That sounds exciting. As you look at your ‘Sunday activities’, give a shot at doing your best to think like your first time guests would think. Sometimes we think we know what would be more effective and fun but we’ve been so far removed from someone who doesn’t know Christ and what it’s like to go to a church for the first time that when we try to doing something fresh, it doesn’t mean much to our guests. Going from a handshake to a hug may mean a lot to Joe the usher but it could freak out Jim the unbeliever. I know I’m being over dramatic but I think you know what I mean. Our guests are the ones who determine the value of their experience, not us. Go for it and have fun.

This is what the church ought to be fun. The whole notion of being more observent seems to be key to innovation.

I think we will look at Sunday activites from beginning to end and see what we as church family can done.

PL

Absolutely. I think it was Peter Drucker who said something to the tune of, ‘All great vision eventually dissolves into work’. Ideas are a dime a dozen, getting results isn’t. Idea generation is the fun part. We start sweating a bit and working our butt off when we actually want to execute the idea. In my experience, someone who can bring one great idea all the way through the process of execution is much more valuable than a caffeinated ‘idea man’ who talks all day long and brings no lasting value to our church or organization.

That is a huge difference. There are a lot of creative churches. Churches that think up new things. I often think up new things or new ways of doing things.

The innovative churches don’t stop at the creativity part but go into the innovative part. This all lies in execution.

Innovative churches execute on the creative urges and inspirations. Innovative churches don’t fear failure but thrive on experimentation.

All of us must keep the creative muscles flexing but at the same time we must execute to become innovative.

Thanks a bunch for your thoughts, they are thought provoking. The thing that I love about the LifeChurch.tv multi campus model is that as a campus pastor I can direct my energies in areas that I may be stronger in and have the blessing to lean on the strengths of others such as Craig and our teaching team to do what they do well. One of my primary goals is to create an environment that removes the barriers of discomfort so that when Craig speaks the people are ready to receive what he has to say and even more important than that, what the Spirit of God may be saying. I think Craig has been quite innovative in how he communicates spiritual truth. That’s his job. I see mine as coming alongside Craig and hosting people so that they feel cared for and valued. I’m not sure what your question is regarding the recents posts and Abbi’s post, etc. But we believe that creativity and innovation comes from all directions. We try more to create that culture than giving someone the title that says, ‘you be the creative one and the rest of us won’t', etc. We’ve taken action on what we thought was creative from our custodians, pastors, administrative assistants and so on. A primary role for our creative team is to help us execute the ideas that come through the organization. Thanks for adding to the dialogue.

what a fresh perspective on making sure we keep the main thing the main thing. I think it is possible to have a “blow out”, technologically savy service and miss all kinds of opportunities to touch someone’s heart. The gospel does’nt require millions of dollars in lights and buildings to be effective. I personally think that we, as Americans, can learn some incredible lessons from believers in other third world cultures. they have so little of what we view as “necessary” to doing church, yet they are thriving with passsion,creativity and community. How? exactly what you wrote: using what they have to hit the target of someone’s heart with looking freshly at what they do have and not what they could have.
by the way, I miss you up here in the frozen Tundra of Michigan. Keep on rockin’ in the free world!

A few thoughts popped into my head as I read it.

I love reading about innovation. This article will appeal to folks who do.

Is it really all that innovative to simply be rearranging the furniture for a large group gathering we mislabel church?

I think the truly innovative churches will actually be helpful and stellar at new and creative ideas when then engage the theological systemic issues that arise at the same time, or shortly thereafter. Producing remarkable experiences without engaging in the theology of what we are teaching people thru innovation is often as destructive as it is helpful.

Innovation can be, and often is a distraction from the gospel.

And.. please don’t take this as criticism… just a very limited observation.

Why is it that the most pastoral post on this blog in a long time has come from the central office’s creative team member (abbi) and that the pastors all talk about leadership and innovation? Maybe I’m wrong, and I need to reread this blog a bit… which I will do right now.

No more In-N-Out talk on here please. You’re making me crazy to think that I’m about 1,000 miles away from the nearest one!!!

Mike

Patrick - what a great way to inspire creativity and out of the box thinking. I think you’re right, most of our ideas never get past paper. That’s not the point though is it. The point is to create a culture of innovation and if we can do that, one out of one hundred ideas will be keepers and potentially make a huge impact on your guests experience. You definitely can’t be afraid of failing when it comes to innovation. The fear of failing paralyzes you from innovating.

Brandon - I think that being greeted upon arrival is important for some but not all. Though not everyone wants to be ‘greeted’ I think everyone wants to be engaged. I wonder if we can create a momentary experience that engages our guests that is more meaningful to them than a handshake. How about handing them a pack of Juicy Fruit gum and a bulletin rolled up and sealed so that when they open it a small greeting falls out that says, ‘We hope you enjoy your experience as much you’ll enjoy the Juicy Fruit’…signed personally by the person who handed it to them. The sky is the limit, the key is meaningful engagement. And probably for some, a handshake is what they’re looking for.

Brandon

I agree (and have tended to fall into this) that we limit creativity to a particular area (that’s not very creative, is it?).

Instead, if we want to cultivate creativity in the church, we need to look at every aspect.

This begins by observing. If you want to be innovative in your church, look at what your church does. Write down everything you encounter when you come to church. Like you said, everything from parking to announcements at the end. Then you can tackle any or all of those things you wrote down.

Dr. Howard Hendricks makes a point that only one out of every twenty ideas is creative. When we want to be creative, however, we often take one idea and try to change that idea over and over again, working from a single origin. What Hendricks suggests, on the other hand, is to, as fast as possible write down twenty ideas about a subject. Don’t think about it very much either. Some of them might be really stupid. But chances are, one of them will be creative.

Then, you can back through and say, “oh, I don’t like this one…” and cross it out, or you can see two and say “oh, well I like part of this one, let’s combine it with this idea.” Now, instead of working from one origin, you are working from twenty origins, and can eventually come up with a creative solution.

So if you can come up with twenty things about your church experience, and then take each one and try tackle them individually, that’s 400 new ideas you can work with to make your church more innovative in reaching people for Jesus Christ.