Beta

It's no secret that I'm a Google fanboy.  I follow them around like a puppy.  I even listen to a show called This Week In Google on the TWiT network--yeah, I'm that geeky.  And while listening to TWiG and using Google products, I have discovered a concept called "Beta".

For those out there a little less geeky, Beta is a stage of project development (usually software) where the design team is comfortable enough with what they have so far that they open it up for testing to regular people--the key words there being so far.  The development team understands that the product is not yet finished, and it still has bugs to work out.  And the people testing the product understand this as well.  This Beta testing is what helps the developers perfect the product for mainstream release.

Microsoft has released the greatest OS they have ever made in Windows 7, and much of that has to do with the Beta testing they did for more than a year before releasing the final product (especially after such a miserable excuse for an OS that Vista was...).  Google understands this as well, and many of their products take years to lose the Beta tag.  That's because they are continuously improving their products.  It's a work-in-progress.

All that said, I read a fantastic blog post from Tony Morgan this morning challenging churches to understand this concept and to put it into practice.  Hit the link, because it's a fantastic read for church leaders.  And I have to say, I am challenged, excited, and scared stupid at the thought of functioning like this.

Everyone that  knows me knows that I despise most traditions--especially those in the church.  I say bring on the change and innovation!  The part in this that scares me though is launching a new project that isn't fully fleshed out yet, because one thing I despise more than stupid traditions is lack of excellence.  I strongly believe if you're going to do something, do it well.  And that's a good habit to be in.

But I'll be the first to admit that it's holding me back.  Trying to do new things in my Youth Ministry or in my church without feeling that it's perfect goes against everything I believe, so I am slow to act on new things.  But I am beginning to understand the truth of the Beta concept: it doesn't have to be perfect to get it started.  And of course the second part of the Beta concept is that you continuously change, tweak, and move things around until it's just right (of course by the time you have it right, it's time to change it up again... but that's another blog post entirely...).

So I consider myself challenged today to not let the pursuit of perfection hold me back from testing new ideas and projects in my ministry, which is also an exercise in listening to the Holy Spirit.  Oh boy, here we go...