Innovative Ministry
Why bother?
Small churches almost never have enough money, people or facilities to be innovative, right?
That’s precisely the reason we must be innovative.
Some of the world’s greatest ideas, products and revolutions came about, not because someone had unlimited ...
Churches can handle change.
If you’ve tried and failed to change things at your church, that may not feel true, but it is.
The problem in many churches isn't that they can't handle change. It's that they don't like being surprised by changes. And ...
I like quirky churches.
And I’m pretty sure God does, too.
Just take a look at the astonishing variety of churches in the New Testament. Not to mention the churches and church leaders he’s used in the last 2,000 years.
Some churches stay small because they’re ...
Being small does not mean that something is broken. But if something is broken, you can’t fix it by making it bigger.
Those principles were reinforced for me recently in a surprisingly unlikely place. Reality TV.
On their TV shows, Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant: Impossible, ...
The gatekeepers are gone.
Just a couple decades ago, if you wanted to get your message to a massive audience, you had to work your way up a very hard, long ladder.
And every step on that ladder had a media gatekeeper who could stop your progress.
Publishers said “no” ...
I wish there were more artists in the church.
No, not painters and sculptors. Actually, yes, those too.
Mostly I wish there were more church leaders who saw the art in their ministry.
Church leaders who put the same kind of passion and creativity into their calling ...
Why bother trying to resurrect an old, dying church?
I’ve heard that question a lot.
There was a time when it seemed like every pastor I went to Bible college with was following church growth principles and starting new churches. In a few years they were buying ...
Change is hard.
Don’t make it harder than it has to be.
If I could only give one piece of advice to pastors who are struggling to turn a dying, unhealthy, static church into a fresh, healthy, innovative one, this would be it:
Do the easy parts first.
It’s ...
Adapt or die.
That's especially true in small churches.
The good news is, because of our size, small churches have the ability to adapt more quickly than our larger counterparts. Like steering a speedboat instead of an ocean liner.
Sadly though, that’s not ...
Just because a church is small doesn’t mean it is stuck.
But the truth is, many small churches are stuck.
If small churches want to keep being vital elements in Jesus' Great Commission strategy, we need to be able to tell the difference between a strategic small church ...
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