by Ted Budd
October 28, 2009
Bob Buford is a Texas cable entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur. He wrote the famous book "Halftime," founded Leadership Network in Dallas, TX and blogs at www.activeenergy.net, which I recommend. I've had several chances to spend time with Bob in Charlotte and Dallas and have gained from each opportunity. Recently he's been writing about rise of social entrepreneurs, many of them forsaking high pay in exchange for high significance. I thought I'd let Bob know how praytel.net fits into the revolution. Here's my reply:
Bob,
I worked on an acquisition for fourteen months-- a sure thing that ended up falling apart when details surfaced. I took some time afterward to ask the Lord what next? I came away convinced that prayer was what matters, for prayer is the means God has ordained to move him.
If we pray and move God how many X is that? There's a bewildering amount of symptoms in the world. A problem here, another there. This new revolution seeks to strike at these problems, and rightly so. Thoreau wrote in 1854 that "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." The closer to the root of the world's problems that these revolutionaries strike, the more powerful will be their movement.
So would not God (or rather, the lack of him) be at the root of these problems? I say so, and that if we wish to "strike at the root" of evil, we must begin with prayer. Why is it then that I would rather exhaust myself with "branch hacking effort" (low - X work), when we are called to pray, which moves God (infinite - X work)? Let's face it though, most of our prayers are non-existent or anemic. We get busy hacking branches, we get distracted, we forget, we get sleepy, we are unorganized. I've always been more effective when praying with others (like with friend and entrepreneur Michael S. of Florida). For now, my part in the revolution, my X, is to get people to reengage prayer. With a small team of other revolutionaries I've developed praytel.net, which is nearing beta stage. It will call people daily at a phone of their choice at a time of their choice and and deliver prayer prompts and prayer space to coach them through fresh, relevant, topics to pray about. They can leave prayer requests which will be routed to others, and others' requests will be routed to them. Ministries or individuals can sign up. It's my small part to gain leverage in the big revolution.
Best,
Ted Budd
