Revolutionary business model

My most recent issue of Inc Magazine had these guys on the cover.

"So what," you say?  Fair enough.  These guys are Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff, executive leaders of Threadless, a local t shirt company that is charting a uniquely 21st century business model.  In fact, Inc calls them the most innovative small business in America.

I think their "customer is the company" business model has implications for the church.  Threadless has successfully (even if somewhat accidentally) created a powerful version of community.  In fact, they are a community before they are a company. 

Now, the church is supposed to be the expert in such matters as community... but sometimes our tools need sharpened and sometimes we need to update the whole toolbox. 

I'm not sure where Threadless' approach falls in relation to the church--new tool or new toolbox--but read the article and share what you see as crossover helps for the church as it builds community.

Comments

[Brian]

I can see some advantages to community input, but we need to always be sensitive to the prompting of God and remember that what we want, and what God wants are not always the same.

The community 'driven' items can include style of worship, time of service, ministries/ missions, language of service, and topic of messages.

The God 'driven' items should be the content of message (specific passages and how they are handled), prompting of the Holy Spirit, and counseling/ mentoring.

And while there is wisdom in crowds, we need to balance that with the shepherd/ leadership aspect so that while the community has input, the will of God is still accomplished.

[Kevin]

Brian--you are a wise man and this is well put. Thanks for the thoughtful comments.