A Skunkworks in Our Missions Agency
A Story of Personal Reflection about my service at my denomination's national missions agency.
A Skunkworks in Our Missions Agency
Key Foundational Insight: Sometimes you need to go around the system and culture of the place where you serve to empower Kingdom ministry.
I was part of a “skunkworks” at my denomination’s national missions agency in the early to mid-1980s. It was a thrilling experience. It made a difference in Great Commission and Great Commandment ministry in the 50 largest megalopolitan areas in the continental USA.
The strategy was called Mega Focus Cities. I was the primary architect. The one who got on airplanes and sold it around the country. The one who led the collaboration gatherings. A great team—which included my two bosses and ministry colleagues—made it happen.
(Beware—this story is told with some hyperbole.)
What is a Skunkworks?
“A skunkworks project is a project developed by a relatively small and loosely structured group of people who research and develop a project, often with a very large degree of autonomy, primarily for the sake of radical innovation.” (Skunkworks Project, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/)
I like how Everett Rogers describes it: “an enriched environment that is intended to help a small group of individuals design a new idea by escaping routine organizational procedures.” (Everett Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 2003, 5th edition, p. 109)
It is the Rogers definition that best fits the metropolitan missions team of the Home Mission Board, SBC. We measurably—according to research conducted to determine the impact—increased the impact and effectiveness of Christian ministry in megalopolitan areas.
The Team
The team leader was “The Hammer.” Better known as Don Hammer. He told us we were doing the Father’s business. We needed to find a way to get it done. Even if it meant going around the system.
Don was passionate—perhaps too passionate given his heart condition—about reaching cities with the Good News. About making dramatic Kingdom progress. He was a visionary and a motivator. The word “passive” was not in his dictionary. He was our head cheerleader.
The team associate and later the team leader was “The Disciplined Runner”—Jere Allen. My preschool son called him “Crazy Jere Allen.” That was the name I told him to use when Jere came running by our house as a committed jogger. We lived in the same neighborhood.
Jere is now almost 90 years old, runs the Peachtree Road Race every July 4th and has for more than 40 years. He would not let us quit until we had covered every detail.
I was “The Reckless Kid”. Barely in my 30s. New to the national missions staff. A city person from my birth forward. Immersed in denominational savvy learned at the breakfast, lunch, and supper table from my father. Dad was a true believer in the Southern Baptist missions system.
I was a strategic thinker and organizer who did not always know what I should not promise when I traveled around the country.
My first year I promised something in Miami during a strategy session that was immediately communicated back to my national missions agency. Before I could fly home multiple people already knew what I promised. They communicated this with my boss—The Hammer.
The issue? I was right. What I suggested happened. It just went around the system and culture of our agency. Remember, I was reckless.
After that incident we recommitted to never allow our upline supervisors to be surprised, but to always let them know what we were doing. This was an important role for The Hammer and later The Disciplined Runner.
Our supervisors always supported us. They could have stopped us at any time. They did not. In fact, they handled our detractors for us.
The Sting
Early on the skunkworks team knew we could make a significant Kingdom difference the 50 largest metropolitan areas.
We also understood it would take more than the efforts of our missions agency. Other national agencies needed to affirm the strategy. Regional, state, and local denominational leaders must believe what we advocated for would benefit them.
Because some previous promises resulted in small or no results, we had to deliver big results.
Just like Robert Redford and Paul Newman in the 1973 movie, The Sting, our skunkworks had to win over missions administrators in our own agency. We hoped without them realizing they were stung.
Their fear? If our strategy worked, they might lose power, authority, and receive less credit for their own area of work.
We encouraged leaders of other national agencies who were captured by the vision we had for the cities to speak up. We asked them to offer their resources early before our agency offered theirs.
We got regional, state, and local denominational leaders to lobby our agency for their support of Mega Focus Cities.
Eventually the program leaders within our agency realized they needed to support Mega Focus Cities or get left behind.
They were stung.
When they supported our strategy, we thanked them, praised them in public, and made sure they got credit for what they were doing.
It was not about our team winning, but about visible, measurable Kingdom progress in the 50 largest megalopolitan areas.