“Innovation Cultivation” by Larry Boatright

Posted on October 28, 2009

I had an interesting conversation with a young lady in our church a few months ago. She asked to meet with me to talk about a new ministry initiative that aimed to meet the needs of teenage moms, and to show them the love of Jesus. She came to my office, did her spiel, and I’ll be honest: I kept waiting for the catch. When would she ask me to recruit volunteers? To give x amount of money? To recruit a staff person to lead this ministry? To promote and strategize and plan this and that?

I waited for the ball to drop. But it never did. The only thing she wanted from me? To use one room in our building (that sits empty most of the week) one night of the week. That’s it? Surely not!

She saw a need, she came up with a plan to meet that need, and she is planning on moving forward. BOOM! That’s innovation!

I think a pretty dramatic shift is occurring regarding innovation and the church. For so long, the conversation has centered around the church creating a new program, ministry, or innovative initiative to meet needs. There’s been an unhealthy culture of dependence on the “professionals” to drive innovation. We find a need, we design a plan, we allocate funding and resources, find a leader, and move on to the next innovative task. But I think that’s changing. More and more followers of Jesus are heeding the call to make a difference, to demonstrate the love of Christ themselves rather than depending on the church to do it all. And this, honestly, sets pastors up to make a pretty dramatic shift as well.

So many pastors are simply exhausted from being the CEO of an organization that drives and creates innovation. They signed up to shepherd a people, to reach a community, but lay in bed at night feeling like they are pimping a product, trapped in a cycle that is dependent on their ability to create, create, create. What if pastors made a dramatic shift in the way they did things?

What if they shifted from being drivers of innovation to being cultivators of innovators.

Think about it. Your church is filled with people with unique gifting and passions. If they are followers of Jesus, they are being led by the Holy Spirit the same as you are. They are spread all throughout the local community, with their eyes and ears open to every need imaginable. What if you shifted from having to think of every creative initiative, from driving every ounce of innovation in your organization, to cultivating the hearts, ambitions, and talents of the innovators in your church community? Whoa! Sound refreshing? Sure it does! Could this happen? Absolutely!

Sometimes the most beautiful innovation comes from the person who recognizes a need, thinks of a plan to meet that need, and merely lacks the resources to get it done. Let me let you in on a little secret: The truth is, they will get it done. It may take a while, but their passion and raw innovation will lead to transformation. What if you learned to cultivate innovation in others? What if you funneled resources to these people and their dreams, and helped them get more done quicker? What would happen to your church community? To your community at large? To the people who have the greatest needs? These are the types of questions I think we owe to our communities to wrestle with in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

I believe that a shift is happening, and I dream of a community of believers where people are seeing needs, coming up with innovative ways of meeting those needs, and our job as leaders is to resource them, equip them, pray for them, shepherd them, develop them, and help them go farther than they ever dreamed possible. I’m dreaming of a day when I’m overwhelmed with people in our church community sharing ideas they have for reaching out, for making a difference. It’s starting to happen. And we want to develop fertile ground for it to continue to happen.

Trust me: you’re not the best at everything. It’s important for you to drive innovation. But that can’t be your primary gig. It’s too exhausting, and I think it robs people from fulfilling what God is doing in their hearts. And when you begin to cultivate what God is doing in other people, you’ll experience a feeling of accomplishment unlike any innovative initiative you’ve ever been a part of. You’ll be equipping others to succeed. It’s a great feeling.

And that’s a little bit biblical, too!

By Larry Boatright of The Orchard in Aurora, IL

The Origins Project. Creativity & Creeds (by Mark Sayers)

Posted on October 22, 2009

Upon first examination there seems to be a contradiction at the core of The Origins Project. On one hand The Origins Project stands for innovation and creativity. Yet on the other hand it also upholds a high view of scripture, as well as a commitment to the historical creeds that have shaped Christian faith and an adherence to the more recent Lausanne Covenant.

So hang on a minute what gives? How can you pursue innovation and creativity, yet seemingly limit yourself by holding to a set of rules? Surely this flies in the face of everything we have been taught about innovation? Isn’t the creative person the one who lives without restrictions? Is not the artist the rule breaker? Therefore a network which is trying to break new ground in the soil of 21st century culture must be severely limiting its chances of success by placing itself under sets of rules and creeds?

In short the answer is no. Paradoxically rules and limitations increase our ability to think and operate creatively. Let me explain. Take two groups of filmmakers, tell one group that they are to make a short film, tell them that it can be about anything, that there are no rules and that they can do whatever they want. Now tell the other group that they must make a short film featuring an orange and an Austrian gentleman named Helmut. Now watch the group with no limits fruitlessly brainstorm, argue and drown in their sea of freedom. In contrast watch the group with imposed limitations creatively come alive in response to the challenge set before them. Why? Because rules and limits create a field in which we can play and operate.

Imagine football without rules and referees. It is the rules that make the game; the boundaries create an environment where we find ourselves blissfully jumping up and down in the stadium when our team scores a goal. Without boundaries and rules there can be no play. I remember hearing of someone who drove past two schools one school had no fence, the children sat quietly in the middle of the playground. The second school had a fence; here in contrast the kids were running around, playing, climbing all over the fence, the boundary of the fence increased their ability to play creatively.

Even the seemingly most anarchic fields of creativity rules still matter. The abstract expressionists of the late forties and fifties changed art by dripping, throwing and flicking paint to create their masterpieces, yet they still operated within the rules by using paint, and canvases. The creativity that sprung from the punk rock movement was born out of self imposed set of rules. The Ramones freed 70’s rock from its bloated self indulgence by returning to four simple chords.

The key to all of this though is keeping the balance between adhering to the rules and pursuing creativity and innovation. The Christian movement which ditches the creeds and covenants in favor of total experimentation finds itself looking less and less Christian. The movement which favors creeds at the expense of innovation finds itself theologically correct yet culturally irrelevant. However movements which are able to find the perfect point of tension between creativity and creeds have the ability to become something truly special. It is this point of creative tensions which makes me so excited about being part of what God is doing through the Origins Project.

By Mark Sayers (www.marksayersthinks.com)

Margaret Feinberg Audio Is Online!

Posted on October 19, 2009

Our previous conference call was with Margaret Feinberg!

Margaret is a gifted teacher, speaker and the author of a number of books including The Sacred Echo, Organic God, and her latest release, Scouting the Divine: My Search for God in Wine, Wool, and Wild Honey.

During this conference call we discussed how the next generation of church leaders can emerge to lead into the next decade as well as bring about a renewed sense of authenticity and love by living the gospel practically.

LISTEN TO Margaret Feinberg HERE!

The next free conference call will be with Rick Mckinley on Tuesday, November 3rd from 2-3pm (Pacific Time). Rick is the founding pastor of Imago Dei Community in Portland. He is an author, speaker and guest professor across the nation. His latest release is Advent Conspiracy, a book about the international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by substituting compassion for consumption.

SIGN UP for the Rick McKinley conversation HERE!

THE NECESSITY OF EACH OTHER IN MISSION by Dan Kimball

Posted on October 14, 2009

SOME THOUGHTS…

I recently returned from the 2009 Youth Specialties Convention. They are experimenting with some new formats as part of the convention by creating space for people to have dialog around topics the people attending determine.

It reminded me of some of the earlier Leadership Network events where you met with like-minded people in similar leadership situations. The conversation gets so much more intense and deep as we make up the topics to discuss with each other. When we create these spaces, it leads to an openness of diversity and differences. In Leadership Network, we had many denominations represented, yet we all possessed the same core, historical, orthodox theology. We had lot of diversity on what I would call non-essential things – but stayed together on core historical doctrines. This is what I believe “evangelical” was originally about. It is wonderful when you are with others listening to stories and ideas and gaining insight that you may never hear otherwise. It is needed more and more today to break down barriers for the sake of the gospel being known among future generations. We really don’t have time to be bickering, resistant to change or pointing fingers at some of the things we do today – when lives are at stake.

I feel we are in a period of healthy desperation. By desperation I mean that when Christians and the church get desperate about mission – then denominational barriers break down more, our non-essential theological difference don’t matter as much. When we become so desperate for people who don’t know Jesus that our attitude and posture changes towards others… when we are so desperate with the reality that there are people who may be spending eternity apart from God… our petty differences seems so incredibly insignificant.

How do we argue about musical styles when people’s eternal lives are at stake? How can we hog control in a church or create leadership bottlenecks when our selfishness or insecurity can lead to people being empowered and mission being hindered? How can we think that formats of ministry developed 500 years ago (as beautiful as they may be if you are familiar with them) should be retained at the sake of people’s lives outside the church being affected as they don’t connect with these approaches?

How can some denominations care more about doing things a certain way with systems developed in past times – than they do about future leaders who may not “fit” their systems of approval, subsequently losing innovative leaders? Would they rather see their denomination die while holding onto to rules and order rather than rethink what they do so mission can occur through young leaders who know the current culture?

How can youth leaders today not be seen as ultimate heroes? They are underpaid, generally underappreciated,  and have so much impact on the church today and the church of the future since so many decisions for Jesus and major life decisions are made during the youth years. I think youth leaders may have the most difficult job in a church, quite honestly. They don’t bear the weight of the whole church but they bear the weight of teenagers living in a very confusing world. Communicating the gospel and being a listening ear to the craziness of life that teenagers are processing is tremendously burdensome.

I love Youth Specialties for taking a risk and trying out some of these new formats and bringing people together. I love Leadership Network for bringing these formats into church leadership. I love that many people who are taking risks today for the gospel. I hate that we put up so many human-made stumbling blocks so often. Forgive me Lord, when I do that.

And this is why I am excited to be in the Origins Project too – because it is inter-denominational, we are in agreement on the essential doctrines and have diversity with others. We won’t be arguing about theology with each other - but we will be passionate about mission from the theology we all believe in. I just wish we would all be so incredibly desperate for seeing emerging generations come to know Jesus that we would be utterly ashamed at the things we sometimes do which can ultimately prevent that from happening. God help us.

Dan Kimball is Pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California.

AND: Pursuing Incarnational & Attractional (Part I) by Todd Wilson

Posted on October 3, 2009

I love what I do. However, when asked what that is, I always struggle. Somewhere near the intersection of scout, explorer, entrepreneur, adventurer, collaborator, catalyzer, and opportunist. The challenge is always in limiting the number of simultaneous adventures.

So what am I excited about? Lots. Most excited about? Can’t say (too hard to choose). Most convicted about? That is a bit easier. Alan Hirsch and I are facilitating a group of 10 mega-church pastors in looking to “what’s next?” What is beyond the current prevailing church models / approaches? What if the prevailing church (mega, multi, etc), is a key future distribution channel for incarnational faith communities that reach the 60% who will never attend the prevailing church?

The Landscape

Throughout history the next great movement has consistently emerged from the convergence of factors that come together to create advances in thinking and doing. What if the next great movement, possibly one with historic significance, presents itself to us? What if we are being called to serve as catalysts and stewards of this next movement of God? Is it a coincidence that all this comes at a time of growing (holy) discontent among our best thinkers and church leaders in the prevailing church…a roaming of the mind that is only now beginning to be articulated?

In the past 30 years the number of mega-churches has increased from under 100 to over 7,000. In the past 10 years the number of multi-site churches has increased from under 100 to over 2,000. By the numbers, these prevailing church models are movements and these churches enjoy the national platform, the national voice, and the resources to profoundly impact the Kingdom. But to what end? In spite of the rapid growth of these prevailing churches we are losing ground.

Some estimate the percent of people living in the US who will never be reached by prevailing church models to be in excess of 60%. In fact, in spite of its relative successes, church growth theory and practice has by and large failed to stem the decline of the church in America over the last 40 years. We stand at the verge of serious (exponential) decline if something is not done…and soon.

The prevailing church is strong at “catching”, converting, and holding. The holy discontent described above also includes a dimension that we need to become better at “releasing” and sending. Jesus said “as the Father has sent me, so send I you.” Unlike boomers who generally are comfortable contributing to ministry, the young emerging “millennial” leaders seek to be ministry; to live missional lifestyles.

These young emerging leaders are demonstrating a strong idealism rooted in service. Their scorecards are different. They measure success not by the size of buildings or budgets or staff but by their sending capacity, their relationships, and their impact in improving lives. These leaders are likely to respect the structures and strengths of the prevailing church models while at the same time resonating with the paradigms of more incarnational ministry approaches.

In recent years a growing schism emerged between those calling themselves missional-incarnational leaders and those leading prevailing church models. The conversation has focused on what Jim Collins calls the “tyranny of the OR” rather than the “Genius of the AND.” However, a growing number of innovative leaders are seeing the possibilities that exist in the “AND”. Applied to the issue at hand, we believe the next big step for the church in the U.S. lies in applying missional-incarnational AND prevailing church models.

God is at work amidst all the uncertainty. The faint knocking is increasing in intensity. A growing number of leaders sense it. As we find ourselves in the middle of a perfect storm, could we be on leading edge of a great movement of God?

The Big Idea

What if prevailing church models (e.g. Mega-church, multi-site, etc) and leaders ARE the future delivery system / channel for incarnational faith communities to retake our cities and expand our churches exponentially through multiplication rather than linearly through addition? What if its not a tyranny of the OR of whether to be “attractional” OR “incarnational” but rather a genius of the AND to leverage the strengths of the prevailing church platform to more aggressively release leaders to expand the Kingdom through new faith communities?

More to come…

Todd  Wilson currently serves as Director of the Exponential Network and executive minister at New Life Christian Church in Manassas, Virginia.