conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

innovative churches

Innovation is super fragile. It's very easy to kill. We need a stubborn, rebellious attitude.

- Douglas Merrill, CIO, Google

Every now and again I pick up a copy of Fast Company magazine. I actually like some of the stuff they publish about up and coming companies especially their creative solutions to problems. The March issue is about innovation. It's interesting. Truly. And it is fun to see what can be translated into church life. Sometimes the ideas simply won't translate. Often corporations are after something that churches are not (financial profit, market share, etc.) and their methods don't wash with the Gospel. But every now and again the general attitudes are helpful.

On the cover is this quotation from Douglas Merrill. In some ways he's simply stating what we all already know. People don't like change. Change is worrisome. It raises anxiety. Some even suggest that it lessens loyalty. Too much innovation or change, can unhinge a community. So, people shy away from innovation. People will kill it. Thus, it is fragile. Merrill tries to protect innovation, to hold it up as a virtue. If a company does not innovate, the market will change around it and the corporation will be left out in the cold.

Merrill's notions about a corporation suggest a couple of things to me. This is pure speculation on my part, but I extrapolate some interesting notions about churches from his thinking...

1. Corporations can innovate more readily than churches because corporations are not communities. Though there may be a population working at the corporation, it is not a community. Every person is replaceable. Easily. Churches hold on to what burdens them. They "care for the widow and orphan." Will we feed God's sheep? That's the question. In this way, churches are not "fresh and relevant."

2. Innovation is fragile. It's true. People dislike it. Corporations and churches suffer because of this reality. Change and innovation go hand in hand. It's unavoidable. Innovation, what I understand as "doing something new or different" brings change. Human systems resist change. Innovation brings change. Oy. So, how do churches innovate? Should they even try?

3. Churches are communities of rebellion. One of the things I like about the church is that it (sometimes, when it's healthy) stands before the world and cries "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." (Luke 4:18-19). We rebel against the world, and proclaim a Kingdom. This requires constant innovation because the world is also in the church. Unless we keep our eyes open, shifting and changing as necessary, we will find ourselves unable to answer this vocation, this Christ-like responsibility.

Innovation can be almost anything, really. It can be a rock and roll band in your morning service. It can be a Benedictine prayer group. Any innovation that helps the church know when it has become staid and incapable of meeting it's Christ-like vocation is helpful. Innovation for the church is not about appearing fresh and relevant. It's about finding ways to be the presence of Christ in the world.

Okay, that was a mess...Sorry for the rambling. The coffee is only just doing it's work. More later.

Posted by tripp at April 8, 2008 06:10 AM