Part 3 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.
Here’s the next Q&A from the Outreach/Tony Morgan questionnaire:
What does innovation look like in today’s churches? What are the ingredients for innovation in the local church?
Assuming the basic premise that the church has the greatest story ever told, today’s churches must first understand the communities within which we are communicating. Innovation for its own sake is ineffectual. Innovation that understands the context for its contribution to telling the story is explosive.
The ingredients for innovation in the local church include eliminating assumptions, raising expectations and inviting the right people to the conversation. The right people are not typically the ones you think. Make a list of all the people you would never want to speak into anything the church would do, and then appoint someone from that group to lead the conversation. Put forth a few ground rules and cast some vision. The story is already set–it has been for two thousand years. Your church’s involvement in communicating that story should already be figured out, too (if not, you don’t need innovation just yet, you need direction). What you don’t have figured out is how. This is where innovation comes in. But quit trying to do it all yourself.
