In my first post (many moons ago), I purposed to write about thoughts and questions that I have as I approach many different spheres in my life, namely theology, being a husband and father, being a man, the Church, leadership and so on. Honestly, I spend most of my time in theology and the Bible, but for this post, I want to address a growing interest of mine: cultivating a creative and innovative culture within the Church.
I am fascinated by what I see taking place in the business world, especially within technology companies. I look at companies like Apple, Google, Amazon and Mailchimp, and I am continually impressed by their ability to adapt to perceived or anticipated needs in the consumer market. Even more impressive is their ability to create a 'need' where one did not exist before (iPods, iPads, Kindle, to name a few). All of this requires exceptional forward-thinking and insightful innovation at many levels within an organization.
I recently saw a great media piece on what drives much of this kind of innovation (if you have 10 minutes, it would be well worth your time to check it out here). Essentially, putting large, monetary incentives out there for employees working on complex problems/solutions yields poorer performance. The research indicates that a strong company will pay its employees enough to make money a non-issue (not overpaying, not underpaying), and then give the employees autonomy, mastery and purpose. The autonomy leads to innovation, the innovation gets honed through mastery, and then something comes out on the other end that is helpful to the company and its customers, which yields purpose in the employee/team who created it. Productivity and performance actually increase when monetary incentive is taken off the table and replaced with autonomy.
Ok, so you might be thinking, 'That's all well and good for a software or tech company - what's that have to do with the Church?' Very simple: in order for the gospel to continue to go forth in any context at any given time, autonomy and innovation needs to be encouraged within the church structure. Here me well: I do NOT mean compromising the eternal truths of the Bible - that God is Creator, that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, that God is a Trinity, that the Bible is true, that Jesus is the only way to the Father and that those not regenerated by the Holy Spirit and believing through faith in Jesus will be judged and sentenced to the literal, eternal hell.
However, I DO mean allowing for a proper exegesis of one's culture and taking these timeless truths and presenting them in timely ways. Here is how I see this being important to any given, local church: let's say a church is planted in my neighborhood (Rogers Park in Chicago). Currently, this neighborhood is very diverse, having about 80 languages represented as well as every major religious belief. In this context at this time, the centrality of family, community, apologetics of one's faith, the grace of God in sending Jesus, and the centrality of that grace over and above works-based righteousness all take center stage in communicating the gospel. In time, though, the neighborhood may undergo a change in demographic. What then? A church that cannot adapt to or even anticipate these changes will lose touch with communicating the gospel in this neighborhood, thus rendering itself obsolete.
The ability to adapt enables a church to remain relevant to any group of people at any given moment in time. Paul says in I Corinthians 9:22b-23, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." A church culture that allows its people to have the autonomy to express their God-given gifts will see those people race after God's good, pleasing and perfect will for their lives and will therefore see greater innovation, creativity and fruit in reaching the lost for Christ.
