startup World Calls

After three years, Stephen had the opportunity to join a New York-based high tech startup.  The company helps match patients to healthcare providers.  It was really hard to leave Victory Christian, but Stephen wanted to learn about building software platforms at a scale much larger than even a global ministry required, and this startup provided that opportunity.  Since they had a Tulsa office, Stephen was able to be part of a fast-moving startup without leaving Tulsa, which was critical since his wife was finishing her education there.

Although, in many ways, working for a startup was dramatically different from working for a Christian ministry, one of Stephen’s first projects was very similar to what he’d done at Victory.  The platform needed to create micro-sites for thousands of physicians.  Stephen automated the process, integrating the data that already existed into an attractive and effective profile for patients to review.  His time at the startup also validated for Stephen that his ideas and his work were valuable, generating significant revenue for the company.

Crossing the Software Chasm

After two years, his wife finished her education and they moved to Oklahoma City to begin her career.    Stephen left the New York startup behind and started taking on work for clients.  At first it was a fun and exciting change, but he started to notice that his clients were asking for many of the same features, but in slightly different combinations.  He realized that these clients had fallen into what he now refers to as the “software chasm.”  

“For most organizations, tools like WordPress and Weebly provide very high functionality at a very low cost.  You can go a long ways without spending much money at all,” he explains, “but at some point, your needs exceed their capabilities, and to take that next step you go from spending hundreds of dollars to spending tens of thousands of dollars for custom software development.”

Some of those needs include user registration, the creation of an API and persistent user data, and integration with multiple other services on the web.  Stephen has created Basedeploy to bridge this chasm.  Starting at $39 a month, users point and click and the code and api are dynamically generated behind the scenes.  Basedeploy provides a growing library of building blocks, and independent developers can also provide building blocks for specific functionality or external integrations.  Stephen says that he felt guilty in his custom web business, like he was taking advantage of clients, charging them lots of money to do relatively simple things that they should be able to do themselves.  With Basedeploy, they can do it themselves, and Stephen can focus on building new capabilities as those needs emerge.

God Opened the Door

Early in 2016 Stephen had started fleshing out the Basedeploy vision.  He had a Minimally Viable Product (MVP) which was a nice front end, but with him doing lots of work connecting the pieces manually behind the scenes.  Then someone posted Basedeploy on Product Hunt, and suddenly the doors were flung open and hundreds of new customers started flowing in.  Stephen had to implement a private invitation-only beta to keep it manageable.  Since then, he’s been able to automate the flow to better handle that initial rush of customers and is considering when to open the floodgates to all comers.

Stephen and his wife still feel a call on their lives to help orphans around the world.  They love working with kids in need, and because of their love for the orphans, their hearts ache over their unmet needs.  But they know they must wait on God’s timing and His plan, and for now, Stephen is excited to see how God will use Basedeploy.

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27 ESV)

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she 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. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

“I know God’s Word is true, and I believe that God’s Spirit is active and true, but that doesn’t mean that the way that you are implementing this technology is effective at helping people follow God’s will.” … Neil felt called to take the successful practices that he’d learned at Google and apply them to sensing how God could use technology specifically in the area of spiritual disciplines.

For the November 2016 issue of MinistryTech, my “Startup” column introduced Carpenters Code and their leader Neil Ahlston – a team taking the lessons they’ve learned at Silicon Valley’s top technology companies and applying those lessons to advancing God’s Kingdom.

“What if Google did Spiritual Formation?”  That’s the title of an article that Neil Ahlsten wrote a couple of years ago for a Christian university.  And it accurately reflects the opportunity that Neil and his team are pursuing in his startup, Carpenters Code.  Neil spent several years at Google and he told me that, at any given time, the company would be running 5,000 live experiments on search.  90% of experiments fail and, until you have real proof, you don’t know if your idea will really work.  Carpenters Code was formed to use that kind of applied research to develop technologies for people to draw closer to God.

Can You Save the World Through Economics?

Neil grew up as a real math geek – he loved to solve equations and he wanted everything to fit neatly together and make logical sense.  He said that he wanted to save the world through economics.  Neil earned an MA in Economics and Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.  While still in school, he felt called to overseas ministry, and after graduating, he spent a season of his life going to war zones around the world, working with limited resources to solve really hard problems.  Neil was raised in the church and God used this time in amazing ways.  Neil came to love pulling together diverse teams, helping people see and use their God-given talents to accomplish amazing things.

In time, Neil found himself about as far from resource-constrained war zones as you can imagine – working in Silicon Valley for Google.  He spent seven years at the company, where he had the chance to work on some of the company’s biggest bets before they launched.  He also was blessed to be able to see how Google’s leadership made decisions about what to nurture and what to kill.  He learned much, in fact Neil described it to me as being “like going to Internet business school.”

God’s Will vs. Man’s Will

Neil saw some of the brightest minds in the world being applied to deliver solutions people would value and to solve Google’s biggest business problems.  He was seeing how technology was impacting people’s lives in very deep ways, and he was seeing how Google was using applied research to get people to do what Google wanted.  

At the same time, as a Christian, Neil was very aware of the faith-based technology industry and how well-intentioned believers were approaching incredibly important areas of our spiritual lives.  Neil described what he was observing this way: “God’s Word says this about how He wants us to live and be in relationship with Him, so Christian developers were saying ‘I’ll apply this technology to accomplish it and He’ll bless it.’  I know God’s Word is true, and I believe that God’s Spirit is active and true, but that doesn’t mean that the way that you are implementing this technology is effective at helping people follow God’s will.”

James 1:17 tells us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  Neil felt called to take the successful practices that he’d learned at Google and apply them to sensing how God could use technology specifically in the area of spiritual disciplines.

Abiding with Christ

Neil has pulled together an incredible team as Carpenters Code, including five full-time experts in software, data analytics, design, user experience, and ministry, as well as a community of contributors still working full time at leading technology companies including Google, Tesla, and NetApp.  

They focused first on helping people with their prayer life. Neil described how they got started as “The Wizard of Oz approach”:  prototype without really building anything, get it in people’s hands, and see what really helps them pray.  Carpenters Code bought targeted audience through SurveyMonkey, took them through a specific 2 minute experience, and then had them rate the effectiveness.  Based on what they learned, they started building a real app, called Abide, which is available in mobile app stores.

The experimentation hasn’t ended with the launch of the app.  Neil said they continue to test out hypotheses as efficiently as possible.  For example, they thought that Facebook Connect might be a way to make prayer more social, so to test it, they spent 10 minutes adding a button.  When people clicked it, it told them “That feature is not available.”  If lots of people clicked it, they knew it was worth building out.  If not, they would just remove the button.  They develop many of their features initially to 80-90% complete.  If the feature proves to be of high value in how people use the app, then they invest for the last 10-20%.  If not, 80-90% is good enough.

Providing for His People

It takes money to support full time workers and all the costs associated with running a startup in Silicon Valley.  The team is making good progress in finding ways to monetize the Abide app without dishonoring God by making people pay for prayer.  They hope to be self-funding in the next 12-18 months.  In the meantime, they’ve had to go through the humbling exercise known as seeking investment.

Silicon Valley doesn’t embrace Christian startups.  It’s not that they are persecuted, or even looked down on, it’s just that the motivations and priorities of a faith-based venture are out of sync with the culture of the technology startup community.  Tech venture capital firms are looking for companies with a multi-billion dollar exit, and Carpenters Code’s financial ambitions are more humble than that.  Neil has been able to raise funding from some California-based believers, but most of it has come from parts of the country with a higher appreciation for prayer.  God has provided an amazing team of investors and strategic advisors who bring academic wisdom and real-world business experiences that are strong complements for Neil and his team.  

As King David said in 1 Chronicles 16 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she 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. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com