You hear it don’t you?
The stampede of startups changing the world as we know it. Let’s be honest, we’ve heard it for a while but now the march is at a deafening pace. But why not, everything around us has been a precursor to it:
- Unemployment at 8.2%
- Micro-niches not being met
- Opportunities not being served
- Game changing technology at our disposal
- A global economy that has become more localized
- And the cost of building an internet business at an all time low.
But what is the church’s impact in this revolution?
For the most part we do a great job of teaching “workplace ministry” and being “like Jesus on the job.” But there are few resources in the church for startups.
But the church on the whole hasn’t quite caught up with this next move of God.
It’s evident that there is a generation who doesn’t just want a “job”:
- There are those who love God, who want to build meaningful work and not have a soul crushing job?
- There are disenfranchised and newly minted college students who can’t find “the dream” they were promised?
- There are those of us crazy enough to want to change the world?
- There are those who do want to go into full time ministry, but don’t want church support, or the restrictions that come with a full time job?
We brought together some of the top internet marketers, business leaders, and thought leaders including:
Perry Marshall
Entrepreneur Magazine says, “Perry Marshall is the #1 author and world’s most quoted consultant on Google Advertising. He has helped over 100,000 advertisers save literally billions of dollars in Adwords stupidity tax. His Chicago company, Perry S. Marshall & Associates, consults both online and brick and mortar companies on generating sales leads, web traffic, and maximizing advertising results. At $1300 per hour he’s one of the most expensive and sought after marketing consultant. He’s been featured in USA Today, Inc, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, Fast Company, and a host of other periodicals.
He’s published thousands of articles in sales, marketing and technology. He’s been featured at conferences in the US, Canada, UK, Israel, and Australia. He’s shared the stage with Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jay Abraham, Gary Hilbert, Marc Ostrofsky, Mari Smith, Harvey Mackay, and Les Brown. He’s consulted in over 300 industries, from computer hardware and software to high end consulting, from health & fitness to corporate finance.
Dan Miller
Dan Miller specializes in creative thinking for increased personal and business success. He is active in helping individuals redirect careers, evaluate new income sources, and achieve balanced living. He believes a clear sense of direction can help us become all that God designed us to be.
He writes regularly for many popular magazines and web portal, including CBN.com, Crosswalk.com, In Touch, AARP, and Success Magazine. He has been a guest on CBS, The Early Show, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, 700 Clubs Living the Life, and Fox Business with Dave Ramsey Show. He also hosts a weekly podcast that is consistently ranked #1 in iTunes.
Bob Hutchins
Bob Hutchins runs Buzzplant, an 11+ year old marketing agency targeting the faith/family market. His team was an integral part of the online campaign for Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, The Chronicles of Narnia, Soul Surfer, Blue Like Jazz, and many other books, music releases, and events. His client partner roster includes Time-Life, Sony Pictures, General Motors, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Warner Brothers, Thomas Nelson Publishers and Zondervan. He is the co-founder of the Faith Based Marketing Associaltion and Ground Force Network, and has been featured on Fox News, MSNBC, in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, INC Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Marketing VOX, American City Business Journals, Dallas Morning News, and on various television/radio media.
Scott Williams
Scott WIlliams served as a key leader and Campus Pastor for LifeChurch.tv. Under his leadership, the Northwest Oklahoma City Campus grew to a weekend attendance of over 3,500. Currently, he is the Chief Solutions Officer for Nxt Level Solutions, a consulting company he founded to help businesses, non profits, and individuals with both internal and external growth. He is an avid blogger at BigIsTheNew Small.com. He is consistently in demand as a communicator, strategist and consultant.
Tim Peters
Tim Peters is the CEO and Co-Founder of Resolute Creative–and Internet Marketing Group that helps organizations grow by resolving Internet challenges with digital solutions. He’s consulted churches, non profit and for profit organizations in the area of marketing, technology and communications. He has been featured in such blogs as MichaelHyatt, Big is The New Small, Church Leaders, Catalyst Space, Ben Stroup, and Pastors.
Ryan Ferrier
Ryan J. Ferrier helps young people invest in themselves professionally so that they get paid more, do work that they love, and create value for others. He was a founder or early team memeber at 3 successful startup companies. His companies have been acquired by Microsoft and Zynga. As a startup operator and executive, he’s literally hired hundreds of people as employees and contractors. He currently serves as an advisor to some of Silicon Valley’s top startups on their business operations and strategies. You can visit Ryan at http://bootstrapmylife.com/
Kimanzi Constable
Kimanzi Constable is an author who has self-published two eBooks and sold over 45,000 copies. His first published book will be out this February (Sound Wisdom Books). He is an international speaker (3 countries and 8 states), coach and consultant. His mission is to help people live the full and abundant life the Lord wants them to lead. You can find him at Tales of Work.
David Tonen
David Tonen is the Marketing Navigator at MinistryStory.com where he uses his 20-years of corporate marketing experience to help pastors, and church leaders to communicate with greater effectiveness, impact, and excellence. He also helps entrepreneurs to develop effective marketing and communications strategies to grow their businesses to maximum potential through Marketing Integrity.
David thrives on a spirit of Godly entrepreneurism. He has served as a church planter with LifeBridge Church and recently partnered with several Christian businessmen to launch Integrity Magazine a quarterly magazine that encourages Christians to live out their faith in the marketplace. He records the only active Church marketing and communications podcast to educate church leaders on how to leverage communication tools and technology to tell the greatest story on the planet…the story of Jesus.
Kim Garst
Kim Garst is a mompreneur, social media and personal branding strategist, author, business mentor, speaker, mother of two and the CEO of Social Media Branding, a global company with over 27,000 subscribers and members. Kim specializes in helping you get more sales, more leads and more clients utilizing social media and the Internet as a whole. Her systems are easy to implement and get quick results for businesses of all sizes and shapes.
Kim was recently named by Forbes as one of the top 50 Social Media Influencers and has appeared on CBS, NBC, NPR as well as being featured in many businesses publications such as Business Journal and Digital Journal.
Visit her at http://www.kimgarst.com/
Connect with Kim at:
Twitter: twitter.com/KimGarst
Facebook: facebook.com/socialmediabrandinggal
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kimgarst
Pinterest: pinterest.com/kimgarst
In a late post I’ll give you my step by step method for getting all these people? 
But what do you think are we in the middle of a startup revolution? If we are, is the church doing enough to handle it?
What are your thoughts
This post was written by...
Michael – who has written 77 posts on The Simple Strategies for Startups Blog.
Michael is the an author, blogger, and speaker, Why not give me a shout on Google
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I’ve heard many church leaders say, “We want to be known more for our sending capacity than our seating capacity.” I’ve met very few who truly embrace that reality and know how to do it. I can’t help but think sometimes that all the talk of Christian leadership in churches is a bit like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. You’re expending energy — maybe even accomplishing something — but it’s not changing the overall trajectory of where this ship is headed.