When the first iPhone debuted, it changed everything. It wasn’t just a hot seller or a fad gadget, but a certified game changer. Suddenly everyone was signing up for data plans, and the U.S. and world markets exploded over the new technology. iPhone was king.

Apple’s strategy with the phone, like its strategy 30 years ago with the Macintosh computer, was simplicity, function, and proprietary ownership. Google, like Microsoft before it, developed a strategy of openness and versatility, launching the Android platform to run on phones made by a variety of manufacturers. The battle isn’t then over the phone, but the operating system itself.

For as revolutionary as the iPhone was at its debut, the public became used to annual upgrades that would dramatically increase the function and feel of their iPhone. They would come to expect that the next phone and the next operating system would be “must-haves”. Except that these offerings started to feel stale. At the same time, Google finally came up with design and features for Android that were unique and enticing.

Apple is now stuck because they still have a better operating system, but it now feels dated. If they add Android-like features, they become the copycats. If they avoid adding these features, they remain behind the times.

This is why I reject the old phrase:

It it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Because when we say this, we are rarely talking about things that are breaking. We aren’t talking about broken at all. What we are talking about is

• Ineffective
• Outdated
• Losing control of a core mission
• Losing viability
• Vision and future growth

The phrase “If it ain’t broke…” itself reinforces decline and decreasing quality. Leaving a bike alone without maintaining it will lead to rust and it will become broken. So dealing with your bike now, prolongs its effectiveness.

We also know that the lifespan of a human inevitably leads to decline and death. The pattern is deterioration over time thanks to entropy (Second Law of Thermodynamics). So when we say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, we are telling one another to let it rot. Decay. Break.

We are also saying that we don’t actually care about our stuff.

What we need to do is precisely what Apple is trying to do with iOS7 and now 8; to live into a new mantra:

If it ain’t broke, make it better.

For many broken things are too far gone to fix, and many perfectly fair things need to be better so that they can be better.

Want another clue? Thanks to the ability to make Android phones cheap, Android has 80% of the world market. They have pigeonholed the iPhone as the possession of wealthy Westerners. A small demographic with very limited growth potential.

The iPhone isn’t broken. And it doesn’t need fixing. But if Apple wants there to even be an iPhone in the future, they’ll need to make it better.

The same can be said about our churches, our communities, and even our lives. You aren’t broken. You don’t need fixing. But each of us can make things better. And we can start today.

 

A few things we can do to be and make things better:

Join with others for meaningful causes, like the prevention of gun violence, dealing with climate change and global warming, and building a better church.

Make personal changes that including how to live more efficiently, shedding clutter from your life, or becoming minimalist.

Simply follow Micah 6:8

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?