Why do people like swarms? Dan Pink’s research here uncovers three reasons. (But swarms have one big problem: most of them are not profitable. So the money issue is still on the table.) Watch and comment!
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Since one of Pink’s examples is Wikipedia, the profit issue is not as significant as creating ways for gifted people to be able to contribute to spiritually significant work, while continuing to support themselves in their current jobs. How can CEOs, programmers, and shift leaders do things during their evenings/weekends that further missions or Christian Community Development, beyond giving their money and showing up at worship gatherings? That is the question that has to be answered in light of Pink’s research, as I see it.
I absolutely agree and in fact I am working on an article for Wednesday about crowdsourcing that addresses this very issue. The challenge that I see is that in order to contribute to mission, people must either (a) be full-time or (b) be willing and able and enabled to contribute little bits of time here and there. In the past we always needed to have people contribute at least 2 weeks (e.g. a short-term trip). Now with the Internet, globalization, flattening, etc., there are ways for people to be involved in missions in a few minutes here and there. But we need to do this in a way that doesn’t further savage the already declining cross-cultural missionary force! Crowdsourcing is a very real resource but shouldn’t be presented as a replacement for long-term committed missions. Getting this balance right is tricky.
Yes, I concur with your point about not savaging the already declining cross-cultural missionary force. I would hope that people who contribute through little bits of time here and there will only find their contributions valuable when they partner with cross-cultural missionaries. Getting these people to take Perspectives would be a great way to help them see how their contributions fit into the bigger picture of missions. We have to educate them at some point. Thanks for raising these discussions.