“Innovation Cultivation” by Larry Boatright of The Orchard in Aurora, IL
“I had an interesting conversation with a young lady in our church a few months ago. She asked to meet with me to talk about a new ministry initiative that aimed to meet the needs of teenage moms, and to show them the love of Jesus. She came to my office, did her spiel, and I’ll be honest: I kept waiting for the catch. When would she ask me to recruit volunteers? To give x amount of money? To recruit a staff person to lead this ministry? To promote and strategize and plan this and that?
I waited for the ball to drop. But it never did. The only thing she wanted from me? To use one room in our building (that sits empty most of the week) one night of the week. That’s it? Surely not!
She saw a need, she came up with a plan to meet that need, and she is planning on moving forward. BOOM! That’s innovation!
I think a pretty dramatic shift is occurring regarding innovation and the church. For so long, the conversation has centered around the church creating a new program, ministry, or innovative initiative to meet needs. There’s been an unhealthy culture of dependence on the “professionals” to drive innovation. We find a need, we design a plan, we allocate funding and resources, find a leader, and move on to the next innovative task. But I think that’s changing. More and more followers of Jesus are heeding the call to make a difference, to demonstrate the love of Christ themselves rather than depending on the church to do it all. And this, honestly, sets pastors up to make a pretty dramatic shift as well….
Read the rest of Larry’s article at www.originsproject.org.
