When Is Innovation Too Much…or Not Enough?

Orginally published on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 12:59 PM
by Randy Ehle

Recently, Outreach magazine named the top 25 innovative churches (which, as is to be expected, are all fairly large ones). A fellow seminary student decried the list - “Can you spot more than three innovative churches on this list???” Lists like this aren’t new. In fact, Elmer Towns wrote a book in 1991 called, 10 Of Today’s Most Innovative Churches: What They’re Doing, How They’re Doing It and How You Can Apply Their Ideas in Your Church. (The last part of that subtitle scares me…there are plenty of copycat churches around, and I would venture to say that few of them implement the “innovations” as effectively as the innovators.)

Lists like this make me wonder a couple things.  First, what constitutes innovation? Does it mean meeting in a bar, as my friend’s church does?  Or does it mean, for a hymn-based church, to experiment with using guitars and drums?  For one church it may mean starting a homeless ministry, for another it’s an outreach into the porn industry.  Certainly there is a degree of relativity to innovation; what is innovative to one person or in one setting will be old hat to another.  The second thing I wonder is, do we sometimes place innovation on a pedestal? Do we sometimes innovate simple for the sake of being different, rather than for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom?  I don’t think most leaders of innovative ministries would suggest for a moment that that’s true, in spite of the fact that sometimes it may seem that way. 

Innovation ministry is simply a fancy way of saying that we’re willing to try things that may not have been done before (at least in our context) in order to reach people for Christ who are not being reached by existing means.  So innovation isn’t the goal, but rather the means to an end.  We do need to be careful, though, that we don’t hold out innovation - or relevance, or authenticity, or any other of the recent buzzwords - as the key to the world’s salvation…or even as the key to drawing people toward Jesus.  That position is still reserved for Jesus Christ himself.

Still, the fact is that we live in an attention-deficit culture; most westerners (especially younger ones) have been enculturated into a mindset that demands things fast and expects change to happen constantly.  A 60-seconds is agonizingly long.  We want bullet points, not paragraphs.  We want our fast food in 90 seconds or less, and our latte in under a minute.  The new cell phone we got for free will be obsolete before the two-year contract on it expires.  And on top of speed, we want it our way - we’re a Frank Sinatra world.  Coffee isn’t good enough; we want a venti, triple-shot, extra-hot, no-whip mocha...with room.  Paper or plastic, debit or credit, for here or to go, traditional or contemporary, the now or the not yet.  Innovation in ministry is necessary to reach this culture.  But while innovation breeds innovation, it also breeds more dissatisfaction with what is and what has been.  Soon, innovation won’t be enough; it must be rapid-fire innovation.  What’s new on Sunday will be old by Tuesday.  In Exploring the Worship Spectrum, Sally Morganthaler suggests that “emerging worship” is not only non-liturgical, but may look different from week to week (which could really exhaust a worship leader trying to facilitate such a milieu of worshipful expression).

I recently read an interesting quote on one of Starbucks’ “The Way I See It” cups:  “In my career I’ve found that ‘thinking outside the box’ works better if I know what’s ‘inside the box.’ In music (as in life) we need to understand our pertinent history … and moving on is so much easier once we know where we’ve been.” (Dave Grusin, award-winning composer and jazz musician) There is a timeless historicity to the Christian faith and we need to cultivate a knowledge of that, to bring new believers up in that history.  Perhaps in so doing, we can offer a firm foundation on which innovation may be built.

For thought and discussion: How do you define innovation in ministry?  In your mind. what would constitute an “innovative church”?  What are some danger signs we can look for that might suggest that the next innovation we are considering may not be rightly motivated?

About the author: Randy Ehle is a 40-something husband, father of three, and first-year seminary student.  He considers himself a “rushed contemplative”, who finds the pace of life and seminary often strip him of his ability to reflect meaningfully on who God is and how He would have us reach an ever-changing world.  He’s been around church his whole life and has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.  He has a burden to help the western church reclaim its role in God’s redemptive plan.  For more of his musings, see his blog at www.randehle.com.

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