NEW WINESKINS

NEW WINESKINS

My father was one of the first to study marketing as a college major and by his retirement, he was known as a marketing innovator. He often said, “Marketing drives sales. Understand your market first, then go sell.” With any product or service, we need to find out...
LESSONS ON FISHING FROM A HERON

LESSONS ON FISHING FROM A HERON

The following is contributed by a B4T worker in SE Asia. Today I went over to the university to submit forms for the children’s visas. Then I had a leisurely walk around campus, thinking and praying, and looking at the wildlife! I stood and watched a Little...
TESTING & TRIALS

TESTING & TRIALS

The parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule who accidentally fell into a well. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth saving. So, he called his neighbors together and got them to haul dirt to...
OPTIMIZATION IS KEY IN B4T

OPTIMIZATION IS KEY IN B4T

Part 2 of a mini two part series. Last week we discussed why optimization is a more important term than maximization in the B4T realm. Ironically, the more you try to maximize any one input, the less maximized the output will be (and, indeed, the whole system may blow...
OPTIMIZATION IS KEY IN B4T

OPTIMIZATION vs MAXIMIZATION IN B4T

Part 1 of a mini two part series. Maximization is a much older buzz word in the business world than “sustainability,” yet it certainly has never gone out of vogue. Maximizing shareholder value, maximizing profit, and their converse maxims, minimizing costs, etc. have...
DISCERNING GOD’S WILL

DISCERNING GOD’S WILL

At the recent B4T Expo several young people asked, “How do you discern God’s will?” This is a common and important question. In “Pursuing God’s Will Together” Ruth Haley Barton gives 9 ways that she determines God’s will. I have used and agree with Barton’s 9 and have...