Big Things Have Small Beginnings...

My wife and I went and saw Prometheus last night.  One of the lines from the film stuck with me for hours afterward.  David, an android, stares at a virus on the tip of his finger and states, "Big things have small beginnings."  A resounding truth.

The success of any new undertaking relies largely on perspective. For instance...

In our first week after the launch SAVN had 800 registered users, 4000 visitors, 2400 unique visitors, and 26,000 page views.  From an "overall Internet" perspective, these numbers were minimal.  From an "open beta" perspective, these numbers were respectable.  From an "online corps" perspective, these numbers were HUGE.

From any perspective, these numbers are more than satisfactory.  Did we expect SAVN to be a "run away train" straight from the gate?  Not by a long shot.  The SAVN team is thrilled with our roll-out numbers.  The revolution has begun!

Big things have small beginnings.

A mighty oak tree grows from a tiny seed.  An atomic explosion begins with the splitting of the smallest known particle: an atom.  FaceBook, 800 million members strong, was started by a 20 year old kid in a college dorm room.  The salvation of all mankind came in the form of a baby, born in a manger.

Big things have small beginnings.

Does an oak tree grow over night?  Was the atom bomb invented in a day?  Did Zuckerberg accumulate millions of members in his first week? (point of fact, he had little over half the number of registrations in his first week as did SAVN)  Was Christ's mission accomplished in the first few years of his life?  No, no, no, and NO!

Big things have small beginnings... and take time to develop and grow into BIG things.

SAVN.tv will be no exception.  Our beginnings are modest, as expected.  With God's blessing, we will grow into a mighty oak and win the world!

Be sure to join us on this amazing journey.  Don't miss out!

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin..." Zechariah 4:10

Time to Cooke!

It became apparent that those of us "on the inside," that is to say, we Salvationists, were standing a bit too close to the beast.  In our attempts to see the forest through the trees, we were rapidly losing sight of the big picture.  The time arrived for a fresh, "outsiders" perspective,  someone who had nothing invested in The Salvation Army's mission.  We needed someone creative, a Believer experienced in media, a man who would deliver the unfiltered truth about the relevance of our ministry and a direction in which to steer it.

We needed Phil Cooke.

An internationally known writer and speaker, Phil Cooke has actually produced media programming in more than 40 countries around the world.  According to former CNN journalist Paula Zahn, Phil is rare – a working producer in Hollywood with a Ph.D. in Theology. He’s appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and his work has been profiled in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He has worked for such clients as Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Joel Osteen, and Robert Schuller. Cooke produced Billy Graham's most-seen program, Starting Over, which reached around 1.5 billion people in 200 countries in one day.


His book: "Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Non-Profits Impact the Culture and Others Don't" is changing the way nonprofit and religious organizations use the media to tell their story.  And his new book "Jolt!: Get the Jump on a World That's Constantly Changing." shares his secrets of making today's culture of disruption and change work for you.


Could you think of a better advisor to help launch a Christian Media website?  We couldn't.


Phil and his team came in and we went to work.  They were astounded at the footprint of The Salvation Army on the global stage.  Daniel Temple, owner of Sermon Spice, kept repeating, "I can't believe how much the Army does.  I had no idea!" over and over again.  Phil, Daniel, and the rest of the team were ecstatic about the potential of SAVN.tv.  They got it.  They really got it.


Once again, I found myself in the midst of an innovative battlefield, creative crossfire flashing back and forth across the boardroom table.  When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, the most prevalent question seemed to be, "What do you want to communicate?  What is the Army's mission?"


"Well... we help people."


"That's it!  Helping people!  The Salvation Army is a world leader in Social Action issues.  People from every walk of life, all over the world, have one thing in common: They want to feel good about themselves.  So let's give them that opportunity.  SAVN will open the door for users, believers and nonbelievers alike, to do good things for others.  This will be the first 'Social Action Website'!" 


Using a common ground via media to unite people through good deeds while introducing the Gospel.  Brilliant.

We interrupt our program...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for this important announcement...

SAVN.tv IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED!

For those of you who didn't tune in, we had an amazing first weekend!  The Cyber Cafe was a smash, resulting in hundreds of new members signed up on the site.  SAVN Live hit it's stride by the weekend, averaging 1200 views per day.  We couldn't have asked for a more successful start!

The Gathering went off without a hitch and the SAVN Team did our Territory proud.

Thanks to all who have supported and believed in this dream.  We could not have done it without you.  We look forward to working with you in delivering the Gospel message to the world by way of social networking and the internet!

GOD IS GOOD!

Life (and death) Cycle of an Organization

Our new found direction inspired us to gather all of the most creative minds from the four corners of the Western Territory into a "Creative Caucus."  We locked these unfortunate souls in a room and commanded them to create.  The Caucus members put their noses to the grindstone and diligently whittled away.

Truthfully, the officers and soldiers who made up the Creative Caucus were in attendance of their own accord.  They volunteered their time with the sincere desire to help form a revolutionary new ministry.  The original ideas that flowed from that gathering of minds gave us new hope.  These folks were outstanding!

At one point, in the midst of the creative chaos, I had a wonderfully random "Eureka!" moment.  It came at the hands of our dear friend, Terry Camsey, who stood in front of the group and laid the truth at our feet.

"Throughout history..." he began.  "Every government, organization, and movement has followed the same life-cycle."  He sauntered over to the white-board and drew an upward sloping line, "Each movement, born of an original idea, quickly slopes up into Revolution.  A revolutionary, ground-breaking, new concept that attracts the masses.  Hordes of people flock to the movement, clamoring to be a part of radical change.  Steam builds and the movement experiences the lion-share of its overall growth during this beginning stage. Until..."

At the top of the sloping "revolution" line, Terry drew a horizontal line and pointed at it.  "Institution," he said. "The inevitable plateau.  Growth tapers as tradition and protocol begin to bog down the system.  The Movement stalls."

"As with aerodynamics, a stall will always be followed by the inevitable plunge..."  Terry's pen drew a swooping downward line, "Into Museum.  In every major movement, this downward spiral marks the beginning-of-the-end.  What follows soon after is..." In one final act of penmanship, Terry scrawled the word "DEATH" across the board.

"There is only one way for a movement to cheat death." He continued, "...through REVOLUTION."  The group sat silent.  "CHANGE is the only known antidote to organizational oblivion.  A system must adapt and evolve if it is to survive the long haul.  A movement on the verge of death must be reinvented and reborn or it will surely dissolve and fade away."

Terry studied the room.  "Now you must ask yourself... Do you want to be involved in The Salvation Army's death?  Or do you want to be involved in its rebirth?  I believe SAVN to be the first step in our great Army's movement to reinvent itself.  I'm on board because I choose 'rebirth.'  What you choose is up to you."  And with that, Terry took his seat.

"Eureka!" I thought.  "That's EXACTLY what our Army needs.  Rebirth!  This man's a genius!"  I felt renewed and refreshed, something akin to what Skywalker must have felt sitting at the knee of Obi-Wan.  Time to go out and start the Revolution!

A few months passed.  My father ran into Terry at a friend's retirement party.  During the Caucus, Terry had taken extensive notes and spent the last few months organizing them.  He told dad that he had just crossed the last "t" and dotted the last "i" that very day and was going to turn his opus over to SAVN.

Two days later, Terry was Promoted to Glory.  It was a tragic blow and great loss to our Army.  He was a great man.  Though his passing was grievous, it gave me a wonderful peace.  The SAVN caucus was the last bit of work that God had for Terry before taking him home.  It was an amazing confirmation that this ministry has truly been ordained by God.  Coincidence?  You'll never convince me of that.

We'll miss you and see you in Glory, Terry.  God speed, my friend.  God speed.

Good question, Ralph.

Commissioner Knaggs explained his vision to me: "I was sitting at home with Carolyn," he began.  "We were flipping through Netflix shows and suddenly it dawned me... Why can't we do this?  Why can't we reach the world by way of the internet?"

In as such, Commissioner Knaggs’ vision encompassed a “Netflix” model for SAVN.  Essentially, the vision was to create a streaming video site that played original Christian content.  Without delay, SAVN began developing original video content to share the Gospel with the world.  The vision was tight and concise.

Shortly thereafter, a few of our key team members sat down to lunch with Ralph Winter (producer of Fantastic 4, X Men, and Wolverine).  Ralph sat across the table and politely listened as we outlined our brilliant "Christian Netflix" model.  At the conclusion of our pitch, we sat in silence, staring at Ralph, awaiting a much anticipated standing ovation from this critically acclaimed Hollywood mogul.  Instead of applause, Ralph gave a simple response that was to completely change the course of our ministry, "There are thousands of Christian media sites out there.  What's going to make yours different?  What's going to set it apart from the others?  As a consumer, why am I going to choose your ministry over all the rest?"

Good question, Ralph.

What's going to make our media more compelling than the sea of Christian videos already out there?  Moreover, how can we expect to win souls for the Kingdom by duplicating the same old faith-based media that has saturated the web?  We had to come up with something fresh, something new, something that had never been attempted before.  Back to the drawing board.  

The team came together and brainstormed more creative ideas and concepts for “winning the world."  It was amazing!  Creative thought ran wild. Fresh and original concepts too fantastic to ignore flew across the boardroom table in an ingenious flurry.  A massive vision evolved.  A vision so enormous... it became impossibly unfocused.  This gargantuan precept now loomed over us, blotting out the sun, with no determinable starting point. We had unwittingly created Frankenstein's monster and were rapidly losing control of our creation.  SAVN was becoming that which we had been trying so hard to avoid -  "all things to all men."

We collapsed into our chairs, perplexed and confused. We couldn't possibly present this amorphous blob to the Territorial Commander.  What to do?

Time to seek a fresh perspective...