On 23-May-2006, Shane M. Coughlan wrote:
Ben Finney wrote:
I don't see why you condition evangelism on *not* being business; it seems to me evangelism is *all about* selling something.
Agreed. If we separate evangelism from the concept of selling something (be it a product, service or idea), then we're left with something quite vacuous. Evangelism for the sake of evangelism?
Here you seem to encompass selling of a "product, service or idea" as worthwhile evangelism.
However:
[...] If we go into a board-room to make a sale and fail there is little point in suggesting that the presenter has accomplished the consolation prize of open-ended advocacy. [...] It's almost impossible to measure, and the lack of a sale gives a reasonable indication that something has failed somewhere along the line.
By this point you seem to say that the only worthwhile evangelism is to sell a product or service ("make a sale").
Call me a scientist, but I prefer results we can measure.
As do I. How then do we measure our success if the purpose of a particular evangelist is to sell an idea?