I’ve been talking to some folks in our church and friends of mine and a couple of loosely related things have come up. The first is something I’ve told a couple of church members today: we’re are finally in a place where it is more of a risk to keep doing the same things than it is for us to radically do things differently. The second is more of a question and observation: have you noticed that youth ministry is still being done the same way it was 15 years ago when I was in high school? The haircuts and books have changed but not much else. Across the denomination there is a lot of lip service paid to “mission over maintenance” but when it comes down to it, we are okay with maintaining the same ole things and the General and Conference levels do very little or nothing to reward risk and innovation.

Thanks for the conversation!

What we need is bottom up innovation at the local level. Alpha was a church program that grew into an international movement. What can we do where we are that causes spiritual transformation? Wesley didn’t wait for the C/E to dictate a program, he preached in fields and organized people into class meetings. Real change will happen when we innovate in the local church.

OK, so here’s a question that my friend and colleague has challenged me with. How do we keep from being critical in a negative sense and move to thinking critically to impact positive change? In other words, how can we influence change that improves the denomination rather than simply pointing out all the mistakes in following after trends rather than taking advantage of movements?

Or, “Well, there’s Alpha, here’s our version! Beginnings. It’s kinda the same, right?”

Rinse. Repeat.