You Should Have Gone Off The Map !
Our good friend Helen (im almost an atheist) Mildenhall sent in this cartoon to express one of the important movements Off The Map nudged down the road a couple of clicks
We’re Saying Goodbye to Off The Map
A special thank you to each one of you. Thank you for helping to make Off The Map more than an idea. We only existed when you showed up.
Some of you will recognize the following only from the Pete Seeger song Turn Turn Turn; others from Ecclesiastes 3:1-2; some, surely, from both:
“To everything there’s a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die…”
Regardless of your source, the point is the same: We’re born, we die. The same is true with the children we bring into the world, the ideas we hatch and the organizations we start. Eventually, everything dies.
The Beginning
When Dave Richards and I launched Off The Map we wanted to host events where people could ask the spiritual-religious questions they couldn’t ask anywhere else. We wanted to take the conversations people had in the hallway or bathroom at conferences (a.k.a. the best conversations) and put them on the main stage. We wanted a conference that was sponsored by followers of Jesus that was also an event where non- believers were heard, valued and included. We wanted a place (even a temporary one) where differences weren’t ignored, controlled or demonized, but instead were enjoyed and anticipated.
One of the things we’d tell people at the start of each conference was “we’ve intentionally designed this event so that everyone in this room will be offended at least once – if we fail to do that we’ve failed to go Off The Map”
Some of the ideas we helped fester and foster have now been embraced by the wider church. We provided some new language and encouraged some young (and not-so-young) leaders to bring new definitions to what it means to follow Jesus on purpose. We didn’t change the World but we rocked the world of a few people.
For the past two years I’ve been reflecting on the future of Off The Map. After consulting with our board and key volunteers, it appears to us that Jesus is happy with us having evolved Off The Map out of business.
Here’s why:
- We want to thank our donors and encourage them to be generous elsewhere.
- I am ready to move onto my next big idea: We’re Saying Hello to Jim Henderson Presents
- Organizations do not need to live forever.
- Jesus’s Kingdom is all that matters – not our ideas, organizations or institutions.
So many people helped put Off The Map on the map. So many people found a new way of thinking about God, life, the Church and Jesus through their encounter with Off The Map.
Saying Goodbye for now
And while the organization itself will no longer exist, the ideas, conversations, and friendships live on in each of you. Remember that, always. Whatever you have gained from Off The Map, pay it forward.
As our final act for Off The Map, we’d like to hear from you. Here are some questions we have. Answer them all or only those that move you in some way or answer some question we didn’t think to ask.
- What’s your favorite Off The Map memory (include photos if you have them)?
- What shifted in your thinking because of an Off The Map encounter?
- What Off The Map ideas and people have infiltrated your life and your conversations?
- Who did you meet at Off The Map that influenced your life and how?
- Which Off The Map speaker, musician or volunteer impacted you? (Tell on them)
If you’d like to say thank you to Off The Map and help cover some of our final expenses (about $2500) you can send it here.
From the whole team, it’s been a pleasure to walk this road with you.
Jim Henderson and Dave Richards (Co-founders)
People Do What They Feel Not What They Think
Design moves us because it gets inside our imagination. It’s music for the eyes. It insinuates itself more than it announces itself
Nassim Taleb says “There is more money in designing a shoe than in actually making it – Nike, Dell and Boeing get paid for just thinking”
Daniel Pink says “According to research at the London Business School, for every percent of sales invested in product design, a company’s sales and profits rise by an average of 3 to 4 percent, ”
Marshall McLuhan says “Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience rather than understanding that influences behavior”
Forget trying to get people to understand you, move them.
It’s more fun, efficient and as it turns out – more profitable.
