Developing Leaders & Building a Legacy
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works

Killing Innovation

8/30/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
Let's face it: things don't happen the way they used to. We can lament the loss of the good ole days, but if we're honest we really enjoy having air conditioning, GPS, cable television (in color!) and debit cards. But while changes happen around us at a rapid pace, many feel the church is one of the slowest institutions to experience change. Innovation is often met with a response like "We've never done it that way before!"

Innovation opens up so many doors to new opportunities, but unfortunately many churches never come to fully embrace what's put before them. Innovation involves change, and change can often be uncomfortable, require sacrifice, and bring people to rewire their thinking pattern. So how can a church kill innovation? Here's five ways.

Create Complicated Decision-Making Structures - If churches have multiple layers to make a decision, it's too complicated. Making decisions more complicated causes people to not take initiative, which is sad when many churches show greater levels of bureaucracy than the government.

Don't Listen to New Voices - As God sends new people to a church, they come with new ideas. Those new ideas could provide a fresh approach to ministry. When new voices are silenced because "they've not been here long enough" or they're too young or their ideas are too different, status quo becomes engraved in stone.

Picture
Be Scared to Fail - Anyone remember the Arch Deluxe? McDonalds spent millions launching a "grown up" burger, only to pull it from the menu when sales absolutely tanked. Apple got into the business of selling clothing, ESPN aired the Hot Dog Contest, and the XFL pushed the boundaries of broadcasting football with overhead cameras and more microphones on the field. When churches become scared of failure, new ideas never get a try. Will some things fail? Of course. But the fear of failure should never be so great that a ministry is scared to try something new. Thomas Edison famously said that he had "found 10,000 ways a light bulb doesn't work."

Never Evaluate - Innovation doesn't happen because evaluation isn't taken seriously. When something is evaluated by "how'd you think it went?" rather than by using metrics and in-depth review, bad ideas are allowed to continue unchecked because there's no objective way of saying something needs to be revised. Constantly evaluate ministries, your teaching, how your services are going, and what processes are in place to take people from guest to member.

Be Comfortable - We should be content with where God has placed us, but we should never let our contentedness become comfortableness. Comfortable maintains for the comfort of those already there. Comfort fails to have urgency. Comfort rarely looks outside. Leaders who are serious about innovation should always be asking "What could we be doing that we're not now? How can we reach our community? Are we missing an opportunity in front of us? Are we doing something now that we need to cut out?" Those are hard questions, but we need to ask them.

How else do you see Innovation killed in churches?

2 Comments
professional dissertation writing service link
6/13/2017 10:51:07 pm

Innovation no doubt brings so many ways and you have to select only one. But sometimes people become so confused and cannot select the path what they want. This article is so tough to understand but I try to understand the exact meaning of this article.

Reply
google link
7/3/2017 08:46:29 am

visit <a href="https://www.google.com">google.com</a>

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Scott M. Douglas

    A blog about leadership and the lasting legacy of family ministry. ​

    Archives

    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    April 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    Categories

    All
    Book Review
    Burnout
    Change
    Crisis
    Delegation
    Digital Presence
    Family
    Family Ministry
    Finances
    Goals
    Leadership
    Legacy
    Manhood
    Networking
    Parenting
    Personality
    Planning
    Relationships
    Salary
    Social Media
    Starting Well
    Student Ministry
    Teaching
    Team Leadership
    Team Ministry
    Time Management
    Vision

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works