Steve Jobs and Jeremiah

I don’t envy Jeremiah. To be told, at your induction service, ‘today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant’ (Jer. 1:10) is not what anyone wants to hear .... neither the messenger, nor those to whom they’re sent!

I’m writing this on the day I’ve heard the news that Steve Jobs has died. Jobs was co-founder of Apple and the man behind the iPod, iPhone and iPad (I haven’t bought the latter …. yet!) However, the tribute I want to pay, and the reason why I mention him in the same breathe as Jeremiah, is to his role as a disruptor. 

Apparently, he was not an easy guy to work with, or for, because he disrupted people’s thinking, time-scales and plans. Every church needs disruptors, but hardly any welcome them. We all need disrupting from time to time. I’m not suggesting we need disrupting all the time, none of us could cope with that, but comfort zones are hugely appealing places to live. I simply suggest, if we are called to Christian leadership and we are feeling comfortable, then maybe we need to listen more carefully for God’s voice, or go out and find a disruptor!

As Einstein said (another fairly bright guy): “The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.” 

You don't get innovation, unless you have disruption.