Creative Revenue - Jolie

Jolie, one of our IG team members this summer, on the right, dreamed and executed a variety/talent show for her creative revenue plan. Super great fun last Friday night and I always love seeing high school talent in the fine arts. 13 acts and around 100 people.

And of course, this is a great case study in creative revenue: Jolie used her network, did the difficult work of finding and recruiting talent, persuaded the right people to do the right things and secured an incredible venue for no cost. She used her time, treasure and talent for something remarkable.

She raised just over $1200 but the money is a tangent. The real beauty is in bringing an idea to market, including dreaming, executing, communicating and delighting customers.

Friday Burn

::: The Most Beautiful Airports in the World
Link


::: Baltimore in population trends
Link


::: UAE fulfills $120M pledge for polio eradication
Link

::: Attention is the beginning of devotion. - Mary Oliver via Jon Tyson

Photo: Ember IG team, Baltimore, MD.

Reminder - Jolie's variety show tonight - she is on the Ember IG team. Church at Severn Run, 6pm.

Experiencing Creative Revenue

One of our Italy-Greece team members is hosting a variety/talent show this coming Friday as part of her Creative Revenue Plan. If you would love to support our team but can't give financially or not sure what else to do, this would be a great way to show your support. Come meet and hang with our team and be entertained by some high school talent - we would sure love to see you. Here are the details:

Friday April 27th
The Church at Severn Run
8187 Telegraph Road, Severn, MD 21144
Doors at 6pm, show at 6:30pm
$10 cash at the door
There will be snacks for sale.

Friday Burn

::: American Airlines' AAirpass
Link


::: Where is the OLPC now?
I bought one of these in 2007, big fan of the ideas behind it.
Link


::: Sydney to split into 3 cities
Link


::: Live to the point of tears. - Albert Camus via Jon Tyson

Photo: Blackheath, Australia.

Evangelism as Exploration

This raises the general question: How do churches effectively reach New Copernicans? My assessment is that churches need to provide authentic experiences of following Jesus into the arenas of their deepest longings (justice, beauty, love and spirit), giving them an opportunity to connect their personal story with a larger narrative of meaning, particularly couched in a relationally humble 3-D posture. Millennials want to see that you practice what you preach, that you love the world you live in through your work and not just your words.
Most importantly, this will require revamping how we think about, frame and teach evangelism. Even the word evangelism is a stumbling block for many millennials. The immediate reaction is "What are you trying to sell me or do to me that I don't want?" This is a fair reaction in light of the church's typical approach. We need a new picture for evangelism. It is less about closing a mortgage as joining an exploration.

- The New Corpernicans, Millennials and the Survival of the Church - David John Seel, Jr.

IG Team Meeting #6

When we get the chance, most years that I lead teams, I try and drag the team to a Perspectives class when I can. If I'm teaching it, I'll intro the team to the class too. It gives our team a chance to learn some of the content in the class, which is still one of the best collection of content about global missions, and it inspires and challenges the people taking the class. If a 16 year old has signed up to spend 2 weeks in an unreached city, what are you doing about your convictions?

Ember April Dinner

In the Spring of 2011, I met David Huey at a Dream Year weekend here in DC. We hit it off based on lots of similarities, including both of us running a nonprofit as a 'hobby', day jobs in technology, and a passion to live lives larger than just ourselves. David runs Hungry For a Day and we've kept in touch over these many years. David was gracious enough to fly up here to be our Ember April dinner guest. Some notes from our conversation below:

The book that changed it all - A million miles in a thousand years by Donald Miller
Wanted to live a significant life just wasn't sure how. A life having a good job and going on good vacations wasn't enough.

Made some money even before they knew they needed it.
Sold college football t shirts, made about $3K
About a year and a half later, started Hungry 4 A Day

Bless others out of abundance
Inspire others to sacrifice
Give out of excess of time, treasure, talents
Did not want to be the primary financial donor for his nonprofit
Other people give way more than he does

Basic premise is that people can choose to donate money to specific projects sponsored by H4AD. Most projects last 2 months. Some samples include:
Serenity steps sex industry hot dogs and prayer
Got a food pantry up and running
Food truck in st pete that makes gourmet pb&j sandwiches - buy 1 and 1 gets given away
Set up a bakery in an Iraqi refugee camp
Thanksgiving project where they partner with churches to do thanksgiving meals. Started with 50 people first year now up to 22k people last year.

God provides when you don't know it
Someone wanted to give them a truck
They had decided early on that they did not want to be in the food distribution business so no warehouses, trucks, etc.
They accepted the truck and then found out someone else in their network needed it.

Ideal partner org for them is someone with a small budget not a huge operation.

Favorite Book - A million in a thousand years Donald Miller
Favorite Place - Iceland or Hawaii
Favorite Food or Meal - Mexican food
Another career - I actually love my job

How often do you go hungry for a day
2 or 3 times a year

How many sought out Jesus from tday outreach

Gave up NFL and fantasy football to get things done

Advice for young people:
Travel when you can
Get out of your own biases

Creative Revenue Plans - 2018

Ember believes that missionaries of the future will rely on a 'portfolio of revenue.' [credit for this term goes to Ben Arment.] In other words, they will need to actually make some money outside of personal donations. Since 2013, our summer teams have been required to dream and execute a Creative Revenue Plan - a way to make some income based on their talents and gifts. This unique income will go directly towards 10-25% of funding of their missions experience. Prayer and financial support letters are also required.

Creative revenue has proven to be one of the most exciting things happening with our teams every summer. Their required inception makes students imagine what using their skills look like. The execution of the plans requires dealing with customers, communicating both about the product/service and the why behind it, and experimenting with pricing and costs. And over the course of 3 months, students get to see incremental progress that amounts to a pretty significant financial bonus. Since 2013, this creative revenue has totaled to be just over $20K, averaging about $4K every summer.

Photo: One of the team's offerings this year, bath bombs.

My Wife Made Me Get on a Boat

Dinner with Kyle in Sydney

Glass Mountains

Burleigh Heads