Things are settling down.
For many of us, and particularly those in our society who are the most vulnerable, the high intensity challenges of the last few weeks will continue. But on a broader scale, it feels like our society is slowly starting to emerge from the initial ‘disaster’ response phase to this pandemic.
As I reflect on the past few weeks, it feels like there has been a lot of ‘noise’ about how best to respond to COVID-19. There has been a lot of talk, particularly within Christian circles, about this being a great opportunity for the church to stand up and BE the church Jesus calls us to be for our communities. It’s been amazing to see some doing that despite the challenges this lockdown presents.
The last thing we want to do at Seed is add to the ‘noise’ about COVID, but we feel compelled to speak and to help where we can. This virus has caused mass disruption and dismantled many of our personal, organisational and communal structures. Some of you will have made difficult decisions in recent weeks in the face of new resource limitations.
We are not choosing to re-build. We are being forced to do so. My belief is that your survival and flourishing into the future won’t be determined by the cutbacks you make (as necessary as they may be), but your capacity to radically innovate as you rebuild for the future.
For business owners or organisational leaders, you will likely never have a cultural moment like this that affords you the chance to revisit your foundations.
For some of you, the opportunity this presents you with is to rebuild on foundations that are more aligned with God’s design and intention for you and your context. It’s an opportunity you cannot afford to miss.
For others, your foundations are already strong. Your fundamental purpose hasn’t changed. You are still positioned to serve the context where God has placed you. However, everything that was built on those foundations has come crashing down. Every other assumption you made in the design of your current strategy and product offerings has shifted. Your business model, customer analysis, market analysis, stakeholder plan and financial model all need to be revisited.
Seed’s Redemptive Design framework comes alive in times like this and we want to put it to work helping you.
Before you can re-build, you must first re-imagine.
We’re offering a new course called Re-Imagine especially designed for Christians who own or are leading small to medium enterprises through this season.
Re-Imagine is a 1-week design sprint purpose-built to lead you through rapid iterations of some simple but effective tools that will help you ask the right questions in the right way for this season. We start by helping you quickly revisit and re-affirm your foundations, then move to deep analysis of the new context you are operating in, before searching out and prayerfully discerning where the opportunities lie for you to rebuild. For those who need it, there will be additional support available to help you design new products/services and business/financial models around those opportunities.
Re-Imagine will help you get clarity in your thinking and planning. It will help you make well-informed decisions, allowing you to navigate your way out of this current COVID season with confidence.
As we start to rebuild both personally and collectively after Easter, these words that I read recently in an article from our friends at Praxis resonated with me
Grief and loss go together in Christian faith with vision and hope in a singular way, because they are the story of Cross and Resurrection. There is no greater grief than Calvary, the crucifixion of the very Son of God by the ones he came to save. There is no greater hope than Easter. And the risen Lord of Easter made himself known to his disciples by the wounds in his hands, feet, and side. When we rise and reign with him over the new creation, he will be in appearance like a Lamb that was slain. We, too, will bear our scars, and the leaders of our worship will be the martyrs, the ones who sacrificed everything to bear witness to him.
Christian creativity begins with grief — the grief of a world gone wrong. It enfolds it in lament — the loud cry of Good Friday, the silence of Holy Saturday — and still comes to the tomb early Sunday morning.
Our foundational story has within it all we need to navigate these challenges with creativity and hope. We pray that you will be so deeply rooted in this story that your light will shine in the midst of darkness.