“Many entrepreneurs are not Christians, but all are under intense pressure – most startups fail.  On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with being a champion for your business, if you believe that it is doing good and serving others.  On the other hand, your identity is in Christ, and it’s not about making yourself the center of every discussion.  Sometimes, loving your neighbor involves nothing more than just being present for a fellow entrepreneur, maybe when they’re feeling down, or maybe when they are celebrating some great milestone.  Unfortunately, given our human nature, that love and grace is often really hard.”

For the September 2016 issue of MinistryTech, I featured Paul Prins of Fresh Vine.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all 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.  

This month’s entrepreneur has moved his family to Paris, France to help plant a new church while continuing to operate and grow Fresh Vine, the software company he started while in seminary.  That’s not the typical startup journey for a high tech entrepreneur, but Paul Prins isn’t your typical software company founder.

Getting an Early Start

Paul formed his first start-up in 1999, while in the 8th grade.  At the core of the business was a website, MidwestSkier.com, but, not having a lot of life obligations at that point, Paul had fun with it and branched into other areas, including organizing competitive events and producing sports action films.  At one point, he even competed as a semi-pro freestyle skier.  MidwestSkier.com was never going to be big enough to support all of his dreams, but it did provide a great education in technology and business.  He sold the website in 2005 while in college, clearing the runway for the next calling on his life.

During those undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin, Paul had the opportunity to spend a year in France with Campus Crusade.  As college graduation approached, Paul began praying and considering what was next.  He and his wife knew there was a ministerial calling on their lives and specifically they felt called to return to France as church planters.

Anyone who has traveled or lived in Europe knows that France is not an inexpensive place to live.  And those of us in ministry know that church planting typically isn’t the fastest path to earthly riches.  Paul realized that theirs would be a bi-vocational life.  

From Vision to Reality

At this point, Paul and his wife were getting clear glimpses of their future calling – bi-vocational ministry, church planting, in France – but many pieces had to come together for that puzzle picture to be complete.  In April 2008, Paul began working on his MDiv at Bethel Seminary.  Starting in the Spring of 2009, he had the chance to serve as a pastoral intern at Substance church where he helped establish a new church location.  In 2012, on completion of his MDiv, Paul and his wife joined with Communitas International as church planters.  

But, it was actually before any of those critical ministry steps began that life as a bi-vocational entrepreneur became a reality.  In the fall of 2007, as Paul was wrapping up his undergrad degree, he took on a technology project for Substance church.  That was his first encounter with church management software, and it wasn’t pleasant.  At Substance, they say that church really begins after the worship service, and is centered in community and relationships.  But all the church management systems available at the time seemed to be accounting packages with social networking features bolted on.  

The Substance leadership asked Paul if he could write the software they really wanted.  Wisely, he said he’d only do it if there was a market for it beyond one church.  Before long, a handful of churches with similar needs had joined the request, and Paul realized that maybe this was the other half of his bi-vocational calling.

Operating Differently

I asked Paul why he would choose to enter such a crowded, competitive space, filled with well-entrenched competitors.  He said that there were two main factors that convinced him that it was worth taking a shot.  First was the group of churches that were telling him their needs weren’t being met by the existing products.  Second was the reality that the cost of starting a software business is pretty minimal.  Simply signing up the churches encouraging him to build it would immediately provide enough revenue to cover his operational costs.  

Paul and his wife chose to bootstrap Fresh Vine, meaning they wouldn’t need to raise outside funding, but they also wouldn’t be paying themselves until the business was generating enough profits.  I guess you could say that Paul became tri-vocational for the next couple of years as he built the Fresh Vine business (writing software, servicing customers, and selling to new prospects), pursued his seminary degree, and took on outside contract work to pay the bills.

But he survived, and Fresh Vine began to grow.  He got the first Minimally Viable Product (MVP) into customers hands in March of 2008 (the month before starting seminary) and continued to iterate, but it wasn’t until the Spring of 2011 that they felt they had true Product/Market Fit (PMF) and began a much more public push for sales and customers.

Fresh Vine doesn’t see themselves the same as other church management software.  Many of the features that are core to the existing market leaders haven’t been high on Paul’s priority list.  From the beginning, Fresh Vine’s focus has been on fostering engagement and involvement in and through the community.  They see the same needs beyond the church, so Fresh Vine is positioned as a software-based solution for non-profits, including churches.  Paul wants to help organizations create great relationships between the organization and people in their community, and between the people themselves.  Fresh Vine uses three main touchpoints: events, contributions, and e-mail as levers to accomplish this.

But Fresh Vine is also different from most software companies.  Sure, there’s lots of technology pieces, and hundreds of thousands of lines of code, and the collection of relevant data.  But the goal isn’t to drive automation to minimize the necessary human interactions.  If the data indicates that Max hasn’t been to any church events in a few weeks, Fresh Vine won’t generate an automated e-mail to Max.  Instead, Fresh Vine will make it easy for someone to call Max and engage with him.

Jesus taught “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37b-40 ESV)

I asked Paul about the challenges of being a Christian entrepreneur and, not surprisingly, he pointed to grace in community.  “Minneapolis has a fantastic startup community.  Many entrepreneurs are not Christians, but all are under intense pressure – most startups fail.  On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with being a champion for your business, if you believe that it is doing good and serving others.  On the other hand, your identity is in Christ, and it’s not about making yourself the center of every discussion.  Sometimes, loving your neighbor involves nothing more than just being present for a fellow entrepreneur, maybe when they’re feeling down, or maybe when they are celebrating some great milestone.  Unfortunately, given our human nature, that love and grace is often really hard.”

May the love and grace of Christ encourage all of us as we love God and love our neighbor in whatever way He has called us.

“When our Father implants a dream or vision within the heart of an individual, we need to recognize that it is highly likely this will result in a great deal of discipline, transition, hardship, loss and discouragement. It will likely take a great deal longer to fulfill than initially imagined. I believe God intentionally leads us into these places so as to create a total dependency on Him in each moment. The resultant transformation is intimacy, brokenness, trust and closeness with the Lord.  And it’s not just me.  The whole team has been through this together, giving us a greater depth of serving each other and those the Father places in our path.”

The cover story for the August 2016 issue of MinistryTech was my column introducing Josh Bellieu of PrayOut ministry and the Mobile tAPPestry technology startup.

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 Josh Bellieu, who told me that his normal response to technology is wanting to throw it out the window, and yet God now has him as a co-founder of a technology startup that could revolutionize how mobile apps are developed.  How could this be?

It Starts With Prayer

Josh spent nearly 20 years as a hair stylist and salon owner.  During that time, his prayer life matured and he developed the habit of asking his customers if he could pray for them and began praying publicly for and with them.  So, it wasn’t a big surprise when, nineteen years ago, one of his clients called and left a message with the receptionist asking for prayer.  Josh later called his customer, but just got their voicemail.  Despite Josh’s technology discomfort, he felt led to leave a prayer as a message.  Many years later he heard from his customer that they had planned to take their life, but God powerfully used Josh’s prayer.  Josh started regularly leaving prayers as voicemails and is amazed by the impact they have had.

Much later, in November 2010, Josh was in the midst of a career transition.  He was driving between cities one day, praying to the Lord, asking for direction.  Josh says that he was excited and shocked to get the clear sense that God wanted him to start a website where people could request prayer and could leave audible prayers for others.

When he returned home, Josh started writing out the vision for this new venture.  He then took it to a partner in a recent business venture who is a talented software architect.  Scott Seitz got the vision and together they started putting it together.  Over the next few years, the team filled out with Dennis Clark and Mark Krienke joining the team, bringing their deep business and operational experience to serve God’s kingdom. The PrayOut website was built; people showed up; and prayers were being requested and prayed out loud.

Necessity Drives Innovation

But the team knew they really needed a mobile app with access to the smartphone’s microphone and the ability to create push notifications if they were going to serve people when they most needed prayer.  They looked at outsourcing development of an app, but to be honest, they simply couldn’t afford it.  They tried using existing tools for simplifying app development, with limited success, and kept looking.  That’s when, in answer to prayer, Scott had a breakthrough.  He found a new and better way to leverage the basic tools available to any full-stack web developer to create a fully functional mobile app.  In September 2014, the PrayOut mobile app was finally in the Apple App Store.

Josh shared that he was at the State Fair the night the app was published in the app store.  His adult daughter was also there with her family.  Early in the evening, Josh got a text from Scott with the news about the app and he downloaded it to his phone.  By the end of the evening, he was one of the first to use it, as he requested prayer for his daughter who had been rushed to the hospital after a freak accident.  The small PrayOut community ministered powerfully to Josh and his family, and they were blessed that his daughter was released with no injury.

Web Developers ARE App Developers

After solving their own mobile app challenge, the PrayOut team realized that they could help turn the hundreds of thousands of web developers around the world into mobile app developers.  They have created Mobile tAPPestry, LLC to provide web developers with a tool and mobile apps-as-a-service so that developers can offer mobile apps to their existing web clients.  Because Mobile tAPPestry requires no new coding languages to learn, the web developer now has a rapid and familiar path into the attractive mobile app market.

To see how this could work, they helped Origins Community Church integrate PrayOut into their website and use their patent-pending technology to develop a mobile app, and they helped mainStreetOpen.com develop the MinistryCOM mobile app.  Most recently, they have launched a beta program and open source community around the technology.  Their full apps-as-a-service offer is now available to remove the complexity of building a mobile app and getting it into the app stores.

I asked Josh what his six-year journey has been like from technology skeptic to technology enabler.  He said “When our Father implants a dream or vision within the heart of an individual, we need to recognize that it is highly likely this will result in a great deal of discipline, transition, hardship, loss and discouragement. It will likely take a great deal longer to fulfill than initially imagined. I believe God intentionally leads us into these places so as to create a total dependency on Him in each moment. The resultant transformation is intimacy, brokenness, trust and closeness with the Lord.  And it’s not just me.  The whole team has been through this together, giving us a greater depth of serving each other and those the Father places in our path.”

Over the years, the team has experienced many ups and downs.  They have experienced God providing at just the right time.  They have persevered.  And now they are excited about how God has brought this new opportunity to them.  As I’ve had the chance to interact with them, I do sense the same attitude expressed by David in 1 Chronicles 29 “Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.”

May we each have that perspective, appreciating how God has blessed us and using what He has given us to be a blessing to others.

Full Disclosure: I have been interacting with the Mobile tAPPistry team for a few months, and as our relationship has progressed, the team has asked me to serve as a strategic advisor to their business.

“I’m always trying to be intentional about abiding in the Lord.  It’s not that He’s with me in what I’m doing as much as it is that I need to be with Him in what He’s doing.  That’s the only way that I’m going to bear fruit, whether that be in my business or in the kingdom.”

For the July issue of MinistryTech, in my “Startup” column, I featured Brett Golson of Scripture Typer.

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.  

Recently, I was introduced to a mobile app that has become my new favorite.  The website for the app provided enough of a teaser on his story that I knew Brett Golson would be an entrepreneur that I wanted to introduce to you.  I reached out and Brett was gracious to tell me his startup story.

The Problem with Index Cards

Brett’s company is Millennial Apps, LLC and their main product is Scripture Typer.  You can use Scripture Typer on any device (your memory verses are linked to your account) and you can share verses with others to be encouraging one another in the Word.  If you haven’t guessed it yet, Scripture Typer is a mobile and web app for memorizing scripture.

Throughout his life, there have been times that, like many of us, Brett has been convicted about the need to memorize scripture.  Also like many of us, he turned to the trusty old index card –  write out the verse, and carry it with you wherever you go.  

While this approach generally worked, Brett found two main problems.  The first problem was that, though he may remember (most of) the verse, he often would forget the card and it would make an unsuccessful trip through the laundry.  The second problem was a good one to have. As often happens when the Lord puts a scripture in our mind, Brett would encounter someone who really needed to be blessed by that scripture, and he would give his index card away.  Both of these problems were easy to fix, but Brett thought there had to be a better way.

Brett also noticed that if he typed out the verse he was trying to memorize, he would learn it more quickly.  The combination of the audible (saying the verse out loud), visual (reading the verse), and kinesthetic (typing it out) resulted in much quicker learning.

Step one towards entrepreneurship – seeing a problem and starting to imagine a solution.

What Happens When You Pray

In the mid-2000’s, Brett was happily employed as a software developer.  He felt called to take a sabbatical year to focus on the Lord and prayer.  God blessed him in many ways that year, including meeting McKenzie, the young lady who would become his wife.  While Brett had planned to return to his former job, after getting married, McKenzie’s family started working on the National Prayer Bank, a not-for-profit website where people can share prayer requests and pray for others.  Brett was excited to join in this family venture.  And that led to the for-profit family startup, Millennial Solutions, LLC, a web development firm with a particular focus on helping churches integrate the features of the National Prayer Bank into their websites.

At Christmas that year (2009), Brett took a short break from all the craziness, and as a fun project put together a web-based app to help solve his “index card problem.”  He was pretty happy with the results, so he grabbed the ScriptureTyper.com domain name, published the app, did a little search engine optimazation, promoted it on a few blogs, and the traffic started to grow.  Other bloggers noticed it and the traffic grew even more.

The only challenge was monetization.  Brett tried using Google AdSense to provide advertising revenue, but in the right circumstances, even with the right filtering settings, some ads would get served that really weren’t appropriate for a Bible memorization site.  About that time, Brett started appreciating the value of mobile apps.  He realized that the new business models enabled by the Apple App Store (and later Google Play) could begin generating revenue for Scripture Typer.  As he launched the apps, the existing user base on the ScriptureTyper.com website provided tremendous interest in the new apps, helping lift the rankings in the app stores, and that increased visibility drove more interest and even higher rankings.  Before long, Scripture Typer was the top result people saw when they searched for Bible memorization in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore for Android.

The revenue model for the app is pretty straight forward.  Initially, Brett charged for the app, but with the release of version 2.0, he made the basic app free and introduced a Pro version with a few extra features.  The price is so low and the value of the app is so high for me, that I didn’t hesitate to upgrade.

Writing a mobile app also created a new line of business for Brett.  While continuing with Millennial Solutions, he formed Millennial Apps, LLC as the home of Scripture Typer, but has also been taking on a diverse set of mobile app development projects for new clients, many of whom have found Brett because they are impressed with Scripture Typer.

Bearing Fruit

I asked Brett how his faith impacts his approach to business.  He pointed me to the beginning of John 15.  “I’m always trying to be intentional about abiding in the Lord.  It’s not that He’s with me in what I’m doing as much as it is that I need to be with Him in what He’s doing.  That’s the only way that I’m going to bear fruit, whether that be in my business or in the kingdom.”  That sounds like a great perspective for all of us.

As I introduce you to these entrepreneurs each month, I hope that the focus isn’t on what men and women are doing, but what God is doing through them.  A verse that Scripture Typer has helped me memorize I think appropriately reflects that: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10 ESV)

“My grandpa was a preacher and I grew up in the church.  I’ve been blessed to enjoy healthy church communities.  But I also know people who are struggling with how to get connected into the church and just need a little guidance and encouragement.  I’m excited that we can help people rise to new heights in the dimension of their life that should be most important to them.”

For the June 2016 issue of MinistryTech, I returned to the topic of a previous column and introduced the company that had emerged, Altimeter Software, and their co-founder, Austin McRay.

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.  

Six months ago, I introduced you to Summer Lashley and Oklahoma Christian University’s Ethos spiritual development program as an example of an established Christian organization with entrepreneurial spirit leveraging technology to introduce a new program that is core to the university’s mission.  Today I’m excited to share with you how that initial effort has been spun-out into a new stand-alone startup business to serve other universities, large churches, and high schools.

Introducing Altimeter

Last year, another Christian university approached OC about licensing the Ethos software, so when I arrived on campus in the Fall as the Entrepreneur in Residence, I was asked to look into this new business opportunity.  We formed a team of four students: one computer science major, a double-major in CS and electrical engineering, an accounting major, and a marketing major.  For the next several months, these four examined the product capabilities, the potential market fit, the competitive landscape, and built a relatively sophisticated financial model to test different scenarios.  

In January of this year, the team presented their recommendations to university leadership.  Altimeter Software, LLC was formed later that month and entered into an agreement with OC to license the intellectual property.  The university also agreed to incubate the business on-campus to minimize start-up costs.  Two of those students have continued with the business as it has launched, and Summer Lashley has stepped in as CEO.

What the team realized is that the software is good for more than just spiritual development.  In fact, it can work for any use where you should get credit for being in the right place at the right time.  The product has two components: a mobile app and a management dashboard.  The mobile app allows users to discover events, check into those events (via GPS, beacon, card-swipe, or manual entry), and track their progress towards a goal.  The web-based dashboard enables organizations to set goals, add events, track user progress, and run reports to identify opportunities for improvement.  For example, one report showed that students living in the on-campus apartments were falling behind their goal, so the Ethos team created more events convenient for them.  Another report showed that Engineering students were overly focused on formal worship events, so the Ethos team worked with faculty to create more small group opportunities.  Those capabilities have worked great for OC’s Ethos program, but can have much broader appeal in other types of organizations.

The team identified three reference “meters” that a broad array of potential customers might be able to use.  Obviously, the first is a meter for people to gauge how they’re doing in their spiritual development.  The second meter is for community service, for organizations that encourage or require their members to be active in serving the community.  The third meter measures fan loyalty, setting goals (with rewards) for attending a team’s sporting events.  Based on just these three uses, the target market broadens from Christian universities to churches, Christian high schools, secular colleges and high schools, and even recreational to professional sports teams.  But, in reality, a customer can create a meter to track just about anything.  Altimeter’s first customer, another Christian university, plans to introduce meters in the Fall to track attendance in large classes and for curfew check-in for Freshman dorms.

Introducing Austin

One of the founders of Altimeter is Austin McRay.  Austin graduated from Oklahoma Christian in April with a Marketing degree with an emphasis on Professional Sales.  Instead of getting a sales job with an existing company, Austin has chosen to start his career as the head of business development for this startup.  One area that he’s particularly excited about is helping large churches.

“As I’ve talked to large churches, it’s clear that two areas of challenge for them are accountability and engagement.  They have lots of programs and lots of people, but it’s pretty clear that not all the people are connecting with even some of the programs.  What’s not clear is the who and the what, which makes it impossible to figure out the why.”

Austin points to research by the Leadership Network and Hartford Institute that says that “having a high percentage of robust actively engaged members enhances many congregational dynamics” (including increased giving and healthier small group participation). And that “innovation and willingness to change are strongly correlated to growth and health.”  He hopes that the Altimeter software can provide an innovative solution for large churches to drive accountability and engagement.

“My grandpa was a preacher and I grew up in the church.  I’ve been blessed to enjoy healthy church communities.  But I also know people who are struggling with how to get connected into the church and just need a little guidance and encouragement.  I’m excited that we can help people rise to new heights in the dimension of their life that should be most important to them.”

I’m impressed with Austin’s maturity and his focus on creating value –  in terms of his customer’s objectives, but more importantly in terms of spiritual growth.  Colossians 3:23-24 tells us “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”  I look forward to seeing how Austin will be blessed through this entrepreneurial experience.

“‘You really can respect your customers and succeed in business.’  He then, equally passionately shared the joy that comes from providing jobs for employees, putting food on their tables, and showing them that you care.”

The May 2016 issue of MinistryTech featured Kris Austin, co-founder of Draft2Digital.

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 Kris Austin.  Kris is co-founder and CEO of Draft2Digital, an online business that helps authors get their books published.  The company announced their service on the last day of 2012.  Today, less than three and a half years later, they have helped more than 20 thousand authors publish more than 80 thousand books which have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.  They have grown from Kris as the only employee at the beginning of 2013 to 15 full time employees today.  The business is focused on treating their customers well and has been profitable enough to be entirely self-funded, and has been able to provide support to the owners’ churches and a variety of ministries.  That doesn’t mean that the journey has been lacking in “sanctifying opportunities”.

Four College Buddies

Kris graduated from Oklahoma Christian University in 2004 with a degree in Computer Science.  Over the years, he kept in touch with many of his college friends, including fellow CS grads Toby Nance and Sean Sanders [is this the right Sean?], and English major Aaron Pogue.  

Each enjoyed success in their diverse career paths, but Aaron ran into a roadblock in achieving his dream of publishing his first novel and turned to his computer buddies for help.  The major publishing houses had turned down his book, and when he turned to the opportunity to self-publish through the eBook markets, he found the existing tools hard to use and frustrating to navigate.  

Toby quickly developed a script to quickly and easily take a manuscript, like Aaron’s, and turn it into a distribution-ready eBook file.  As they talked about it with their friends, they started to get a vision for a service to do the same for all the other aspiring, but frustrated, authors out there.  In March 2012, they formed the Draft2Digital business, but it wasn’t until Kris quit his job in August of that year to become employee #1, that they really started making traction on the web-based system that they would launch at the end of that year.  The rest, as they say, is history.  (By the way, Aaron’s fantasy novel became a bestseller and he has followed it up with six other fantasy and sci-fi novels, with several projects currently in the works.)

Four “Knows”

I recently asked Kris to share his experiences launching Draft2Digital with my Christian Entrepreneurs group at Oklahoma Christian.  He started by sharing the four things that he said that every entrepreneur needs to know.

Kris shared that every startup need to know your industry.  Kris and his programming buddies didn’t know the book publishing industry when they started, but they needed to learn quickly.  The traditional industry had worked the same way for over a century, dominated by a small number of publishers (the “Big 5”) who controlled which books reached the shelves in bookstores.  Then, in 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle and disrupted the industry.  Several other eBook publishing platforms followed Amazon’s lead including Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Google.  These moves opened the publishing world for authors to credibly self-publish, but there are technical issues and distribution issues that make it complex for authors.

Kris said that it’s critical to also know your customer.  For Draft2Digital, the customer they sell their service to is the author.  Authors just want to write.  They don’t want to be in the publishing business.  They don’t want to be layout designers or marketers or distribution negotiators, and yet self-publishing requires all of these activities.  Before Draft2Digital launched, others had already pioneered the author assistance space, which leads into the third “know” – know your competition.  Kris and company recognized that their primary existing competitor had certain admirable traits and strengths, but that it wasn’t fully meeting the needs of authors.  That understanding allowed Draft2Digital to focus on the specific author-centric activities and attributes that would set them apart for their target market.

Finally, Kris emphasized that you need to know your plan.  As a self-funded startup, the company fully leveraged the Lean Startup methodology, launching their MVP (minimal viable product) at the end of 2012 and then iterating rapidly based on real customer engagement.  They knew what set them apart, so they kept their product simple, not confusing customers with too much information and too many options.  They also played to their strengths.  As Kris said, “we’re programmers” – so they used software to automate and simplify whenever possible.

Two Darks and Two Lights

In his talk, Kris also shared what he called “the dark side of publishing,” “the light side of publishing,” “the dark side of business,” and “the light side of business.”  (Kris joked that it is obvious that science fiction is his favorite genre.)  Space is limited in this article, so I can’t recount all of these experiences here, but a couple of “sanctifying experiences” are worth sharing.  

One thing that Kris and team learned with their MVP offer is how quickly sin can creep in.  The day they launched, scammers started automatically generating books violating the copyrights of others and taking advantage of the Draft2Digital platform to get them published.  Kris and team had to find a way to identify these and shut them down.  

The next challenge was with erotica.  Kris quickly learned that more than half of the revenues in the publishing industry come from “romance” novels and other forms of erotica.  The company had to develop a system to automatically detect and categorize different genres of content to be able to appropriate handle each kind.  Software freed them from having to read this and other dangerous content themselves.

On the light side, Kris talked about the impact on others.  He praised God for first helping authors realize their dreams, and then helping them make a living.  Draft2Digital has been able to provide some authors with six-figures in royalty payments.  He particularly emphasized the joy that comes from showing authors the respect that they deserve.  “You really can respect your customers and succeed in business.”  He then, equally passionately shared the joy that comes from providing jobs for employees, putting food on their tables, and showing them that you care.

It sounds like Draft2Digital is living out the Golden Rule.  Jesus said “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).  I hope that some of the lessons that Kris shared can be a blessing to you as you consider how to act as a Christian entrepreneur wherever God has placed you.

“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.