Kingdom economics: create the demand or meet the demand?

by Darren Rusco

Consider three types of business startups:

1. Expedia: this type of business observes an unmet pre-existing demand in society and builds a business to meet that demand. Expedia was built around the idea of a demand that existed where people wanted to book their own plane tickets without using a travel agent.

2. Coal: this type of business owns a pre-existing supply of something and then needs to create the demand from the society to meet the supply. A coal company fits this description. They have land that has coal, and that's it. The business has incentive to make sure demand exists for coal, otherwise they will go out of business.

3. Blockbuster: this type of business sees that a supply is already meeting a demand but will go at it bigger and better than the current businesses. Blockbuster would set up shop in a town with a bigger building and selection, with cheaper prices, and literally go to the existing shops and offer to either buy them or run them out of business.

I believe category 1 has the best chance of long term survival. It is simply easier and cheaper to meet an existing demand than be forced to create and sustain it. And when demand changes, and it will, the leaders of this business likely will have eyes to see the change since they had eyes to spot the demand in the first place. If you have land with coal, it will be difficult to change your model if demand shifts to batteries. And if you are category 3, well, you don't have creativity to change, and we all saw what happened to Blockbuster.

In Luke 10, Jesus used a farming business metaphor when he launched one of his first mission startups with his followers. He said there was an abundant harvest ready to be collected, but there was a labor shortage. As a result of this setup, Jesus was launching new laborers to meet the demand. The harvest work was a metaphor. The actual work he sent them to do was to heal the sick, cast demons away from people, and announce the kingdom of God had come.

This mission startup matches the thinking of category 1 above. Jesus saw a pre-existing demand without a supply to meet it. In this case, the demand was sick and demonized people who needed to know the kingdom had come. And now Jesus is gathering the supply, in this case volunteers to go heal and set free.

We need to notice that Jesus did not create a massive supply of missionaries, needing them to create demand for what Jesus supplies. No, he simply observed the current need and equipped people to go meet it. In the context of Luke 10, the demand was not clean water, or translated Bibles, or new expressions of church, or food for the hungry - those are all good things - but in this case the demand was people who need freedom.

While Jesus functions in category 1, the church usually functions in categories 2 and 3. Usually a person or group comes into a town with a pre-existing supply of a church service. This is what they know and do - they can put on a great church service. So they create the supply. After that, the demand for this service must be created and sustained. So people are armed with flyers and signs and advertising for the service. It's the coal company model. They are oblivious to pre-existing demand, and even if they see it, they believe the church service is the answer. Still others come in with more people and more money and simply start a church service in a bigger building with better music and better preachers and better kid programs and better advertising. Who can resist? It's just more convenient to go to Blockbuster.

One of the many tragedies of churches in category 2 and 3 is that for people to live on mission with Jesus means their job is to go out and create demand where there isn't any. How intimidating is that? Armed with flyers, tracts, and signs in the front yard, a missional person goes knocking on doors with fear and trepidation ready to invite someone to church who is never going to come. And this experience will never align with the admonition they received from the stage last Sunday when the pastor confidently announced: "The harvest is plentiful!" If it is so plentiful, where is everyone? But the real missional plan of Jesus is to go where demand already exists. The mission is not to invite to an event, the mission is to be the supply that meets the demand.

And so the million dollar question is this: What is the demand in your community? When you identify the need, it won't be scary to meet it. Is the demand clean water? Supply it. Is the demand food? Supply it. Is the demand Scriptures? Supply it. Is the demand financial? Supply it. It's just that church services are not the missional demand of most places. Yet that is where the church places the majority of its time, energy and resources. When you identify the demand and supply it, you will see that the harvest actually is abundant.