The Ventures Workshop
Welcome
We’re looking forward to seeing you at our upcoming ventures gathering. Ahead of the session we wanted to send over a bit of reading to introduce the workshop.
Table Ventures is an initiative started at KXC, and shared across our TABLE churches network, with the vision to celebrate a culture within our churches that;
inspires & empowers the church to pioneer e.g. by providing space for the congregation to connect, identify needs that need to be met, & respond with what's in their hands
equips emerging leaders e.g. through 1:1 support, mentoring, & connection with others
encourages one another as a community of pioneers e.g. through sharing of stories, establishing shared values & practices
A pioneers journey
As you might have already experienced, starting something, starting anything, is difficult. Whether it’s a new venture, a corporate initiative at work, or a one-off project, starting the new thing quickly goes from excitement to overwhelm. The following illustration might feel familiar to you.
Hopefully, this diagram is an encouragement that it gets better.
For us, it was also an indication that there’s more we can do. As a community, we could support one another to navigate these journey’s. In particular, we want to provide space for us a community at the start of a pioneering journey to explore the things that God has put on our heart that he might be inviting us to respond to through prayer and in new creative ways.
And that’s what we hope this workshop provides.
A typical pioneering journey with highs and lows along the way
Missio Dei
““We believe that God created humanity in his image—so even though we are more frail and proud than we are willing to admit, we are more loved and worthy than we can imagine.””
We’ve recruited the disciple of design to provide language and tools that help make sense of the creative process. Through the workshop we’ll refer to diagrams and use frameworks that provide focus and direction.
But before we get into design any further, its worth noting that these are just tools. They help guide our productivity but not our desires.
Our desires influence our response to the the challenges in the world around us. They suggest our reliance on a moral foundation which is fundamentally the ‘why’ to what we do and how we do it.
While the focus of the workshop will be on design methods and their application, it’s important to remember that any work we do is in the context of what we believe God is already doing.
Missio Dei is translated as God’s Mission: the Christian belief that God is on a mission to fix something, to redeem something, to make things new.
This is very much a high level overview but if we believe that God is on a mission, our salvation is also an invitation into God’s mission. We inherit the right to partner with God and to join him in the work that he is doing, in the way that he is doing it.
““Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” ”
What’s the need? What’s in my hands?
““The Church exists to set up in the world a new sign which is radically dissimilar to the world’s own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise.” ”
You might be wondering what that practically looks like. As a starting point, two helpful questions to ask are ‘What’s the need?’ and ‘What’s in my hands?’. We believe these questions can help fan the flame for something God has put on your heart or open your eyes to something He’s already doing.
Beyond any output we might be able to conceive, these questions bring us to a posture of compassion, humility, and devotion. Wrestling with the surrounding need requires compassion. Accepting our gifts and limitations nurtures humility. Above all, our devotion to God’s mission enables us to “be joyful in hope”. Partnering with God in the renewal of all things means that we prioritise faithfulness and trust Him for the fruitfulness.
The start of a pioneering journey are two helpful questions - ‘What’s the need?’ and ‘What’s in my hands?’.
Design-led thinking
Finally, a few words on design.
We’ll be using the phrase ‘Design Thinking’ and ‘Design’ interchangeably. Design is often thought of having a tangible output and associated with disciplines like graphic design or product design. Design Thinking is an attempt at providing a system for the creative process. The best way to explain this is to look at Design Thinking’s most popular and simple diagram: the Double Diamond.
This is the process of divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking encourages us to expand and explore, while convergent thinking invites us to refine and clarify.
The reason this is relevant is because of that feeling of overwhelm we mentioned at the beginning. When we see a need, we often also think of a possible way to respond. That’s a good instinct but it might not be the most effective, especially if it leads to overwhelm. Design Thinking helps us slow down the process of working through a challenge and provides a pathway to identifying useful responses.
The double diamond
Thank you for joining us on this journey. We look forward to meeting you and hearing your story. If you’re interested there’s some further reading that might be of interest at the links below.