Innovation or Replication?
By Bob Shank, Co-Founder of The Barnabas Group & The Master’s Program
The Advent of the New Millennium
Rewind to the year 2000. The millennium was notable for the launch of numerous products and/or services that are now 25 years along, and ubiquitous. Camera phones, USB flash drives, Sony’s PlayStation2, and commercialized Bluetooth technology were all first offered that year. That was the year that the first Barnabas Group was organized in Orange County, California.
Entrepreneurs Love to Claim Innovation
Bob Shank addresses The Barnabas Group - Sacramento at our inaugural chapter meeting in Granite Bay in 2019.
The “never before” status that imagines and creates something from nothing. Truth be told, most entrepreneurs are replicators, connecting the dots between an existing solution and an unrelated problem. Repurposing a model for an unexpected application can streamline and accelerate the presentation of an already-tested-and-proven breakthrough. For example, in Los Angeles in 1998, Rabbi Yaacov Deyo became a cultural icon to modern singles. Deyo recognized the recurring difficulty reported to him by young men and women who were less pleased with their romantic pursuits than with their career efforts. Innumerable singles, all of whom shared Jewish faith, were stumped in their pursuit of dating partners. What could a faith leader do? Deyo organized a “private party” matchmaking event at Peet’s Coffee in Beverly Hills. He invited 20 men and 20 women to come to his beta. Twenty numbered tables – with two seats – were set up in the room; each assigned to a particular woman. The men were mobile and numbered; the Rabbi had a timer.
The rules were simple: each man would start at the table matching his number. He would have 10 minutes to initiate a familiarization conversation with the woman at that table. Deyo would signal the end of each “date,” and both participants would keep a running tally of the particular convo partners with whom they would like to have contact after the gathering. His post-event tabulation: if both people in an encounter indicated interest in pursuing a deeper dive, he would forward the contact information to both participants. His matchmaking effort is now known as speed dating, and it’s global.
Speed Dating Meets The Kingdom
Two years later, without realizing the connection, just 55 miles south in Orange County, a similar match-up challenge was recognized as a problem waiting for a solution. Jim West was graduating from The Master’s Program, along with dozens of men and women who had a newly clarified sense of God’s plan to repurpose the leadership capabilities from their careers into their individual – and collective – Kingdom Calling(s). I posed a challenge to Jim: What if we could find a way to create a connection for Christian ministry and marketplace leaders that would allow collaboration?
Ministries have always sought and involved volunteers in their not-for-profit activities, but those roles were most often “bottom of the pecking order” assignments that were entry-level roles. We were addressing a new challenge: how could these marketplace collaborators connect with ministry providers to create partnership relationships that would allow time, talent, and influence sourced in the marketplace to be unleashed into the Kingdom? Were these for-profit leaders just “checkbooks with legs,” or did they have the ability to be maximized without being monetized?
We didn’t realize it back in 2000, but The Barnabas Group’s innovation was, in some interesting ways, a replication of what Deyo had done in Beverly Hills. The Barnabas model invites ministry leaders to present vision, strategy, and status with a room full of marketplace leaders; they are prequalified and time-restricted in their presentation. The business leaders are able to indicate their interest in a next-step conversation with each ministry leader, based on what they’ve heard and seen.
First Encounters that Lead to Next Dates
Multiple conversations that mature into continuing relationships. Ministry leaders who now have movement partners who become long-lasting colleagues whose contributions ultimately include financial patronage but involve the extent of their potential to advance Kingdom causes that coalesce around the purpose, passion, and potential they steward. Speed dating works because God made people to thrive when they are in relationships that last. The Barnabas Group works because God made His Kingdom to thrive when gifted and committed continuing collaboration creates leveraging that expands impact that honors God and expands His Kingdom.
About The Author: Bob Shank
Natives of Southern California, Bob and Cheri Shank have been married for over forty years. Bob’s background of fourteen years in the marketplace, four years as a senior pastor, and almost thirty years working with pastors and business leaders gives him a unique perspective on the challenges that face ministry leaders today. Founder of The Master’s Program and The Barnabas Group, he helps business and ministry leaders coast-to-coast explore and exploit their unique Kingdom calling. He recognizes that balance, margin, and focus are important to every ministry leader and are all too easily lost in the demands of everyday ministry life.
As a former pastor’s wife, Cheri understands the delicate balance of having a healthy marriage while partnering in ministry. As a Women’s Ministry Director, Bible Study teacher, mentor, and disciple of women for decades, Cheri knows the potential impact that we can each have to make our world a better place. As an ambassador for abandoned and HIV-positive babies and children in South Africa, she knows the unbridled power that ordinary American women can have in doing something extraordinary to help those in need.
Bob and Cheri’s two daughters and sons-in-law are their best friends and have given them five incredible grandchildren. They love to travel and have spent years enjoying the outdoors while camping, white water rafting, off-road motorcycling, horseback riding, and marathon running.