What We Can (un)Learn From The Apple Tablet

The tech world is currently enraptured by the possibility of a new Apple Tablet computer. Nobody even knows if it’s real or not, but that hasn’t kept the mere hint of it’s impending announcement from bumping Apple’s stock. Even though this as-yet-unannounced slice of personal-computing heaven may be nothing but vaporware, I’m going to suggest few lessons we should (un)learn from it anyway.

So here goes: 5 missional lessons we can (un)learn from the new Apple Tablet:

1. Stop Inventing and Start Innovating: Yes, there’s a difference, and I think we tend to use the word “innovate” when what we’re really talking about is sheer invention. Pure invention is sexy and risky – and usually fails miserably. Innovation is far more mundane. It usually involves incremental improvements on something already being done by someone else. Apple has done exactly this with the music industry and the cell phone industry, and now they’re going to do it with true personal computing as well. But bleeding-edge fanboys tend to crave the distant future now, and by looking too far into the future they miss a vacuum of present opportunity. Like the iPod and the iPhone before it, lots of people will knock Apple’s iSlate Tablet for not being futuristic enough, but Apple will have leveraged their existing assets to redefine an existing space and take us one step closer to the future.

Can missional leaders do the same? I don’t mean to devalue the spirit of risk-taking and invention (which are very important), but sometimes I wonder if we’re not being too farsighted at times. Is there a way to be more genuinely innovative by building a bridge from the traditional church to the future church?

2. Stop Giving People What They Want and Start Giving Them What They Need: If Apple had given people the MP3 player they wanted, we’d have an over-bloated, feature-rich hunk of plastic that didn’t do anything terribly well (like the Rio). When you ask them, people always say they want more of whatever they already have, but that’s usually not what they need. Because Apple understands this they’re able to discern an emerging space for a truly personal computing experience that most of us don’t even realize we need because we’re accustomed to what we have (just give me more of it!).

It’s for exactly this reason missional leaders tend to vehemently reject the “felt-needs” approach of ministry. We recognize that more music, more youth ministry, more playgrounds, and more affinity groups, are not what people need. But “felt-needs” is an unfortunate misnomer; while we shouldn’t be concerned with what people want, we should be providing for their genuine needs. The trick is discernment. We must cultivate an ability to listen and interpret with wisdom. This is how Apple takes something tired and worn (like cell phones and MP3 players) and make it look revolutionary. Could churches do the same with something equally tired like, say, discipleship?

3. Stop Taking Risks and Start Working Hard: It may seem like Apple is taking a huge risk by creating a tablet computer when everyone else – including Microsoft – has failed spectacularly in that niche, but the truth is Apple doesn’t really take huge risks. Every major new Apple product (except the Apple TV) is built upon existing technological assets and, more importantly, existing relational loyalties. The iSlate Tablet will likely be built on a proven platform (OSX and the iPhone), leverage business partnerships brokered through Steve Jobs’ position with Disney, and take advantage of the bottomless pit of credit card customers on iTunes and the App Store.

I’m not saying church leaders don’t work hard. Many do (some don’t). My point is simply that we tend to think big payoffs come from big risks. While sometimes that’s true, it’s more often true that success in any is gained by consistent, long-term, diligent effort. In the ministry world that work is largely relational.

4. Stop Demanding Loyalty And Start Changing People’s Lives: As a business, Apple doesn’t have the luxury of institutional loyalty. And yet, Apple customers are far and away the most satisfied and loyal in their industry. In fact, churches would kill to have evangelists half as enthusiastic as Apple customers. But there’s a reason people talk about the “cult” of Mac; In short, it’s because if numbers 1-3 above. If you wisely identify people’s genuine needs and consistently meet those needs, you create kinship not clientele. The new tablet computer will do that for them – again. People will realize they didn’t need to carry around complicated, buggy, 5-pound supercomputers when all they needed was a small and simple media pad that serves as the digital butler of their lives.

But there are great dangers for church leaders in this lesson: strictly speaking we don’t change lives, God does. Let me be clear: I’m not talking about trying to become more powerful as leaders, I’m suggesting a leadership fidelity in imparting the Spirit of God to people through our gifts. I’m talking about a commitment to genuinely love people rather than entertain, appease or placate them. As Roland Allen famously pointed out, if we share the “secret” of the Spirit then evangelism will break out naturally.

5. Stop Marketing And Start (re)Telling Stories: It would be tempting to simply attribute Apple’s success to marketing magic. Steve Jobs’ company has always been famous for its compelling advertising, but I think there’s a huge trap to fall into if we’re not careful. We tend to think that if our message is clever, funny, or entertaining then people will give us their hearts. That’s just plain lazy. It may work in the short run, but in the long run if you’re a fraud people will move on to the next prospect.

The difference is that (like a few companies) Apple tells the truth in its ads (relatively speaking…they are an evil corporation after all!). Marketing magic seeks to create a false perception of the company, or, even worse, impute a false identity that appeals to our base desires. It is fundamentally a trick of manipulation. But Apple’s ads are essentially stories about the quality of their work. Whether it’s the iPhone ads, the “I’m a Mac” ads, or the classic 1984 Superbowl ad, the common thread is storytelling, and most Apple customers would tell you these are reliable testimonies.

Because we’re in the business of changing lives through relationships, storytelling should be the strength of the Church. After all, that’s the strength of scripture. But the Modern church tends to get bogged down in marketing magic because in Modernity we lost faith in stories as a source of truth, and consequently we lost much of our ability to change people’s lives. It’s hard to tell stories when you don’t really value them and you don’t have many to begin with. The result is a serious credibility problem our culture, and when you don’t have the goods, all you can sell is perception.