Innovation - Being A Christian Innovator.

Carl Elener began with a presenting difficulty. The problem was unemployment – He knew that no ordinary method would deal with the problem there was a need for something so creative so different to anything anyone had ever thought of before that would turn the situation around.

So he invented the Swiss Army knife.

Today, this family business in Schwyz provides 950 jobs.

The VICTORINOX "Swiss Army Knife" is over100 Years Old. This useful pocket MultiTool was legally registered on June 12, 1897. Over 34,000 of these pocket tools with the distinctive Swiss cross leave the factory in central Switzerland each day.Carl Elsener, the company founder, wanted to create work in sparsely industrialized central Switzerland and counter the emigration spawned by unemployment. To go from hand-crafting to industrial production was at the time adventurous and required enormous determination. Today, this family business in Schwyz provides 950 jobs.

This though, is no mere story of innovation:-

HEB 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

HEB 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

HEB 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Victorinox employees have no cross to bear

Victorinox employees ares still worjing despite the fall in sales (Victorinox.ch)

Related story

· The Swiss Army knife is still a cut above the rest

The cross on Victorinox’s Swiss army knives is not only a company trademark but also a symbol of the Christian corporate culture that characterises the firm.

While many companies are quick to lay off employees when times are tough, sackings are taboo at the 120-year-old Victorinox.

The family-run firm say this policy is down to its Christian traditions.

“Our firm feels obliged to adhere to Christian principles in the day-to-day running of our business,” Carl Elsener IV, who runs the company together with his 81-year-old father, told swissinfo.

Some 950 employees work at Victorinox’s factory in Ibach in canton Schwyz – the area’s largest employer - producing about 100,000 knives each day.

On the companies building in 1943 were placed the following words:-

Dominus provide bit – the Lord will provide.

Here is an example of Christian innovation meeting a social and community need.

God is an innovator the book of Genesis is all about new innovations new creations by God and the most amazing developments you can ever think of.

Throughout the bible from situation to situation God is innovating.

We can’t possibly list them today in one short sermon but think of The sinfulness of all humanity and the innovation of the Ark to deal with a presenting problem.

Think of Abraham snug as a bug in Ur of the Chaldeans when suddenly God comes up with the innovation of a new nation set apart from him and the journey that took Abraham on.

Then there is Moses and Samson and Gideon and hundreds of others coming up with strange and different innovations through the generations.

Jesus himself coming on earth was a bold and different move by God to deal with the state of sin the earth was in at that time.

Who thought of the Cross?

Whilst it may have been a work of darkness and the devil in it’s application – In Isaiah chapter 53 we read:-

ISA 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

ISA 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

You see the cross in the end is an amazing innovation by God who suffered so that we might live.

When Christ ascends to heaven and the Christians are left to move forward without the earthly Jesus they are left with the Holy spirit and the Holy spirit is an innovator.