Make New Friends--Keep the Old

I've observed two key mistakes when organizations are in transition. On one hand, the organization is so deeply ingrained in past history, it is ineffective in speaking to the current generation. On the other, new leadership is so neglectful or even disresepectfull of tradition, they miss the opportunity to build on the benefits of what's gone before.

A successful corporate leader, who's business gives millions of dollars in community charity said this to a small group of us recently: "We drink water from wells that we dug by others." More frequently we hear about the benefits of standing on the shoulders of those who preceeded us. (Very hard to get any work done in that position, however.)

Seriously, we need to have balance in looking back and looking forward. We need to build on the past but not live in the past. I like the old motto from Youth For Christ years ago: "Anchored to the Rock; Geared to the times."

In the weeks since I last wrote to you, I've been involved in 2 very different but very important group meetings. The first was the week-long "Forever Family". This event gathered almost 200 retired staff and missionaries with long, faithful service to HCJB Global. I was thrilled and impressed with their energy, passion and openness to continue to serve. We heard stories, some brought laughter, others brought tears, of how God has used our team in effectively serving Jesus over these 78 years.

A week later, I heard the report from our Emerging Media Task Force. This group of forward thinking men and women have been meeting and exploring opportunities to share the Good News on the new technologies God is bringing into view. It's the same Message, but distributed in new ways using Internet, Podcasting, SMS, blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and smart phone mobile technology. The amazing thing is that the regions experiencing the fastest development of technology are the very unreached parts of the world that HCJB Global is called to reach!

So while we honor the past, and we "seize the day", we also need to focus forward, using the tools and creativity God has provided. Now that the techs have done their work in exploring and recommending the techno-tools available, we now need to engage our best creative minds to explore and recommend the compelling content we need to place on those new delivery systems. Stay tuned for that!

Hockey great Wayne Gretsky was asked what made him a great hockey player. His response: "I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where the puck is going to be." May God enable us with the foresight to move to where the new media and the new consumer is going to be.

By the way, as a demonstration of connecting old with new, photos and MP3 files of the "Forever Family" event have been uploaded on the HCJB Global hub. You can access them for your own enjoyment. And I even used my little "flip" camera and placed a very amatuerish video montage on YouTube. You can do a searh on YouTube using my name in the search. (Even this old radio guy is trying to learn new media.)