Photo: Gratisography

You may, or may not, have heard of Stewart Butterfield. The founder of Flickr and Slack found himself with a failing start-up, kneeling over a toilet with food poisoning when he came up with the idea of Flickr. A precursor to Instagram and the many ways we commonly share digital images these days, the site was an astounding success. This is how many great ideas are frequently generated. We find ourselves at the edge of desperation and it is there that ingenuity strikes.

This is also quite a Jesus-y idea. It's at that point of death that resurrection is possible. Sometimes, ministries need to die but we are people of the resurrection, we believe in the possibility of new life. When a ministry needs to die might be the exact moment that a new idea takes root and new life is found. "Necessity is the mother of invention," so the saying goes. If the time comes for a ministry, a church to shutter its doors, look around carefully and prayerfully–inspiration for the next iteration, a new life might be lying around. That moment after despair is often the most important.

Listen to the Masters of Scale podcast to hear the story of Stewart Butterfield and Slack.