Be More Musk-y

My church is currently going through a vision-casting process. The church has been growing steadily for 3 years and has been near-capacity on Sunday mornings for around a year, and the youth and children’s programs have begun to fill the spaces available to them. Some solution needs to be found in order to continue to reach out and minister to our community.

This is the second time I have gone through a visioning process with a church. The first time was when I was on staff as a youth pastor at another church. In both cases there were challenges that needed to be met and it was clear to at least most of the leadership that something needed to be done. However, in both cases and in most similar situations in churches, ministries or businesses, hundreds and/or thousands of hours of work has to be put in to come up with any answers. The first visioning process I was a part of took those hours and translated them into almost no appreciable change to what was already being done. I am far more hopeful that the process I find myself in the middle of now will bring about more effective change.

I have recently been fascinated with the work of an inventor and businessman by the name of Elon Musk. If you do not recognize his name, you will very likely recognize his work. He started his career by creating PayPal, an internet money transfer site that sold to Ebay for $1.5 billion in 2002, just 3 years after Musk started the company. Musk also is a co-founder of Tesla, one of the leading electric car manufacturers in the world – they make electric cars that actually work! Seriously, if you haven’t seen those cars, go check them out!

Recently, Musk has been in the news because of another of his businesses, SpaceX. The company was founded in 2002 and, in 2008, was awarded a $1.6 billion contract from NASA to become the first commercial company to transport equipment to the International Space Station. SpaceX has been continuing to develop better space vehicles, with the goal of continuing to expand space exploration. The next step in development was attempted early this year, when they tried to land a first stage rocket (the part that drives the launch) onto a floating platform in the ocean. Think about that; they believe they can safely land a rocket from space onto a boat! You can read about it here, and check out the first attempt!

They described the first attempt as “50-50 at best,” but they have come up with several ideas to improve chances for their next attempt, coming in the next couple of weeks.

While all of this is happening, Musk has a couple of other little projects up his sleeve. He has proposed what he calls a “hyperloop” from LA to San Francisco; it is an air-powered transportation system that will allow riders to travel 350 miles in around 30 minutes, for cheaper than any other current form of transportation. He has also announced plans to build a “space internet,” a satellite system to not only provide high-speed internet globally but with the purpose of providing communications to a Mars colony that he envisions happening in the next couple of decades; “It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well. I think this needs to be done, and I don’t see anyone else doing it.” (for more, check out the Bloomberg Businessweek article here)

Musk is 43, and he has accomplished more in the last 6 months than I expect to accomplish in a lifetime. He has accomplished these incredible feats of engineering and vision by dreaming big, aggressively pursuing those dreams and bringing people on board his projects that can help him develop the projects he has envisioned. Technology is jumping by leaps because of the work of Elon Musk.

I am not an engineer. I am not a venture capitalist – that takes money, and I don’t have any. But there are some important lessons that I take away from Musk’s story – dream big and pursue your vision aggressively.

When we think about what God is doing or could do in a church, organization or in our own lives, we often think too small. We serve a big God that wants to do dramatic, amazing things! Through prayer and faith God reveals the pieces of His plan that He wants us to know and pursue. Don’t let “we can’t” or “I’m not sure” or “that just isn’t us” to stop you from following what He has called us to do.

When I launched The Gathering in Fairmont, MN, I told people that our goal was a fundamental transformation of our entire area, and that I believed God wanted to use us to make Fairmont, Martin County and the surrounding communities a light for the Gospel to our entire region. I still believe that is what He wants for our area, and while I still pray for God’s guidance and wisdom, that is the vision that I continue to pursue because I believe that God is big enough to accomplish anything!