Is it possible for one to become an NBA basketball player by reading a basketball instructional book everyday but without practicing what is taught in that book?
What if one not only read that book, but memorized the book chapter by chapter, and meditated on it every morning?
Can that person become an NBA player without intentionally working on and putting into practice through persistence, discipline, and hard work what he has memorized and studied?
Does the same answer apply to the Bible and becoming Christ-like?
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
The koinia Story
Question...
Which of the following has the greatest impact on the way God wants us to live?
a) The number of our Facebook friends
b) The number of our Twitter followers
c) The size of our farms in Farmville
d) The number of people who liked our photos or status updates
e) The relationships we strengthen and lives we impact through inspirational support
Of course, today's social networks do a fantastic job of making it easier to share information and maintain loose touch with each other. There's no denying the benefits these networks bring to our lives. At the same time, we at koinia can't help but feel that something is missing.
Surely, it is wonderful to connect with old friends and see photos of relatives and friends. We find a great deal of joy in seeing photos of our growing nephews and updates from old college buddies. But for some of us there just seems to be an inarticulate void that persists in our hearts as we use today's social media tools.
For us, there seems to be a voice that is whispering, "we are meant to do much more..."
The Inspiration Network...
Over time that whispering voice grew stronger and stronger. It made us uneasy and we didn't quite know why we felt the way we did. So we tried to ignore it and silence it in the far corners of our subconsciousness. We then tried to fill that vague but undeniable sense of void with our daily routines and busy lives. But we found that we just could not escape that whispering shout.
So we decided to do something about it.
We decided that a new kind of social network needed to emerge in order to help us live the way God intended. We decided a new kind of social media tool needed to exist in order to help us make the kind of impact God wants all of us to make. We decided a new kind of support network needed to be built to help us inspire and encourage each other in our everyday lives. We decided a new kind of online community built on trust needed to exist to help us challenge each other to live out God's purposes for each and everyone of us.
We decided that The Inspiration Network needed to exist.
The Leap...
So we decided to take a giant leap of faith. We decided to quit our jobs and go all in with this pursuit. We decided to go live off our savings and start building The Inspiration Network despite tremendous amounts of fear and anxiety. We did our best to fight off the "what-if" scenarios that painted only doom and gloom for the journey ahead.
We had never done anything like this before, but we decided to go for it anyway. There was only one way to find out where that whispering voice was leading us.
Fast forward to today and here we are. We have created a new social tool that connects our everyday life situations with God's word and our inspirational support for one another.
Our Hope...
We believe that there is nothing ordinary about the ordinary events that make up our daily lives. We believe the most important choices we make are in the midst of the seemingly ordinary.
This is why we have built a tool that helps inject God's word and inspirational support and encouragement into our everyday life situations.
Our hope is that at this intersection of our daily circumstances and inspirational reminders, we truly live the way God intended for us all.
So...
If our story resonates with you, we invite you to become one of us.
Given our amateur hands, we know this tool is by no means perfect. As such we very much appreciate and welcome any feedback and suggestions for making this service better. We also ask that you kindly excuse the dust and mess as we continue to build out this tool and make enhancements to it.
Our promise is that we will do our best to make koinia the best place to:
Get Inspired. Be inspiring. And Be Blessed...
- The koinia Team
Which of the following has the greatest impact on the way God wants us to live?
a) The number of our Facebook friends
b) The number of our Twitter followers
c) The size of our farms in Farmville
d) The number of people who liked our photos or status updates
e) The relationships we strengthen and lives we impact through inspirational support
Of course, today's social networks do a fantastic job of making it easier to share information and maintain loose touch with each other. There's no denying the benefits these networks bring to our lives. At the same time, we at koinia can't help but feel that something is missing.
Surely, it is wonderful to connect with old friends and see photos of relatives and friends. We find a great deal of joy in seeing photos of our growing nephews and updates from old college buddies. But for some of us there just seems to be an inarticulate void that persists in our hearts as we use today's social media tools.
For us, there seems to be a voice that is whispering, "we are meant to do much more..."
The Inspiration Network...
Over time that whispering voice grew stronger and stronger. It made us uneasy and we didn't quite know why we felt the way we did. So we tried to ignore it and silence it in the far corners of our subconsciousness. We then tried to fill that vague but undeniable sense of void with our daily routines and busy lives. But we found that we just could not escape that whispering shout.
So we decided to do something about it.
We decided that a new kind of social network needed to emerge in order to help us live the way God intended. We decided a new kind of social media tool needed to exist in order to help us make the kind of impact God wants all of us to make. We decided a new kind of support network needed to be built to help us inspire and encourage each other in our everyday lives. We decided a new kind of online community built on trust needed to exist to help us challenge each other to live out God's purposes for each and everyone of us.
We decided that The Inspiration Network needed to exist.
The Leap...
So we decided to take a giant leap of faith. We decided to quit our jobs and go all in with this pursuit. We decided to go live off our savings and start building The Inspiration Network despite tremendous amounts of fear and anxiety. We did our best to fight off the "what-if" scenarios that painted only doom and gloom for the journey ahead.
We had never done anything like this before, but we decided to go for it anyway. There was only one way to find out where that whispering voice was leading us.
Fast forward to today and here we are. We have created a new social tool that connects our everyday life situations with God's word and our inspirational support for one another.
Our Hope...
We believe that there is nothing ordinary about the ordinary events that make up our daily lives. We believe the most important choices we make are in the midst of the seemingly ordinary.
This is why we have built a tool that helps inject God's word and inspirational support and encouragement into our everyday life situations.
Our hope is that at this intersection of our daily circumstances and inspirational reminders, we truly live the way God intended for us all.
So...
If our story resonates with you, we invite you to become one of us.
Given our amateur hands, we know this tool is by no means perfect. As such we very much appreciate and welcome any feedback and suggestions for making this service better. We also ask that you kindly excuse the dust and mess as we continue to build out this tool and make enhancements to it.
Our promise is that we will do our best to make koinia the best place to:
Get Inspired. Be inspiring. And Be Blessed...
- The koinia Team
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Viral Marketing Strategy Question
"Lord, how should this new service spread?"
"Go and read the Book of Acts and you will find the answer there..."
"Go and read the Book of Acts and you will find the answer there..."
Worth it?
Company survival and maximizing shareholder value - more valuable than human lives?
What is the true end game?
What is the true end game?
Monday, July 2, 2012
Olympic Discipline
Heard a great analogy yesterday:
When an Olympic athlete wakes up, his mind is only focused on his training for that day. His mind is also conditioned to “say no to ice cream” or any other activity that impedes his training and Olympic goals. Olympic athlete and ice-cream simply do not mix. It is discipline of Olympic proportions.
In the same way, we as Christians, must wake up every morning and consciously choose to align our daily actions with our identity: children of God. This means we must be as disciplined and focused as the Olympic athlete is towards activities that help us become more Christ-like each and every day. More importantly, we must be steadfast in our resistance of activities and thoughts that impede that progress – in other words, we must resist the “spiritual ice cream” in our lives.
I thought it would very helpful to frame my mind this way going forward – to wake up every morning thinking that I must attack the day and prepare for battle, to do the HARD TRAINING that is required of us in our identity, and to RESIST my old, sinful, default way of acting, thinking, and living.
And make no mistake about this – it is GRUELING training – but if our goal is to be “Olympic Athletes” in the spiritual sense, we must embrace and welcome such training if we ever hope to be all God wants us to be.
When an Olympic athlete wakes up, his mind is only focused on his training for that day. His mind is also conditioned to “say no to ice cream” or any other activity that impedes his training and Olympic goals. Olympic athlete and ice-cream simply do not mix. It is discipline of Olympic proportions.
In the same way, we as Christians, must wake up every morning and consciously choose to align our daily actions with our identity: children of God. This means we must be as disciplined and focused as the Olympic athlete is towards activities that help us become more Christ-like each and every day. More importantly, we must be steadfast in our resistance of activities and thoughts that impede that progress – in other words, we must resist the “spiritual ice cream” in our lives.
I thought it would very helpful to frame my mind this way going forward – to wake up every morning thinking that I must attack the day and prepare for battle, to do the HARD TRAINING that is required of us in our identity, and to RESIST my old, sinful, default way of acting, thinking, and living.
And make no mistake about this – it is GRUELING training – but if our goal is to be “Olympic Athletes” in the spiritual sense, we must embrace and welcome such training if we ever hope to be all God wants us to be.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Leap of Faith
Before God found me and led me back to Him in 2003, I had been consumed by selfish ambition and the pursuits of this world. I convinced my wife to move out to Silicon Valley from Chicago in late 2000 (where we both grew up) so that I can start tech companies. The problem was that my motives were purely selfish. I wanted to start companies so that I could become rich and famous. We went through an 18 month stretch where I tirelessly worked on raising venture funding for a new startup without a paycheck while my wife worked and supported our household. However, I eventually cracked under the constant pressure and stress and entered into depression.
That was when God found me.
I threw my hands up in the air and He came and rescued me. My life has never been the same since. Along the way, He gave a new vision for my life. When I asked Him, “Lord, now that you have found me, tell me what you would like me to do with this life. I will do anything for you.” His response was, “Allan, I still want you to start companies. However, you will no longer just do it for yourself. I want you to start companies to benefit other people and to change lives.”
At that moment I knew what my purpose on earth was. I was going to spend the rest of my life building what I now call “Holy Financial Engines”, companies that are built on Godly foundations that produce financial means for changing lives.
That was in the summer of 2003. Since then, I have co-founded two venture-backed tech startups. In the past 7 years since that conversation with God, He has taken me on an incredible journey where He shaped me and prepared me for this next chapter I am about to embark on. It has been a journey filled with painful, humbling, and difficult lessons. But it has been a journey that I am most grateful for.
Then about a year ago, God started planting seeds for new ideas in me. New ideas for impacting the world and helping people live the way He intended. At the same time, He called me out. He said to me, “Allan, I want you to take a leap of faith. I want you to prove that you truly trust Me. I want you to leave your current company and take that first step of faith. Don’t ask what happens after you leap. I will show the following steps after you take that first step of faith.”
My wife and I wrestled with this calling for the past year. It is a scary leap for sure as God is asking us to abandon everything and to follow Him into the unknown while living off of our savings. Throughout this period, I kept hearing God say to me, “Allan, do you trust Me?” It was a question that I could not escape no matter how hard I tried to extinguish it. The interesting thing was that even as I struggled with the decision, I knew in my heart that it was something I eventually had to do. I just knew it.
Then three weeks ago, my wife and I took the leap. I resigned from my current startup where I have been for the past five years. And in the process my family and I jumped off the cliff without a safety net in sight. We’ve been inspired by Hebrews 11:8 and we are now holding on to the belief that God will catch us and show us the way. After all, that is what faith is all about right? : )
So that's my story and I am sticking with it. And I know God is as well!
As for you, what risks might God be calling you to take for His glory?
That was when God found me.
I threw my hands up in the air and He came and rescued me. My life has never been the same since. Along the way, He gave a new vision for my life. When I asked Him, “Lord, now that you have found me, tell me what you would like me to do with this life. I will do anything for you.” His response was, “Allan, I still want you to start companies. However, you will no longer just do it for yourself. I want you to start companies to benefit other people and to change lives.”
At that moment I knew what my purpose on earth was. I was going to spend the rest of my life building what I now call “Holy Financial Engines”, companies that are built on Godly foundations that produce financial means for changing lives.
That was in the summer of 2003. Since then, I have co-founded two venture-backed tech startups. In the past 7 years since that conversation with God, He has taken me on an incredible journey where He shaped me and prepared me for this next chapter I am about to embark on. It has been a journey filled with painful, humbling, and difficult lessons. But it has been a journey that I am most grateful for.
Then about a year ago, God started planting seeds for new ideas in me. New ideas for impacting the world and helping people live the way He intended. At the same time, He called me out. He said to me, “Allan, I want you to take a leap of faith. I want you to prove that you truly trust Me. I want you to leave your current company and take that first step of faith. Don’t ask what happens after you leap. I will show the following steps after you take that first step of faith.”
My wife and I wrestled with this calling for the past year. It is a scary leap for sure as God is asking us to abandon everything and to follow Him into the unknown while living off of our savings. Throughout this period, I kept hearing God say to me, “Allan, do you trust Me?” It was a question that I could not escape no matter how hard I tried to extinguish it. The interesting thing was that even as I struggled with the decision, I knew in my heart that it was something I eventually had to do. I just knew it.
Then three weeks ago, my wife and I took the leap. I resigned from my current startup where I have been for the past five years. And in the process my family and I jumped off the cliff without a safety net in sight. We’ve been inspired by Hebrews 11:8 and we are now holding on to the belief that God will catch us and show us the way. After all, that is what faith is all about right? : )
So that's my story and I am sticking with it. And I know God is as well!
As for you, what risks might God be calling you to take for His glory?
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