like a fire

Edgecraft This is my new word for the minute. Never heard of it? Well that probably puts you in the 99 percentile of the world. Edgecraft is:

Edgecraft is a methodical, measurable process that allows individuals and teams to inexorably identify the soft innovations that live on the edges of what already exists.

Still confused? Well, don’t be ashamed. Creativity doesn’t come from understanding. Edgecraft is an idea of creativity that uses a team method to target new approaches to solve old problems through identifying “edgy” benefits that can build influence and make a base of loyalty. Think about Apple. Until recently, they were the artists computer company. They weren’t very practical for the average business user. They did only a couple of things well, and the rest just had to wait. They looked cooler than other brands and they branched out into other edge experiments like the Ipod. What they did was build a very loyal following that enabled them to build a product that is at least as capable as their monster competition. I would even say that now they are a bit ahead of Microsoft/Windows, not in user share, but in usability. Will they capture marketshare? I’m scratching my head.

Even better than this example are the many youth ministries throughout the world that are trying to do this. We have monster competition, just like Apple. We compete with multi-million dollar organizations that spend crazy amounts of money to attract the attention of teens. We compete with time from school, sports, music, the arts, relationships, IM, fashion, online and paper gaming, and most importantly, other ministries. We definitely use edgecraft. I wonder how effectively we use it and to what impact on the kingdom? What would an affinity network look like, where we use all the things we compete with to build soft incentives and values? Could we engage all of these competitives to build realtionships through doing them together? Certainly everyone wants a cheerleader. Everyone wants recognition, even if it’s just that they reached a new level in World of Warcraft. To what purpose some might ask. Is it just to develop “brand loyalty” to our own ministries? YES! We need to build that kind of thinking, not so people won’t go looking to other ministries, but so that they know the value of the gospel lived in their lives.