The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point

TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman

10-26-2011

"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers..." (Eph 4:11-12).


Malcolm Gladwell authored a secular marketing book entitled Tipping Point. A tipping point is when an idea, product or movement becomes accepted by the masses. Gladwell says "It is the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, crime waves, or unknown books becoming bestsellers." He says ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do but he has discovered there are usually three types of people involved in the marketing process for this to happen. He calls them connectors, mavens, and salesmen.


Connectors are people with a special gift for bringing the world together. They know lots of people who have an ability to make impact.


Mavens are people who accumulate knowledge about a particular area. They are information brokers who like to get information and share it with others to help solve their problems.


Salesmen have an ability to persuade when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing. They are critical to the tipping point for word-of-mouth epidemics.


I believe these three people correlate to the apostle (connectors), often defined as "one who is sent"; the prophet (mavens), defined as 'one who proclaims truth" and the evangelist (salesmen), "one who wins the lost" - all described in Ephesians 4:11.


John Wesley founded Methodism in the 1780s . He went from 20,000 followers to 90,000 in five years. However, he was not the most Charismatic preacher compared to Martin Luther or John Calvin who were recognized as the leading theologians. His genius was organizational. He was a maven (apostle) who stayed in a city after he preached to form small groups of the most enthusiastic of the followers. He used connectors (apostles) and salesmen (evangelists) to get people to his meetings. This created a community around his beliefs in order to practice those beliefs in the context of daily life. This contributed to his success and ability to start a movement.


Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen make an idea contagious by working together to spread the message. Consider bringing these three types of people together to see real success on your next project.


Today's Prayer
Dear God, Here I am, in awe of Your tremendous love and power. I too am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from Your love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (based on Romans 8:38-39). My identity is not in my job, my profession, nor any other thing, but in You. I am convinced that no matter what happens, I am a precious human being in Your sight and Your love, grace, and mercy will always sustain me. Thank you so much. In Jesus' name, amen.


Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace Leaders.

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