Blood, Sweat and Innovation

Watching the Mars Hill documentary was great. Just seeing how they were all complete amateurs and totally winging it. They pretty much just made it up as they went along. And they were really bold in the way they did everything. They worked really hard, had day jobs, and were prepared to be totally flat broke. Very inspiring, and a reminder that doing God's work isn't always easy or well paid.

One of the points that jumped out at me was Mark explaining that having very little finances required them to innovate. For example, they couldn't afford tape duplicators so they put their sermons online as mp3 downloads, and were one of the first churches to do so. They were also one of the first churches to have a website. They thought up the video campus as a way of overcoming the boundaries of time and space. And it was quite an eye-opener as to how ropey it was in the early days. They just learnt as they went along. Sometimes we're prone to not trying new ideas because it won't be that slick to begin with. But you have to try new things to get that momentum going.