My home church, Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA. has a wonderfully gifted and creative team who work hard to put together our worship services each week.This year during our Christmas eve services, pastors and staff came up with some very innovative ideas that helped them connect with and engage culture. Follow the link to view their IBand performance http://vimeo.com/34207709 I brought several groups of unchurched visitors to services and they all immediately connected with their amazing use of technology. One of those visitor was a ten year old girl from China. It was the first time she had ever experienced Christmas and she speaks little to no English. When she watched the GC IBand, she came out of her seat and began to jump up and down, her tense little expression was replaced by a huge smile. Innovation helped a ten year old who was 1000s of miles away from home and all that was familiar to her, feel welcome, at ease and connected.
Their work inspired me to reflect on innovation. Innovation helps the church contextualize and stay relevant to culture. The only thing consistent in life is change, someone said, and we must be willing to change to stay effective in meeting the needs of an ever changing world. I love that the leadership is willing to risk and to reinvent how we do things.
But we are not always willing to change how we do things, we see things that are not working well and we fear rocking the boat, we fear change. If you are an innovative leader within a business, church or ministry, you have probably experienced the tension of trying to live with the "We don't do it that way here" culture and mentality. That short sentence can effectively kill creativity and innovation within your leadership team and the result is that the organization will stay where it is and become irrelevant and ineffective. You may also hear, we have a model for doing ______, which is a polite way of saying the same thing. Do we really believe that one ministry model fits all people? Move on friends because organizations who are unwilling to change are looking for managers not leaders, they are in the process of dieing a slow and painful death. Innovators do not stay if they are not allowed the freedom to use their creativity, because they will suffocate.
So if you are an innovative leader or entrepreneur (like me) wherever you serve, you will most likely live in tension with your current reality, and how we imagine things could change for the better. Expect it, this is normal, we are never satisfied, because when we reach our destination, we immediately see a new horizon. This is what lights our wick, so to speak.
As you begin to cast vision for change, you will most likely feel like a fish trying to swim upstream.You will encounter countless individuals who will tell you it won't work, that you are being too emotional (often directed at us girls), to stop making waves, and to know your place.(remember Martin Luther??) You will try to go along with the status quo but the Holy Spirit will not let you sit still with the idea He has given you, so you step out in faith often feeling alone and isolated. Rejoice friends, this is a GREAT sign that you are exactly where you are suppose to be...You are being obedient, you must be willing to go it alone (just you and God). As you begin to dream, create and implement, you discover this is your sweet spot and exactly who God created you to be. The Lord begins to bring people and the resources around you that will be needed to accomplish His mission and you realize that you were born for such a time as this! It's all worth it friends, find leaders who will give you the ball and let you run with it, they are not threatened when you use your voice, or dream your God given dreams... pray, create, sing, dance, love, write, teach, organize. Our God is a creative God and I believe He is cheering us on!
Favorite quotes on entrepreneurs and innovation:
Len Schlesinger
“Large organizations don't generally want entrepreneurs, unless they fly in formation.”
"entrepreneurship has the power to provide the future we desire to have.”
Seth Godin
“If religion comprises rules you follow, faith is demonstrated by the actions you take.”
“Every revolution destroys what was before in order to bring in what is new."
“Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.”
“Don’t try to please everyone. There are countless people who don’t want one, haven’t heard of one or actively hate it. So what?
“Go ahead, do something impossible. “
“Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death."
“If you could do tomorrow over again, would you?”
Brenda McNeil
“It takes courage to be a catalytic leader in your own Jerusalem. we have to face our own bigotry and ethnocentricity -
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