14 December 2007

I was watching a documentary on the production of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano the other day and I couldn't help but be awed by the level of precision and attention to detail that goes into the car.

For starters, it takes over two months to build one of these cars. A large team of craftsman working together to build thousands of parts, each created with a level of precision that boggles the mind.

Most everything is done by hand except for things that are more efficiently done by robot. For example, I watched the robot install all 12 valve guides into a cylinder head and then cold soak it – all in a matter of what seemed like a couple of minutes. Robot picks up guide, dips it in liquid nitrogen, head is heated to expand slightly. Guide is precisely inserted by robot, repeat 12 times – drop entire head into cold water to seat everything... [more]

The quote above describes what I saw in the documentary. Ferrari has developed a set of robots (called Romeo and Juliet) that work in tandem to "marry" two parts that play an integral role in the overall performance of the car. One part is dipped in liquid nitrogen while the other is heated. This changes the size of the parts so that when they are joined and dropped in water, they actually fuse themselves together. This ensures the parts can endure the extreme heat and friction created in the powerful engine.

All that to ask this: Are we as passionate about what we create as Ferrari is about their automobiles?

In other words, do we fall for the lie?:

It's for the church so the expenditures must be low and the quality shouldn't matter.

Or are we the Ferrari of the church world? Do we create Romeo and Juliet applications that turn our ministry from ordinary to extraordinary? Do we value our product (message) enough to tirelessly choose innovation over tradition?

I'm inspired by what we could do in the church today if we took Ferrari's approach to precision in the smallest of things.

What couldn't we do?